Give Phillip Boulten an award for imagination. It wasn't jihad, it was detergent. It wasn't a terrorism manual, it was a kid's toy. "'Terrorism manual' a 'Boy's Own spy kit,'" from the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to JE:
The case against accused Sydney terrorist Faheem Khalid Lodhi was completely and utterly rebutted and based on "speculative analysis", a court has heard.Lodhi not only did not believe in "violent jihad", as alleged by the Crown, but did not support any type of violence against anyone, his defence barrister told the NSW Supreme Court today.
Defence barrister Phillip Boulten, SC, said there were legitimate business reasons for Lodhi possessing maps of the Australian electricity grid and aerial photographs of three Sydney defence sites.
Mr Boulten said Lodhi was planning to start a detergent business and that was why he contacted Deltrex Chemicals inquiring about substances.
"He was not planning a terrorist act, he certainly may have collected and possessed documents, but none of them were intended to be used or in connection with terrorist acts," Mr Boulten said.
Lodhi is on trial on four terror-related charges - namely that he was preparing in October, 2003, for a terrorist act.
Mr Boulten said Lodhi did not own and had no knowledge of two CDs which the Crown alleged were his and contained fundamentalist doctrine including "violent jihad".
He said he looked at aerial photographs on the internet of defence sites Holsworthy Army Barracks, Victoria Barracks and HMAS Penguin - which he had previously worked on as an architect - simply because he was able to and with no illegal motivation.
He said material that Lodhi possessed, which the Crown called a "terrorism manual", was nothing more than a "Boy's Own spy kit".
He said Lodhi had never been convicted of any criminal charge and had strong family ties to Australia, with many relatives working here in professions.
His wife is a medical doctor, said Mr Boulten.
Oh, his wife's a doctor! Then he can't be a terrorist. Why didn't you say so sooner?
Ayman al-Zawahiri, M.D., must also not be a terrorist.
It never fails to amaze me what these lawyers can come up with! No wonder they have a terrible reputation,,,and defending scum like this makes them traitors in my opinion.
So his wife is a doctor?? One of the wives of the 9/11 gang was a very nice secular Turkish girl.
(check out the movie "The Hamburg Cell" - based on interviews with family of above.) Atta's parents were pleasant too...etc etc. No family memebers had any prior knowledge of what these guys were up to so what does his wife's profession prove?
We are fighting an uphill battle and it is a worry!
I wonder if his new detergent will get the blood stains out of my suicide vest?
OT and a bit late, but in light of the 'suicide vest' joke....
http://www.deviantart.com/view/32383375/
It's scary that his wife is a doctor. Imagine all the chemicals or whatever else he could slip into her medicenes. We don't know what she might have known or helped or was willing to help him kill infidels.
Oh...the detergent business...of course...makes perfectly good sense. I wonder what it takes in terms of capital to start a detergent business from scratch? You need a lot more than a few chemicals. A trip to the grocery store will reveal that the detergent business is already crowded. It's tough to compete with Proctor and Gamble, Tide...maybe he was going to sell 'his' detergent on E-Bay or something .
At anyrate, this is a completely believable story...if you're an idiot...nice try...no bananas...
....planning to start a detergent business...
He failed to clean up there then.
Detergent?
Randall Jarrell:
"Moving from Cheer to Joy, from Joy to All."
No, the line is not from "A Sad Heart at the Supermarket." But it should be.
And Iran's not trying to develop nuclear weapons. Why, they're just a bunch of mischievous kids playing around with a "Boys Own uranium centrifuge play set".
Caught with his hand in the cookie jar..90 days in the outback. Feed him to the crocks.
At least here in Oz, when the moslems are on the news these days its more often than not about this fortnights terrorist they are pulling out of the woodwork.
Thanks Mr Howard for those terrible Terrorism laws you passed recently.... :)
"there were legitimate business reasons for Lodhi possessing maps of the Australian electricity grid and aerial photographs of three Sydney defence sites."
So how would you clean say perhaps a 3-phase, star connected volt distributor manifiold at a 125,000AV (Alternating Volt) subtstation, Mr. Lodhi ?
Power Companies DO NOT employ independent contractors to clean their Equipment or go anywhere near it. It is simply too dangerous.
As far as the photos of the Defence sites are concerned, what was he planning on doing, clean them from a hot air balloon ?
I agree with Gramfan, except that lawyers are only doing their job, so are not really traitors.
what IS worrying though, is that they have a tendency to end up being prime minister !
His wife is a medical doctor, said Mr Boulten.
++++++++
Well, then his wife can admisister to his health needs in thrity or fourty years when he gets out of prision.
I hope his Mamma Doc wife is singing "Gonna Wash That Man Right Outa My Hair".
And he can reply, from the slammer: "You've Got To Be Taught"
You've got to be taught before it's too late
Before you are six or seven or eight
To hate all the people your relatives hate...
You've got to be carefully taught.".
Although, he seems like a late bloomer.
Methinks Philip Boulten was one of those kids with 50 variations on "the dog ate my homework".