Oz court told Al Qaeda wanted a white boy for terror act

The Supreme Court of the Australian state of Victoria has been told that a senior al Qaeda member had told a Melbourne Muslim convert that Osama Bin Laden wanted a white boy to carry out a terrorist act.

Melbourne, Oct.15 : The Supreme Court of the Australian state of Victoria has been told that a senior al Qaeda member had told a Melbourne Muslim convert that Osama Bin Laden "wanted a white boy" to carry out a terrorist act.

Joseph Terrence Thomas met senior member Khaled bin Attash just three weeks before he tried to leave Pakistan in 2003. According to The Australian, the court heard that it was at this meeting that Attash told Thomas and some other men he would pay 10,000 Australian dollars to anyone who committed a terrorist act.

The information was revealed in court through a series of interviews Thomas did with the ABC and The Age newspaper.

Thomas has pleaded not guilty to one charge of knowingly receiving funds from a terrorist organization and one charge of falsifying an Australian passport.

Prosecutors allege Thomas accepted 3500 dollars and an airline ticket from Attash and that the 35-year-old knew he was from the global terrorist organisation.

Defense lawyers say Thomas was simply trying to get out of the country and he believed the money and ticket were a donation from concerned Pakistan families.

The court heard Thomas was "emphatic in his disgust" at another claim made by Attash that "Australia needed a terrorist attack" like the ones that had occurred in Kenya or Tanzania.

The jury was also shown footage from Thomas's 2005 interviews with ABC journalist Sally Neighbour.

The trial, before Justice Elizabeth Curtain, continues.

ANI