Lodhi allegedly observed satellite images on a NSW Government planning website, detailing infrastructure and transport links
From the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to Jean-Luc:
The alleged mastermind of a planned terrorist attack in Australia used a NSW Government website to get maps, data and satellite images of potential targets, including Sydney’s Centrepoint, the Parramatta CBD and transport systems.
“He was using it during office hours to look at things like the numbers of floors in a building,” a former colleague of Faheem Lodhi told the Herald. “He was interested in areas dead smack in the middle of the city.”
Lodhi, 34, also bought a map of the country’s energy supply system, which gave details of the routes of gas pipelines and the location of power stations and high-voltage substations. The ready availability of information, including on city infrastructure, revealed by the case is expected to fuel the continuing debate about the terrorist threat and the application of new laws to investigations.
It has also emerged that when the deported Frenchman Willie Brigitte arrived at Sydney Airport on May 16 last year, Lodhi was waiting for him. Brigitte is said to have told French interrogators that he had regular meetings with Lodhi “to prepare a terrorist act of great size in Australia”.