Monday 23rd November 2015

It was the crime that shocked a nation, the day that terror struck on home soil. The killing of police worker, Curtis Cheng, shot dead in cold blood by a 15-year-old boy outside the headquarters of the NSW Police Force. The school boy killer, Farhad Jabar, was not known to police.

"This is not something I think that we were really readily having on our horizons several years ago." NSW Police

It was the random act of violence that authorities had been warning of and it left the nation crying out for answers. How could a 15-year-old school boy, seemingly without warning, become a killer?

"What you're talking about with these individuals is the next manifestation." Counter terrorism specialist

His appalling crime seemed the very definition of a lone wolf attack. But was it?

Four Corners takes you inside the making of this teenage terrorist to reveal the forces that led to this chilling act of violence in the name of the so-called Islamic State.

"It isn't individuals being brainwashed. People aren't radicalized by online propaganda." Counter terrorism specialist

PLAN OF ATTACK, reported by Geoff Thompson - produced by Jaya Balendra and Ali Russell, researched by Joel Tozer, Suzanne Dredge, Trish Drum and Mohamed Taha - and presented by Kerry O'Brien, goes to air on Monday 23rd of November at 8.30pm on ABCTV. It is replayed on Tuesday 24th November at 10.00am and Wednesday 35th at midnight. It can also be seen on ABC News 24 on Saturday at 8.00pm, ABC iview and at abc.net.au/4corners.

Transcript

23 November 2015 - Plan of Attack: the making of a teenage terrorist

KERRY O'BRIEN, PRESENTER: Tonight on Four Corners, we take you inside the network that's creating the next generation of Australian jihadists.

From Paris to Beirut to the African republic of Mali, the murderous ideology inspired by the Islamic State militant group has provoked shock and revulsion around the world. Australians may still like to think we're far enough away, largely, to be safe, but the murder two months ago of police accountant Curtis Cheng outside police headquarters in Parramatta shattered that idea - not for the first time.

At the time, it seemed like a random attack and the 15-year-old schoolboy Farhad Jabar, who carried out the murder and who was himself then killed by police shooters, seemed like a textbook lone wolf assassin.

But Farhad Jabar did not act alone and his attack was not a random event. Our investigation has traced links between that attack and an earlier string of terrorist plots in Australia, dating back more than a decade.

Farhad Jabar was drawn into a network of radicals, identified as potential terrorists, some of whom had been on the radar of police and intelligence agencies for years.

The reporter is Geoff Thompson.

GEOFF THOMPSON, REPORTER: It could have been any Friday in Parramatta.

Muslim men were going to the mosque. Among them was an unassuming 15-year-old local boy named Farhad Jabar.

There he met with older teenagers - and it seemed innocent enough.

Police allege that it was anything but.

A few hours later and just hundreds of metres away, Farhad Jabar would shock the nation by shooting police accountant Curtis Cheng in the back of the head.

The boy taunted police and fired at them until he himself was shot dead.

CATHERINE BURN, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NSW POLICE: This is not something I think that we were really readily having on our horizons several years ago. The unfortunate reality is that it might be impacting on people as young as 15 - or maybe even younger.

GEOFF THOMPSON: A year 10 student at Parramatta's Arthur Phillip High School, with no history of violent extremism, Farhad Jabar was not on the radar of police. He was the youngest in a family of Iraqi Kurds, which included his sister and an older brother.

NEIL GAUGHAN, ASST COMMISSIONER, NATIONAL MANAGER, AFP COUNTER TERRORISM: His Mum and Dad are a supporting, loving, caring family who were I think a little bit overwhelmed by having a couple of teenage boys who were a little bit rebellious.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Two years ago Farhad Jabar was a typical teenager tweeting about 'The Voice' and following Delta Goodrem.

By July this year, his interest had turned to Islamic State.

The day before the shooting, Farhad's sister Shadi left Australia and is believed to be in Syria or Iraq.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Well, I think it's an assumption that most people would draw; certainly something we haven't discounted, but without any proof to say that for certain.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The night of the murder, Farhad's 21-year-old brother Farshad told police that his sister was missing and he suspected his younger brother killed Curtis Cheng.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Well, there's nothing at this stage to indicate that Farshad was involved in influencing his brother's activities. But again: that will be subject to ongoing investigation and subjected to the coronial inquiry.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Farhad Jabar was a cleanskin - but he was not acting alone.

