Plan B Forum

Australian brothers stopped from boarding plane to join ISIS

A pair of Australian brothers with intentions to join the Islamic State were stopped at the airport, officials said Sunday.

The teenagers arrived at the airport in Sydney on Friday and intended to fly to an unidentified "conflict zone" in the Middle East, but items in the suspects' luggage raised red flags with the airport's new counterterrorism unit, The Associated Press reported.

"These two young men aged 16 and 17 are kids, not killers, and they shouldn't be allowed to go to a foreign land to fight then come back to our land eventually more radicalized," Australian Minister of Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said.

The boys had become radicalized jihadists over the Internet and their parents were "as shocked as any of us would be" when informed their children planned to flee the country and join the violent terrorist group, officials said.

They face unspecified charges, Dutton said. Under a new Australian law, entering an ISIS-held territory without a legitimate reason is punishable by 10 years in prison.[sounds like a very sensible law]

"These were two misguided young Australians, Australian-born and -bred, who went to school here, grew up here, imbibed our values, and yet it seems they had succumbed to the lure of the death cult and they were on the verge of doing something terrible and dangerous," Prime Minister Tony Abbott said.

"I'm pleased that they've been stopped and my message to anyone who is listening to the death cult, 'is block your ears.' Don't even begin to think you can leave (Australia)," he said.

The country estimates 90 of its residents are fighting with the terrorist group in Iraq and Syria.[about the same as here, though Australia has less than 1/10th the population of the US]

The extremist Islamic group has been recruiting people all over the world.

A 17-year-old Virginia high school student was arrested Feb. 27 for allegedly arranging for travel and contacting ISIS to help a man a little older than him join the terrorist group.

Three British girls — Shamim Begum and Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16 — have been missing for weeks after they fled Britain to Syria to become "jihadi brides," officials said.

At least 500 people from the U.K. have traveled to fight for ISIS in Syria and about 50 of them are women, officials estimate.

Lord Jim wrote:
"These two young men aged 16 and 17 are kids, not killers, and they shouldn't be allowed to go to a foreign land to fight then come back to our land eventually more radicalized," Australian Minister of Immigration and Border Protection Peter Dutton said.

'Britain's white jihadi' actually a gifted Aussie school dropout called Jake now fighting for Islamic State

The Islamic State recruit the UK media decried as "Britain's White Jihadi" in December, proclaiming he was a "major coup for the terrorist group", is actually a skinny, baby-faced boy from Craigieburn in Melbourne's northern suburbs, and his non-Muslim family is worried sick about him.



Fairfax Media can reveal that the young westerner pictured last December sitting between bearded men and holding an assault rifle in front of a black flag is actually an 18-year-old Australian called Jake. We will not reveal his full name at the request of a family member.

Meanwhile, Fairfax's investigation can reveal Jake was a high-flying student, a maths whiz, who attended Craigieburn Secondary College's CEAP Excel accelerated learning program. However, he dropped out of high school mid-last year after converting to Islam and bought a one-way ticket to Istanbul, on the way to Iraq and Syria to fight for the so-called caliphate.

In December, Jake's photograph hit Twitter, where a user, Abu Dawud, identified the young man as Briton "Jonathan Edwards". The tweet said he had "applied for Ucas (Britain's Universities and Colleges Admissions Service) to [sic] late and wasn't accepted in any university, so he joined the Islamic state".

After Britain's Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph newspapers picked up the story and ran it, Abu Dawud laughed that the had "trolled" and "humiliated" the British media, saying the story was fake, leading to speculation that the picture was doctored.

But Fairfax Media has now had the photograph positively identified by friends and also by members of two north suburban Melbourne mosques as that of a quiet, young Muslim convert who worshipped with them for about a year before disappearing.

"He used to come here when we had a big lecture," said Abu Zaid, a committee member of the Hume Islamic Youth Centre in Coolaroo, near Meadow Heights. Mr Zaid said Jake didn't have a car, so he used to ask the other brothers for lifts to and from the centre, which features a prayer hall for more than 1000 people, lecture rooms, a cafe and a gym. "He was a very quiet guy, he stuck to himself," Mr Zaid said. "We weren't close to him. I didn't see any of the people [getting] close to him."



Worshippers at another mosque, the Australian Islamic Social Association in Meadow Heights, also remember young Jake coming there to pray. It's understood that Jake, who now goes by the Islamic names Abdur Raheem or Abu Abdullah, was 16 when he began feeling unhappy and started searching for spiritual answers. A school friend introduced him to Islam and he recited the verses required to convert. At the Meadow Heights mosque, people who remembered Jake said his family was negative towards his new religion.

A former school friend, who asked to remain anonymous but said he had known Jake since they were children, said Jake had "made his own choice and he believes its the right choice. "He was not pushed into IS [Islamic State] and was not pushed into Islam. People can make their own decisions and this was one of his ...he felt that it was right for him ... He had done sufficient research to believe it was the right step in life," the friend said.

"He was obviously a believer in Islam and wanted to fulfil what he believed was his duties to the religion."

Jake Bilardi's apparent suicide in Iraq didn't achieve anything in the battle he was fighting for Islamic State, an Iraqi military spokesman says.

While his death is unconfirmed, the jihadist group has released images of the Craigieburn teenager, claiming he blew himself up in a co-ordinated car suicide bomb attack in Ramadi, west of Baghdad on Wednesday

But Iraqi military spokesman General Tahssin Ibrahim says although people had died in the wave of car bombings in Ramadi, Bilardi's sacrifice had come to nothing.

Instead of the paradise he had been promised Bilardi had only found hell, General Ibrahim said.

"He never do anything, he just killed himself, he just destroy some cars," he told ABC on Friday.

Three Syria-bound British teenagers held by counter-terrorism police

Trio, aged 17-19, held in custody at London police station after Turkish officials stop their plan to join Isis following tip-off from British officers

Three male British teenagers have been arrested after being stopped in the Turkish city of Istanbul while attempting to reach Syria to join Isis, according to police.

The Metropolitan police confirmed on Sunday that Turkish officials stopped two 17-year-old boys from north-west London after being tipped off by British officers. They were with a 19-year-old man and all three were on their way to Syria.

The three were brought back to the UK late on Saturday night and were arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks. They remain in police custody at a central London police station.

The two younger teens were reported missing on Friday. Officers from the Met’s SO15 counter-terrorism unit alerted the Turkish authorities, who stopped the trio and prevented them from travelling into Syria. The families of the three teenagers have been told.

The Met said: “On Friday, 13 March officers from the CTC were made aware that two 17-year-old boys from north-west London had gone missing and were believed to be travelling to Syria. Enquiries revealed that they had travelled with a third male aged 19.

“Officers alerted the Turkish authorities who were able to intercept all three males, preventing travel to Syria.

“On Saturday, 14 March the three males returned to the UK and at approx 23.10 [GMT] were arrested on suspicion of preparation of terrorist acts contrary to section 5 of the Terrorism Act 2006.

“All three have been taken to a central London police station, where they remain in custody.”