Magnate is an al Qaeda target

By NICK SQUIRES in SYDNEY

A prominent Jewish-Australian mining magnate and Orthodox rabbi, Joe Gutnick, has revealed he was the target of a daring al Qaeda assassination plot.

Gutnick, who has contributed millions of dollars to the establishment of Jewish settlements in the Palestinian territories, said he was first told of the plot by police in December, but has only just revealed it publicly.

Al Qaeda operatives allegedly hatched the plan to kill Gutnick in 2001, before the September 11 attacks on the United States.

They intended to bomb his home, his offices and his synagogue in the Melbourne suburb of St Kilda.

Australian intelligence officers discovered maps and other evidence relating to the plot during raids on suspected members of the regional terrorist group Jemaah Islamiyah, in Sydney, Perth and Melbourne last October.

The group is suspected of carrying out last October's Bali bombings, which killed more than 200 people, 88 of them Australian and three New Zealanders.

The person allegedly found in possession of the documents, who is an Australian citizen, cannot be named because of a pending court case.

Evidence was also uncovered of plans to bomb the Israeli Embassy in Canberra and the Israeli consulate in Sydney. It is not known why none of the plans went ahead.

Last November police arrested and charged British-born Jack Roche, 49, a Muslim convert, with plotting to blow up Israeli diplomatic buildings in 2000. The case is before the courts in Western Australia.

Gutnick said the planned attack was sanctioned by senior al Qaeda figures.

The Australian newspaper said they included Mohamed Atef, believed to have been killed in US strikes on Afghanistan in November 2001, and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the September 11 attacks, who was captured in Pakistan in March.

"[The suspect] was planning to kill me. He was going to bomb up the whole area," Gutnick said. "I was surprised and frightened. It's a horrific thought that someone would have such intentions on Australian soil."

Gutnick, nicknamed Diamond Joe for the fortune he made from gold and diamond mining, insisted he did not know why he had been targeted.

A friend and political supporter of former right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he defended his financial backing of Jewish settlements, including a controversial housing development in Hebron.

"If you're dealing with maniacs then it could be for a multitude of reasons," he said.

Gutnick, who also claims to have connections with the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, is believed to have donated around A$10 million ($11.4 million) to Netanyahu's 1996 election campaign.

Last week Prime Minister John Howard told Parliament that recent intelligence reports indicated al Qaeda had been looking for targets in Australia in 2000 and 2001, well before September 11.

Al Qaeda leaders have previously named Australia as a potential target because of its support for East Timor's independence from mainly Muslim Indonesia and its military backing for the US-led campaigns in Afghanistan and Iraq.