During a raid on a suspected terrorist cell, Australia’s Security Intelligence Organisation unearthed an aborted plot by al-Qaeda to kill Jewish mining magnate Joseph Gutnick.
The raid uncovered maps, details of Gutnick’s companies, and documents indicating plans to bomb his home in St. Kilda and his synagogue in Melbourne. The bombings were to have occurred before Sept. 11, 2001.
Gutnick is a rabbi and a member of the ultra-orthodox Lubavitch group, which has close ties to Israel’s far-right Likud party. He is the president and CEO of Toronto-based Tahera and the chairman of troubled Aussie nickel and gold miner Centaur Mining & Exploration. In 1996, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth to be US$400 million, though it is thought to be significantly less now.
“The scary thing about this is there are individuals in Australia who had the sanctions of al-Qaeda to do an act like that,” Gutnick told The Age, a Melbourne newspaper. “What did I do? I haven’t killed anybody. Anything that I did in Israel was sanctioned by the Israeli government.”
Gutnick was told by intelligence sources that they know of no further plots to assassinate him.
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