(Video graphic of photographs and silhouettes)

The 15-year-old had been recruited to the cause of these men and boys well known to police, called the "Appleby Group". The oldest among them is 48 and the youngest is only 12. Most are in their teens or early 20s.

They were named in a control order issued in March this year, which states they were all willing and able to commit a terrorist act such as killing a random member of the public.

Among them is 18-year-old Raban Alou. Police will allege that he encouraged and assisted Farhad Jabar on the day he murdered Curtis Cheng.

NEIL GAUGHAN: This is no different to gang activity in that older boys - particularly older boys - will always have influence on younger boys, particularly when those young- younger boys are somewhat immature, somewhat unable to think for themselves and probably looking for some level of direction. And we feel as if, in this particular instance, that's probably what's occurred.

GEOFF THOMPSON: But the roots of this 15-year-old's radicalisation to the point of violent extremism did not begin and end with meetings at Parramatta Mosque.

The tentacles of influence which reached him there stretch back through decades of Australia's terrorism experience.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN, CONSULTANT, GLOBAL TERRORISM RESEARCH CENTRE: If we know one thing about jihadist ideology and the jihadist network in Australia: those on the periphery of a previous terrorism invet- investigation quite often can come to make up the core of the next investigation.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Counter-terrorism consultant Shandon Harris-Hogan has analysed hundreds of hours of intercepted conversations. They were between men convicted in Australia's biggest counter-terrorism investigation, Operation Pendennis.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: The individuals who were involved in the Pendennis investigation were socially connected to those who had been involved in those jihadist plots in the early 2000s. And we can trace that dynamic of individuals through from Operation Pendennis, through to 2009 and Operation Neath, right up until today with Operation Appleby and the individuals who are fighting overseas in Iraq and Syria.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Harris-Hogan is also part of a team which has interviewed more than 50 violent extremists here and overseas. It's to him that police turn when trying to understand the links between generations of terrorists in Australia.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: Overwhelmingly, individuals have a familial or friendship connection. There is an interconnected network of individuals who transcend operational cells. And within that group there is clear examples of ideology being passed from father to son, from mother to daughter and between, um, spouses, cousins and brothers and sisters.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In 2005, when Farhad Jabar was only five years old, two interconnected groups of men were plotting to cause maximum carnage in Melbourne and Sydney. Chemical components for explosives were hoarded in Sydney, along with weapons and thousands of rounds of ammunition.

The Lucas Heights nuclear reactor was talked about as a target.

CATHERINE BURN: We would say these people had an intent to do a large-scale attack with mass casualty. And they tried to procure that capability.

GEOFF THOMPSON: That meant months of planning and communication, which drew the attention of police.

The plots were stopped by what was then Australia's biggest ever counter-terrorism investigation, Operation Pendennis.

CATHERINE BURN: Pendennis in 2005 involved an Al Qaeda-inspired group who wanted to do an attack on Australian soil. That was identified by law enforcement and numerous people have been convicted and are, um, and- and some are still serving, ah, jail sentences.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: What occurred with Pendennis is: after the influence of the earlier, internationally directed plots in Australia, you had a cohort of individuals in the Australian community who were influenced by the global jihadist ideology.

They formed the core of the network for Melbourne and Sydney Pendennis.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Thirteen men were arrested in Melbourne and nine in Sydney. The leader of the Melbourne cell was the Algerian-born, self-styled cleric Abdul Nacer Benbrika.

His zeal for violent extremism made him a father figure to Australia's jihadists.

ABDUL NACER BENBRIKA: What you have to understand that anyone who fights for the sake of Allah: when he dies, the first drop of blood that comes from him out: all his sin will be forgiven.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In 2008 Benbrika was found guilty of being a member of a terrorist organisation and jailed for 15 years. Even in prison, he continued to exert influence as another attack was planned.

