Al Qaeda continues "white" recruitment

UPI: Western intelligence services are increasingly nervous about al-Qaida attempts to recruit white men and women, as they can more easily pass in Western society.

Australia's Herald Sun reported that an ongoing court case in Melbourne uncovered an al-Qaida attempt to recruit Caucasian "sleeper agents."

Australian defendant Joseph Thomas told his police interrogators that Khalid bin Attash, an associate of Osama bin Laden, said that bin Laden was interested in having "an Aussie ... a white boy," according to testimony in Melbourne's Supreme Court.

Prosecutor Nick Robinson alleged that Thomas's conversations with bin Attash occurred in Pakistan, where Thomas was staying at an al-Qaida safe house after training at the group's al-Farooq camp in Afghanistan during 2001.

Thomas also told his interrogators that bin Attash had given him $3,500 in cash and an air ticket back to Australia.

According to Thomas, he was told to work for bin Laden and conduct surveillance on Australian military installations.

Thomas testified that bin Attash indicated that an attack in Australia like those in 1998 on U.S. embassies in East Africa could bring down the government of Prime Minister John Howard, adding that Thomas should resume contact six to 12 months after returning to Australia.

Thomas was taken into custody in January 2003 in Pakistan.

Thomas told his interrogators that the suggestion of a bomb attack in Australia angered him, adding that he never formally became a member of al-Qaida or pledged allegiance to bin Laden, despite having "plenty of opportunities" when he was at al-Farooq. He said that never intended to work for al-Qaida in his homeland.

Thomas's lawyer Lex Lasry maintains that his client may have been naive or stupid, but that Thomas was never a terrorist.