Melanie Brown
“For Muslims,” says Melanie Brown, wife of terror suspect Willie Brigitte, “the jihad is compulsory. It is the struggle . . . the struggle for God.” Unfortunately, she doesn’t mean the struggle to “resist worldly temptations.” This from the Herald Sun, with thanks to Rusty Shackleford:
THE Australian wife of jailed terror suspect Willie Brigitte emerged from a long-awaited prison meeting with her husband to declare her support for jihad.
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” said Melanie Brown, quoting a slogan adopted by many supporters of extreme militant groups — including al-Qaida.
“I may get into trouble saying that . . . but I have heard it a lot, and I agree with it.
“For Muslims, the jihad is compulsory. It is the struggle . . . the struggle for God.”
The former Australian soldier also told how her marriage to Brigitte in Sydney was arranged by mutual friends in the fundamentalist Muslim community, because both were keen to wed as the faith decreed.
Ms Brown said she confronted her husband in jail about aspects of his life he had never revealed to her, such as the two former wives and three children he left behind in France when he flew to Australia early last year.
“We did discuss those things. But it’s all cool now,” she said.
“As far as I understand, he is not married to them now.”
Of course, nothing in Islamic law would make it wrong for him to still be married to them.
In her first interview since her life was abruptly and irrevocably changed by Brigitte’s arrest in Sydney last October, Ms Brown proclaimed her husband’s innocence.
But in the next breath she revealed her strident support for “the jihad”, adding that acts of violence could be seen as part of such a struggle.
Meanwhile, another Herald Sun report reveals some of the content of Brown’s meetings with Brigitte. (Thanks to Jean-Luc.)
SUSPECTED French terrorist Willie Brigitte tried to get information from his Australian wife about the top-secret spy facility at Pine Gap according to French police sources, it was reported yesterday. . . .
The Australian newspaper said Ms Brown is understood to have told French interrogators that Brigitte questioned her at length about the US-Australian electronic intelligence station at Pine Gap, near Alice Springs.
He asked her if she had ever been inside the base when she was in the Australian Army Signal Corps, whose members are experts in communication intercepts, the newspaper said.
While in the army, Ms Brown was reportedly training in Arabic and performed a tour of duty in East Timor.
The newspaper reported that Brigitte asked her about the transmission systems and the low-frequency electronic transmitting antennae the US had reportedly installed in Pine Gap.
French police sources said Ms Brown insisted she had not revealed any military secrets to Brigitte.