CATHERINE BURN: We also saw in 2009, uh, a similar attack planning, which was called Operation Neath. Ah, that was differently inspired. But again it was about a large-scale attack on Australian soil. So what those two plus, two others, had in common was: this was a large number of people involved in doing something that was going to cause mass casualty.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Operation Neath uncovered a 2009 plot which was hatched in Melbourne, but planned to target soldiers at the Holsworthy Army Barracks in Sydney. It was inspired by the Al Qaeda-linked Somali terrorist group, Al Shabaab.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: In about 2009, what we see is some individuals, who were on the periphery of the Pendennis investigation, once again becoming involved in planning an act of violence. But whether it was the leadership of Pendennis or the core members around them: we haven't seen a concentrated, centralised cell of individuals like that in Australia either before or since.

So it was quite significant in that concentration of individuals and in their determination to, to enact an act of violence in Australia.

GEOFF THOMPSON: At least one of the Holsworthy attack plotters had visited Benbrika in prison, just months before the plan was disrupted.

Five men were charged after Operation Neath but only three were convicted. Prosecutors alleged they were partly motivated by Benbrika's imprisonment.

Even now, from his prison cell, Benbrika remains an inspiration to Australia's new generation of potential terrorists.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Look, I certainly don't think we can discount the influence of people like Benbrika. We do know that, um, certain people who have travelled to Syria and Iraq had visited Benbrika prior to their travel. Um, he is a person that we obviously take significant interest in.

But again: he's very clever. He, he knows that he's being monitored by law enforcement and others and is very careful about what he says and what he does.

GEOFF THOMPSON: One of the young men jailed in Operation Pendennis was Khaled Sharrouf. He was caught stealing clocks and batteries to make six bombs.

But due to mental illness, Sharrouf was out on parole by 2009.

The leader of the Sydney Pendennis cell, Mohamed Ali Elomar, was sentenced to 28 years in jail.

(Footage of Mohamed Elomar Jr. outside courthouse, October 2009)

REPORTER 1: He's your uncle?

MOHAMED ELOMAR JR.: Yeah.

REPORTER 2: Who's your uncle?

MOHAMED ELOMAR JR.: Elomar. Ali Elomar.

REPORTER 2: Ali Elomar.

REPORTER 1: And your name, sir?

MOHAMED ELOMAR JR.: Mohamed.

REPORTER 1: Mohamed Elomar?

MOHAMED ELOMAR JR.: Yep.

GEOFF THOMPSON: His nephew, Mohamed Elomar junior, was there for the verdict.

REPORTER 2: Mohamed, today your uncle has been found guilty of being the ringleader of this conspiracy.

(Mohamed Elomar Jr. chuckles and shakes his head)

REPORTER 2: What's your uncle like?

MOHAMED ELOMAR JR.: My uncle? The best person. Like, um, he used to go with me to boxing fights, 'cause I was a boxer. And he used to train me and... I mean, he's a fam- the best family friend, my uncle.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Elomar's family connections and Sharrouf's involvement in the Pendennis plot gave them jihadi street cred and new leadership status.

Elomar and Sharrouf would later shock the world: posing in Syria with Sharrouf's son and severed heads.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: What individuals like the ones you mentioned were able to do was to step into a vacuum. Once the more influential figures, like your Benbrikas or Elomars, were, were removed from society: that, that didn't necessarily remove the effect of the ideology or, or remove any of the kind of influences or beliefs which... which existed within the community.

(Footage of Islamist protest march, 2012)

GEOFF THOMPSON: In September 2012, Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar spearheaded the most public outing ever of Sydney's hardline Islamists.

(Footage of protesters at the foot of the US consulate's steps. Police officers stand on the steps, their arms raised)

POLICE OFFICER (Sep. 2012): Get back! Get back!

GEOFF THOMPSON: A protest against a film accused of mocking the Prophet Mohammed tried to force a path to the US consulate and turned into a riot in Hyde Park.

(Footage of protesters surging toward steps, brandishing flags. Police push them back)

NICK KALDAS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER, NSW POLICE: A small number of people - a percentage out of the people who attended the demonstrations, who we now know, I think, were obviously heading towards violent extremism - were intent on violence on the day.

And there's some, you know, bad things to come out of that. There's some police were injured and ended up in hospital. Ah, the police car was damaged. Um... er, unruly behaviour pervaded. And, and, and it did get out of hand and the riot squad then became involved and so on.

