Terror suspect had airport job

By NICK SQUIRES in SYDNEY

A man believed by the CIA to have links with the al Qaeda terrorist network worked as a baggage handler at Sydney airport and is still under surveillance by Australian authorities.

Lebanon-born Bilal Khazal, who allegedly underwent military training in Afghanistan in 1998, worked for Qantas before the 2000 Olympic Games.

He left the job in March 2000, after a pre-Olympics security review, and has since had his passport confiscated by Australian police.

Khazal has been investigated by the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation, one of the country's main spy agencies, but has not been charged with any offence.

The revelation that he worked as a baggage handler comes after several recent security scares at Sydney and Melbourne airports, including the attempted hijacking of a Qantas flight from Melbourne to Tasmania last month.

It also adds to a growing body of evidence that Australia is being used as a base for terrorists with links to al Qaeda and the Southeast Asian terror network Jemaah Islamiyah.

Last week it emerged that in the late 1990s supporters of Jemaah Islamiyah spiritual leader Abu Bakar Bashir had attempted to take over a mosque at Dee Why, in Sydney's northern suburbs, and use it as a base for raising funds and recruiting members.

The identical twins allegedly behind the takeover, Abdul Rahman Ayub and Abdul Rahim Ayub, have since left Australia and are believed to be in Indonesia.

Abdul Rahman Ayub, who fought for five years in Afghanistan before entering Australia illegally in 1997, was deported last year after being refused a protection visa. Abdul Rahim Ayub fled Australia last year, weeks before his home in Perth was raided by ASIO agents.

Also last week, Australian mining magnate and orthodox rabbi Joe Gutnick revealed that he and his family were the targets of an al Qaeda assassination plot in 2001.

In Western Australia, a British-born Muslim convert, Jack Roche, is facing charges of plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra and the Israeli consulate in Sydney in 2000. He was arrested last November.

In a report written last year, the CIA alleged that Khazal, who lives in Sydney and runs an internet site for the Islamic Youth Movement, was planning attacks on US interests in Venezuela and the Philippines.

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said the Government still had concerns about Khazal.

He said measures announced by the Government would improve the screening of potential airport employees and upgrade security.

The allegations surrounding Khazal were aired in a report by Australian Broadcasting Corporation television on Monday.

The documentary also alleged that funds raised in Australia helped the establishment of an arms factory by the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, a Muslim separatist group in the southern Philippines.

Al Qaeda has, in the past, specifically mentioned Australia as a potential terrorist target due to its support for East Timor's independence and its contribution to the US campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.