From AAP, with thanks to Kevin:
A magistrate has refused a bail application by Melbourne terror suspect “Jihad” Jack Thomas.
Melbourne Magistrates’ Court was told the former taxi driver and Muslim convert trained with the terrorist organisation al-Qaeda in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks.
The court also has been told that its leader, Osama bin Laden, wanted someone to conduct surveillance operations in Australia.
Joseph Terrence Thomas, 31, was arrested last Thursday by officers from the Australian Federal Police and Victoria Police joint counter terrorism team at his Werribee home, in Melbourne’s western suburbs.
Thomas is charged with receiving financial support from al-Qaeda, providing al-Qaeda with resources or support to help them carry out a terrorist act and having a false passport.
Prosecutor Richard Maidment, SC, told the court Thomas trained at an al-Qaeda military camp in Afghanistan in mid-2001 for three months and while there “saw at close quarters Osama bin Laden”.