(Footage of police officer being dragged away.)

NEIL GAUGHAN: Look, we saw a large number of young, angry men who were rebelling against authority. Now, some of those young men have become of interest to law enforcement through our terrorism investigations since that.

(Footage of police officer spraying pepper spray into retreating protesters, Hyde Park)

POLICE OFFICER: Get back!

(Footage of injured protester being dragged away)

GEOFF THOMPSON: The 2012 riot was a virtual "who's who" of Australia's jihadist ranks.

At least four of them would later re-emerge as part of the Appleby Group. They include Wassim Fayad, who has since been convicted over whipping a Muslim convert 40 times with an electrical cable in a sharia law-inspired punishment for drinking alcohol.

Fayad was also found guilty of a failed ATM ram-raid, with the intention of sending money to Syria.

The man leading the prayers in Hyde Park that day was Hamdi Alqudsi. He would go on to be charged with helping six young Australians travel to Syria.

Also there was a 17-year-old, Sulayman Khalid. He's now facing terrorism-related charges.

Jostling with police was Raban Alou, now accused of helping 15-year-old Farhad Jabar to kill Curtis Cheng in Parramatta.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Most of those people know each other. It's a very small community, ah, in Sydney and Melbourne that are engaged in illegal activity; and even a smaller - much smaller group - that wish to do Australians harm.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: In hindsight, people can look back at individuals who were involved that protest a-and the small element of that protest which did become violent. And what we do is connect those individuals to actions they have subsequently gone on to perpetrate.

What that tells us is that, whether it was six months, a year, two years, four years; that they have been allowed to continue down some kind of radicalisation process, without any form of intervention which can potentially divert them.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In the same year, groups of Muslim men began preaching on the streets of western Sydney.

(Excerpts from Street Dawah video, YouTube)

STREET DAWAH PRESENTER 1: We've got a brother who reverted to Islam today.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Known as "Street Dawah", they presented as Mohammed's peaceful messengers, eagerly converting others to Islam.

STREET DAWAH PRESENTER 2: There is a lady here, Shani, who has accepted Islam...

GEOFF THOMPSON: But there were deadlier plans in play.

MOHAMMAD ALI BARYALEI (7.30, ABC TV, 2014): And Allah please, make all of us Shaheed (martyrs), Insha'Allah.

MOHAMMAD ALI BARYALEI (YouTube): Repeat after me: Ash-haddu...

GEOFF THOMPSON: The charismatic Mohammad Ali Baryalei was Street Dawah's front man. But this born-again Muslim was once a party loving drug user.

MOHAMMAD ALI BARYALEI (YouTube): One more brother that's joined...

NEIL GAUGHAN: Look, there are certain persons involved in the Street Dawah Movement who have obviously come to significant prominence not just here in Australia but overseas.

MOHAMMAD ALI BARYALEI (YouTube): Takbir!

NEIL GAUGHAN: But they're very public in their actions. So therefore, it actually makes it easy for law enforcement and our partners to engage with them and know who they are, know who they're associating with.

GEOFF THOMPSON: One of Baryalei's followers back then was Raban Alou, seen here in a Street Dawah video filmed in Parramatta. Alou is the teenager who would later meet Farhad Jabar at Parramatta Mosque in the hours before Curtis Cheng was murdered.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: It's a grass-roots process where people would seek out a figure like Baryalei, rather than him going and actively seeking other people.

Yes, there was a physical presence in terms of groups like Street Dawah that proselytised their message outside. But again, it goes back to their- the social group dynamics that these individuals would then potentially meet in a public forum like that, but there's very much a behind-the-scenes, private dynamic that goes with it as well.

KURANDA SEYIT, SECRETARY, ISLAMIC COUNCIL OF VICTORIA: I think there's a, a very strong correlation between young people who used to maybe adhere to certain gangs or maybe groups that they identified as being cool - and usually it was to do with, you know, drugs and, and, ah, gang violence, gun violence: things like that. And they thought that was cool.

