It was all a misunderstanding, but he used a fake ID to obtain the explosives — “more than 10 times the quantity used in the 2005 London terrorist bombings.” From the Sydney Morning Herald, with thanks to David:
JOHN HOWARD AMUNDSEN said it was all a misunderstanding: that the explosives he stockpiled in the home he shares with his elderly mother were to be used as special effects in a TV production.
But the discovery of four homemade bombs, one packed with razor blades and nails, had police puzzled last night.
Counter-terrorism officers around the country were conferring on how Amundsen was able to buy 53 kilograms of the mining explosive Powergel.
The high school teacher, 40, told a Brisbane magistrate he made the bombs for use in an unnamed television production.
Police bomb squad experts had spent the previous night removing the explosives and the crude bombs from his home at Aspley, a northern suburb of Brisbane.
Amundsen, a metalwork and woodwork teacher at Ferny Grove High and former teacher in media studies, emphatically denied he was a terrorist. The former television cameraman said he held one of the country’s highest security clearances, granted by ASIO after heavy background screening. He claimed to have access to secure areas of Brisbane Airport.
The magistrate, Lindy Bradford-Morgan, refused Amundsen bail on the basis he was a risk to public safety and adjourned the case until today.
Police will not rule out the possibility that four bombs and 10 detonators allegedly found at Amundsen’s home were being stockpiled for a terrorist attack.
Police also allegedly found a book entitled Bin Laden: Behind the Mask of a Terrorist.
Now there is no word yet, and may never be given the proclivities of the mainstream media, about whether or not Amundsen is a Muslim. If he is, this may be another example of the freelance jihadism we saw with Mohammed Reza Taheri-azar. If he isn’t, it is a sign that the bloodlust of jihadism has crossover appeal to non-Muslim psychopaths.