Here is an update on the Lodhi case from Australia. Faheem Khalid Lodhi is supposed to have done all this, according to his defense lawyer, to prepare for his detergent business and to make games with his “Boy’s Own spy kit” more vivid.
“Terror suspect ‘bought electricity grid map,'” from The Australian, with thanks to Rosie:
TERROR suspect Faheem Khalid Lodhi allegedly bought two maps of the national electricity grid using a false name and business name.
Rose Bakla, who worked at the Electricity Supply Association of Australia in 2003, told the NSW Supreme Court yesterday she remembered the man who paid $170 cash for two diagrammatic maps of the national supply grid.
“The gentleman said that he was starting up a business and he wanted to display these in his office,” she told the NSW Supreme Court. She described him as in his “mid-30s, early 40s” with a medium build, dark features and dark hair.
But if that’s all he intended to do, why the false name?
The jury heard he filled out the sales form as M.Rasul, a partner in Rasul Electrical.
Hmmm. “Rasul” is “prophet” in Arabic. “M. Rasul” may be a sly way of saying “Muhammad the Prophet,” and “Rasul Electrical” an oblique reference to his plan for a jihad attack against the nation’s electricity grid.
Prosecutors allege the man was Faheem Khalid Lodhi, 36, a Pakistani-born architect who is on trial on four terror-related charges.
Mr Lodhi is accused of planning to blow up three military bases around Sydney and the national electricity grid.
The jury heard that during a search of his office, ASIO agents recovered a receipt for the maps made out in the name M.Rasul of Rasul Electrical.
It is alleged the name and business name are false.
Ms Bakla said the diagrammatic wall map, which carried a disclaimer about its accuracy, outlined grids of the electricity and energy sectors.
“People could use it for a guideline as to what the electricity lines were within a country,” she said.
However, Mr Lodhi’s lawyers argue the map was purely schematic and would have been useless as a tool for anyone contemplating a terrorist attack.
They also contend Mr Lodhi had entirely legitimate business purposes for buying the maps….