I think that ISIS to a certain degree has replaced, ah, ah, some of tho- those groups. And from some Muslim kids' point of view, they see ISIS as the only solution to what's going on in, in those countries. Because ISIS is, is spewing out the propaganda, saying, "We're the ones doing something about this." Some youth actually believe it.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The nation's terrorism problem was about to become much more complex. A rapidly increasing number of Australians were travelling overseas to join militant groups fighting against Bashar Al-Assad in Syria and Iraq.

Despite ASIO's terrorism worries, only four passports were cancelled in 2011. In the year 2014, 65 passports were confiscated.

This didn't stop Khaled Sharrouf from leaving the country.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Sharrouf escaped on his brother's passport. Others, um, got under the radar for different reasons. If we had our way, um, those persons wouldn't have left the country.

Now, you know, we will continue to work on people that are in the country. Some of those will be a threat to us in the future. But I think that just because someone leaves the country doesn't mean they're no longer a threat to Australians.

My biggest concern is: people that gain capability will use that capability somewhere else; if not Australia, somewhere else in the world. And they will impact westerners and Australians.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Mohammad Ali Baryalei left Australia for Syria in April 2013. He joined the Al-Nusra Front before becoming Islamic State's top recruiter of Australian jihadists.

CATHERINE BURN: Because the world now is instantaneous wherever: again, the influence and the reach-back of somebody overseas is, is a very real thing. So, um, for some people who particularly might, uh, be followers or influenced, ah, they might see this person as, er, ah, as a hero. Or it might have that sort of a connotation: that this person is, is doing, you know, what we might want to do. Um, and it might - and it does often - add to that influence that we want to prevent.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In November 2013 Khaled Sharrouf and Mohamed Elomar were in Syria and Iraq, with the help of Mohammad Ali Baryalei.

By then, Baryalei was allegedly using a recruitment middleman back in Australia: Hamdi Alqudsi, the man who led the prayers during the Hyde Park riot and now awaiting trial for helping six young Australians travel to the conflict zone.

(Footage of explosion. Camera operator yells out the Takbir)

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: Alqudsi was charged with facilitating individuals who wanted to be involved in the movement and connect them to other like-minded individuals, whether it be domestically or overseas, which allowed them to become involved in the movement.

GEOFF THOMPSON: That movement was given a massive boost in June 2014 when the head of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared a caliphate.

Islamic State was born.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: What Baghdadi was attempting by announcing a caliphate is to unite people under one particular umbrella and under one particular cause.

NEIL GAUGHAN: That's the most important issue. That's the most important issue for us domestically in relation to attack planning as well.

At the end of the day, the declaration of the caliphate is by far the most important thing that's occurred in relation to what occurs here in Australia and the flow of people offshore.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: By being able to travel to a conflict zone, it means that much earlier in the radicalisation process individuals will ma- able to make a decision to travel and to go to a conflict area and potentially pick up a weapon and engage in violence, much earlier than they traditionally would of in a western liberal democratic setting.

(Video graphic of photographs and silhouettes)

GEOFF THOMPSON: In Australia the AFP began an investigation into communications between Baryalei, Alqudsi and their associates. They called it Operation Appleby and these men and boys the "Appleby Group".

By September 2014, intercepts of potential terrorists were picking up references to large attack plans. Australia's terrorism alert level was raised to high.

CATHERINE BURN: We had started to see more activity of potentially information about people planning or intending on doing something. And then from there, we noticed, w- because of information and intelligence, that- that there were people who were interested, unfortunately, in- who had the intent to do harm in this country.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Then on September 15, a chilling phone call was intercepted between Mohammad Ali Baryalei and one of his Street Dawah followers in Sydney, 23-year-old Omarjan Azari - also part of the Appleby Group.

Police allege that Baryalei instructed Azari to "pick a random kaffir" or unbeliever, kill him and throw the flag of Islamic State over the body.

Four days later, 800 police swooped on houses in Sydney and 15 people were arrested, including most of the Appleby Group.

Raban Alou was not arrested but spoke to the media when one of his brothers was detained.

JOURNALIST (Sep. 18): Does your brother have any links to terrorism at all?

RABAN ALOU (Sep. 18): No way. Maybe they, they assume that- 'cause maybe he hanged out with one or two people just for a little bit; you know, have a tea or something. Like I said, we go pray, we have a tea and go home. Maybe they assume that he's... that's what they said, like, they're all like, you know... they're all just assuming or accusing him. They just...

