Sydney
An Australian al Qaida member was sentenced to nine years in prison this week for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy and Jewish targets in Canberra four years ago. Jack Roche, a Muslim convert, changed his plea to guilty halfway through his trial and admitted that he had met with Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, suspected mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, as well as Osama bin Laden. Roche carried out surveillance of the embassy and plotted kidnappings of Jewish leaders, but senior al Qaida leaders eventually called off the plots. The first person to be convicted under Australia’s anti-terror law, Roche will be eligible for parole in three years. “I think a lot of terrorists would look at that and laugh,” said Jewish leader Joseph Gutnick, one of Roche’s intended targets. “They’d be pretty happy.”
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