Key suspect behind the mask

PM 'chilled' as suspect named
August 12, 2005

THE claims of an "Australian" al-Qaeda terrorist were chilling stuff and the organisation would undoubtedly seek to exploit the propaganda value of a western convert, Prime Minister John Howard said today.He said he had read today's newspaper reports identifying the balaclava-clad terrorist, who was shown on video this week, as possibly a former soldier, Mathew Stewart.

But he said he was in no position to confirm or deny their accuracy.

"The investigation is going on. He does sound like an Australian although some people who listen to him very carefully thought it could have been (a) British regional accident.

"But the more I listen to it, it does sound more Australian than English. It is chilling stuff."
The video shows a masked man, clutching an assault rifle, warning of further terror attacks against the West and boasting about the killing of US troops in Afghanistan.

There is speculation the man is former Australian army Private Mathew Stewart, a veteran of service in East Timor, who went missing in Afghanistan four years ago.

Mr Howard said it would always be in the interest of al-Qaeda to use somebody who was unconditionally a westerner with a broad Australian or British regional accent.

He said they would be more valuable to al-Qaeda than to use somebody of Middle Eastern or sub-continental extraction.

"It would give the impression rather that it was a worldwide movement even though it isn't a worldwide movement and support for al-Qaeda in this country and Britain is absolutely minuscule," he said.

Mr Howard said al-Qaeda was completely opportunistic in their public relations.

"What al-Qaeda does is always to exploit the propaganda value in the context of western public opinion in anything that they do," he said.

"That is why whenever there is an attack they always say it is related to something that reignites an internal political debate in western countries such as our involvement in Iraq, whether that is the case or not.

Australian Federal Police officers have been trying to confirm if Stewart is the hooded figure.
They questioned his distraught mother Vicki Stewart who - after looking at a still image from the video - denied the heavily armed man was her missing son.

But one of Stewart's close friends, Adam Miechel, said he believed the self-declared terrorist on the video was the man he grew up with in Mooloolaba, on Queensland's Sunshine Coast.

"My first thought was, 'Yeah, it even sounds like him'," Mr Miechel told The Daily Telegraph yesterday. "It looks like him. It sounds like him as well."

Stewart made headlines when he allegedly fled Australia to fulfil his dream of living in Afghanistan and fighting alongside the Taliban.

US forces reportedly found documents identifying Stewart as an al-Qaeda recruit during a raid on a terrorist training camp in late 2002.

Intelligence agencies believe he made the decision to fight against US and Australian forces after returning from a tour of duty in East Timor, which caused him to have a mental breakdown and led to him being discharged from the army on psychological grounds.

Vicki Stewart was too distressed to speak yesterday and took the day off work to deal with the authorities.

A family spokesman released a statement confirming that police were treating her missing son as a suspect.

"She [Mrs Stewart] has been contacted by the federal police and has been shown photographs by officers and advised them that the person in the photograph was definitely not Mathew Stewart," the spokesman said.

"The family is still grieving for Mathew, who disappeared four years ago without a trace.
"The family supports the work that the federal police are doing in this matter."

Mr Miechel said he felt uncomfortable talking about the matter because he was concerned fresh talk Stewart was alive would upset his family.

In a tragic twist, it is understood Stewart's parents held a small funeral service - without a body - for their son.

"His mum has buried him," Mr Miechel said.

While Stewart's family denied the man seen brandishing an automatic rifle on the video was Stewart, police are treating him as their main suspect.

Stewart is one of a handful of Australians believed to have travelled to Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban in the lead-up to al-Qaeda's attacks on September 11, 2001.

Australians David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib were picked up on terrorism charges and held by the US, but Stewart and another unidentified man, from Melbourne, were never found.
In a revealing interview last year, Mrs Stewart spoke of her son's depression and her belief that he was dead.

"I couldn't have loved him any more than I loved him," she said.

Intelligence agents were last night still analysing the video, anonymously sent to Arab TV network Al-Arabiya.

In a two-minute diatribe against Western values, the masked gunman called on the US and Britain to withdraw troops from Iraq or face the consequences.

"As you kill us, you'll be killed. As you bomb us, you will be bombed," the militant said.

From AAP and The Daily Telegraph

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