JOURNALIST (Sep. 18): Accusing him of what?

RABAN ALOU (Sep. 18): They said, like, they're saying, like, about... ah, they're just looking for evidence about, like, terror, terror; like a terrorist thing that's, that will happen here.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Whether or not disruption does actually lead to acceleration is something I think that we, we are conscious of. I mean, our decisions to take overt action in any counter-terrorism investigation across the country over the last 18 months: we weigh up the threat and risk to the community.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Just days after the Appleby raids, an Islamic State fatwa was broadcast to the world. The fatwa called on Islamic State supporters in countries like France and Australia to target police.

ISLAMIC STATE FATWA STATEMENT (voiceover): Strike their police, security and intelligence members and their agents. If you can kill a disbelieving American or European, especially the spiteful and filthy French, or an Australian, or a Canadian, or any other disbeliever.

Smash his head with a rock, or slaughter him with a knife, or run him over with your car, or throw him down from a high place, or choke him, or poison him.

NEIL GAUGHAN: The fatwa made it very clear that there was no need to do what we call a, a "large-scale attack"; that if you take a knife or a gun and you shoot someone that disagrees with our way of thinking - and these attacks have been directed primarily at government officials and people in uniform are probably the most visible people of government authority. So therefore there has been a, you know, a shift in attacks onto law enforcement.

GEOFF THOMPSON: In Melbourne, the day after the fatwa was announced, 18-year-old Numan Haider stabbed two counter-terrorism police officers outside a police station, before being shot dead.

His passport had also been cancelled.

More was to come. Australia's terrorists were emboldened.

(Footage of Abdullah Emir, Islamic State video)

ABDULLAH EMIR (Oct. 2014): It means nothing to us.

And I deliver this message to you, especially: the people of Australia.

Takbir!

(News footage of Lindt Café siege, December 2014)

REPORTER (Dec. 2014): ...to live pictures here from Martin Place.

GEOFF THOMPSON: As the terror threat intensified, police looked for ways to limit contact between members of the Appleby Group, including Raban Alou.

In March this year a control order was imposed on a 20-year-old from Afghanistan, who came to Australia when he was nine years old: Ahmed Saiyer Naizmand.

NEIL GAUGHAN: What we are suggesting in that control order is that Naizmand associating with those other people brings with it a threat to the Australian community that we believe should be under some sort of review and some sort of control.

I think there can be no doubt that there's a small group in Sydney that are engaged in activity which wants to, you know, upset the Australian way of life.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Naizmand left Australia in August last year, using his brother's passport, but was turned back in Dubai.

In the control order, police allege that Naizmand was specifically referred to in a phone call between Baryalei and Azari about which members of the group had the heart to carry out an attack.

NEIL GAUGHAN: Naizmand is still subject to an interim control order. We're moving into a confirmation phase shortly, so therefore it's probably inappropriate that I say much more about that.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Just four years ago, Ahmed Saiyer Naizmand was an up-and-coming Under 16s winger with the North Sydney Bears rugby league club.

A year later he was running with a very different team: the Street Dawah group, led by Mohamad Ali Baryalei.

NEIL GAUGHAN: I mean, why do young men particularly go from what we would say is normal behaviour in school - being involved in sport, ah, academically strong - to actually totally shifting their lives to move down a different path? Um, that's the question that we're all struggling with. I think if we had the answer to that particular question, we could probably stop a lot of these young men from going down the way they're going.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: Radicalisation isn't any form of top-down recruitment. There isn't usually an evil, unknown, predatory figure somewhere on the internet. It isn't individuals being brainwashed. People aren't radicalised by online propaganda. It's fundamentally a social process.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The control order on Ahmed Saiyer Naizmand says he cannot associate with any of the 18 men and boys in the Appleby Group it says are capable of a committing a terrorist act.

Six of the 18 are in Goulburn's Supermax jail.

PETER SEVERIN, COMMISSIONER, CORRECTIVE SERVICES: They are accommodated in the High Risk, er, Management Correctional Centre - or Supermax - where they have very, very limited o- opportunity to engage with one another; where they are, in- with very few exceptions, required to communicate in English.

