RADICAL self-proclaimed Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika and six of his followers have been convicted of being members of a Melbourne-based terrorist cell.

Herald Sun Insight Editor KEITH MOOR has spent months interviewing people and examining thousands of pages of court transcripts and other documents relating to the case.

He has pieced together how the evil and dangerously manipulative Benbrika persuaded a group of mostly young and impressionable men to join him in what he claimed was an Allah-approved jihad war against unbelievers in Australia.

Benbrika's goal was to commit a terrorist attack of such enormity it would persuade the Australian Government to pull its troops out of Iraq.

Moor's report traces how the terror cell developed, what it planned to do and how a joint Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police taskforce stopped it before it could commit what would have been the most devastating attack ever on Australian soil.

EVIL Muslim cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika manipulated young and impressionable men to join his terrorist network.

He told them Allah had approved a jihad war against unbelievers in Australia.

Benbrika's goal was to commit a terrorist attack of such enormity it would persuade the Australian Government to pull its troops out of Iraq and Afghanistan.

Secretly taped conversations led investigators monitoring Benbrika's terror cell to believe it was planning something even more devastating than the damage caused by Bali suicide bombers Jimi and Iqbal.

Armed only with a pipe bomb disguised in a vest, Iqbal walked into Bali's busy Paddy's Pub in 2002 and exploded the crude device.

His partner Jimi detonated a car bomb outside the nearby Sari Club seconds later.

The bomb was so powerful it registered as a five second earth tremor on seismic equipment which showed vibrations from the blast were felt over a 20km radius.

Iqbal and Jimi's dual suicide bomb attack in the heart of Bali's Westerner-dominated entertainment strip killed 202 people from 21 countries, including 88 Australians.

Police had taped evidence that Benbrika was planning something similar.

He was taped discussing a 500kg version of a 500g test bomb he watched explode only days before the October 2004 federal election.

Benbrika was also taped bragging about what he hoped to achieve.

The AFL Grand Final was the original target and because of the raids and because of security reasons and funding they were to be off until the following year.
- prosecution witness Izzydeen Atik

''We'll damage buildings. Blast things...thinking big not small,'' the extremist Muslim sheik said.

''What we want to do is to do maximum damage and damage their property. Damage their lives.''

The quantity of chemicals which exploded in Bali with such deadly effect was between 150kg and 300kg - far less powerful than the one Benbrika was talking about building.

Victoria Police explosives expert John Kelleher gave evidence during the trial that he did not know of any building in Melbourne which wouldn't be levelled by a bomb of the size Benbrika was discussing.

''There is not many buildings that would survive - 500kg is an enormous amount of explosive,'' he said.

Mr Kelleher said in a statement to police that most houses would suffer severe structural damage, and its occupants would probably die, if even a 1kg bomb was used and that using a 5kg bomb would collapse most suburban homes.

He said he had attended the scene of the 1986 Russell St bombing, which killed Constable Angela Taylor, and witnessed the devastation that car bomb caused - and it only contained 11kg of explosives.

Some of Benbrika's terror cell members were caught on tape discussing possible targets, including the West Gate Bridge, Melbourne's rail network and fans at a football game.

Benbrika was taped extolling the virtues of al-Qaida's Osama bin Laden and urged his network to follow the doctrine of the notorious terrorist leader.

He told convicted Melbourne terrorist Izzydeen Atik that since the September 11 attack on New York's World Trade Centre twin towers in 2001, it had become difficult to get what was needed to ''blast things''.

Police also recorded evidence which the prosecution claimed revealed that Benbrika had persuaded at least one of his impressionable young followers to agree to become what would have been Australia's first suicide bomber.

That would-be martyr was Abdullah Merhi and he was only 19 when he fell under Benbrika's spell.

Merhi was this week found guilty of being a member of Benbrika's terror cell, but not guilty of providing resources to it.

Benbrika, 44 at the time, was able to twist Muslim literature to extol the virtues of being a suicide bomber in a way that made it attractive to a vulnerable and naive teenager like Merhi.


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