And communication is one of the most challenging areas when it comes to dealing with people who are a risk to national security.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Supermax inmates include a notorious member of the Appleby Group who cannot be named for legal reasons. He has previously been convicted of ram-raiding an ATM and threatening to slit the throat of an ASIO officer.

Inside Australia's most secure prison, influential Appleby Group members have continued to have contact with their friends outside.

PETER SEVERIN: We don't necessarily control the communication between every visitor and the prisoner. So yes, we do have information available that c-certain people that are clearly now, um, eh, on the radar, um, have visited facilities in the past. They haven't for a long time, but in the past. But they weren't on anybody's radar.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Visitors to Supermax have even included Raban Alou, the teenager now charged with terrorism offences over the Parramatta shooting.

(To Peter Severin) Well, I'll put this to you: are you ruling out that there have been orders or directions given from people inside prison to their followers, supporters on the outside?

PETER SEVERIN: I... can't rule anything out. We don't have any evidence at all that there were any terror-related, er, offences masterminded from in prison. Ah, can I rule out that there was some association between people who allegedly or co- committed offences on the outside, um, through associations with people on the inside? No, I can't.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The March control order stated that members of the Appleby Group were communicating in code, "possibly in relation to the sourcing of firearms."

Members of the Appleby Group had begun meeting at Parramatta Mosque. Board member Shahadat Chowdhury remembers the day when some of them smashed a plaque off the mosque wall, because it featured the name of a non-Muslim politician.

He says one of the men was Raban Alou.

SHAHADAT CHOWDHURY, BOARD MEMBER, PARRAMATTA MOSQUE: That gave me an impression that, eh, they do not believe in any, any authorities. And, eh, also I realised that also they did not believe in any sort of so- procedures, of procedural ah, ah, matters. And they just take the things in their own hand.

I finally realised that actually they don't have a capacity to absolve that because of their very black-and-white way of thinking.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Four Corners has learned that Appleby Group members were increasingly targeting younger men in the lead-up to the Parramatta shooting.

There are hints about this in the phone call which sparked the raids.

According to police, a member of the Appleby Group told Mohammad Ali Baryalei that, because the Group was under extreme surveillance, "A Jahil could do the work. A Jahil can kill a kaffir."

Jahil is an Arabic word for an ignorant person - and police suspect they were referring to a child.

Four Corners understands members of the group attempted to recruit a 14-year-old boy who was recently convicted of firearms offences.

The next teenager in their sights was Farhad Jabar.

(To Neil Gaughan) How do you think that a 15-year-old gets to this point?

NEIL GAUGHAN: He's been misguided. He's making decisions he's not in a position to make. He's immature. Um, he hasn't had a family unit wrap around him and point him in the right direction.

GEOFF THOMPSON: A friend of Farhad Jabar who does not wish to be identified has told Four Corners that the 15-year-old was distressed about being bullied at school, which he had started to skip to attend Parramatta Mosque.

MOHAMAD ABDALLA, ASSOC. PROF., GRIFFITH UNIVERSITY: Some of these young people have mental issues. And it seems this has always been left out of the equation.

GEOFF THOMPSON: There's also the possibility that he was preyed on by other influential people?

MOHAMAD ABDALLA: Again, that is another risk factor: the risk of the attraction of young people to charismatic, pseudo-religious scholars who are able to offer young people a, er, a narrative that says, "You don't belong to mainstream society. But you can belong to us. You have been marginalised" or, or-or, "Y-you, you can never practice your faith in a country like Australia and so the only way you can do so is, is if you join our group."

GEOFF THOMPSON: In the weeks before Farhad killed Curtis Cheng, the 15-year-old was seen with a new group of friends.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: It is still the case that the overwhelming majority of individuals don't radicalise alone; that they radicalise within a social network - and quite often within a social network of close, trusted peers and a family network; that there are very, very, very few individuals who actually radicalise alone in the true "lone wolf" sense of the word.

GEOFF THOMPSON: On the day of the murder, Farhad Jabar and Raban Alou were captured on CCTV together at Parramatta Mosque. Alou and Jabar sometimes walked in and out of blind spots, where the CCTV cameras couldn't see.

Police will allege it was Alou who gave Farhad Jabar the gun that killed Curtis Cheng.

After 4pm on Friday the 2nd of October, the 15-year-old appeared outside police headquarters in Parramatta. Looking for a target, Farhad Jabar approached others, before shooting dead 58-year-old Curtis Cheng as he left work for home.

CATHERINE BURN (Oct. 7): The 15-year-old deceased has not been a target of ours, er, and is not somebody we would have assessed as a threat.

It's a very, very serious concern that in the heart of our community there is attack planning that is underway and that may have led to what we saw on Friday.

We suspect that a terrorism offence has occurred and we are, ah - we suspect that, um they may have some knowledge. We, ah, definitely have our suspicion that he did not act alone.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Police raids resulted in five arrests, including Raban Alou and two other men from the Appleby Group. All were released except Raban Alou, who was charged with a terrorism offence eight days later.

The same day police arrested 22-year-old Talal Alamaddine and charged him with supplying Alou with the gun that was ultimately used to kill Curtis Cheng.

Ten days ago another Appleby Group member, 22-year-old Mustafa Durani, became the third man charged in connection with Curtis Cheng's murder.

CATHERINE BURN (Oct. 14): So what we will be alleging is that this man joined in with several others to commit a criminal activity and this activity resulted in the murder of Curtis Cheng.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Rather than keep a low profile after the shooting, members of the Appleby Group continued to associate in public.

Three of them attended a Hizbut Tahrir conference about the victimisation of Muslims.

Raban Alou's younger brother was here with Mustafa Dirani, who was charged in relation to the Parramatta shooting.

Another group member, Jalaal Suleman, was at the conference too. Before Curtis Cheng's murder he was boasting online about Australia being the target of a terrorist attack.

On a social media site Suleman wrote that: "Ishtishadi operations will be the new trend here!", using an Arabic word for martyrdom attacks.

In another post he goes further: "Martyrdom operations is the way," he writes. "There will be a day very soon that their eyes will stare in horror!"

Alarming declarations like this are being monitored and investigated by police.

CATHERINE BURN: Where law enforcement's particular interest in, is where that radicalisation then moves to, what we would say, a mobilisation.

So w- so when it changes from having a view, having a belief that might be very different to the mainstream; but when it moves - if it does - when it moves to: "I'm now going to do something that is of a violent nature" - so mobilising into that violence, we want to try to break in and stop that from happening if- if somebody is travelling down that path.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Shandon Harris-Hogan says Australia's efforts at countering violent extremism - or CVE - have mostly missed the mark.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: We haven't invested over time in engaging with individuals who are actively radicalising. What we know when we look overseas - and particularly if we look at areas like Scandinavia: that these kind of systematic disengagement and reintegration programmes are effective at not only disengaging individuals from violent extremism but also at re-engaging them back in society.

GEOFF THOMPSON: The Federal Government has a put more than $500 million towards social cohesion programs but spent less than $14 million on targeted interventions.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: From 2010 to 2014 there were 87 unique CVE programmes that we ran in this country. But overwhelmingly these focused on preventative programmes aimed at increasing social cohesion.

There is no research or no evaluation that tells us that any of these prevention programmes have had any tangible benefit on the phenomenon of violent extremism in Australia. Indeed, of these 87-odd programmes that we ran over a four year s- period, only one of these programmes actually engaged with individuals who either were radicalising or had radicalised.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Prosecutions, prison, control orders and passport cancellations will not defeat Australia's terrorist threat.

NEIL GAUGHAN: We're not going to arrest our way out of this problem: it's clear. You know, we don't arrest our way out of any crime problem too, I might add.

So we need to make sure that we put in place some strategies, some whole-of-government strategies and whole-of-communities strategies that stop people getting to the stage that they come on my radar.

SHANDON HARRIS-HOGAN: Simply waiting for somebody to break a law isn't a solution in and of itself. And that if individuals don't have some form of intervention when they are radicalising, that one potentially very horrible outcome of the radicalisation process is an act of violent extremism.

So it shows the need for some form of intervention with these individuals who we can recognise that maybe are on a path of radicalisation, but to stop them before they actually end up engaging in any form of violence.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Do you fear that it, it will get worse before it gets better?

NICK KALDAS: I think that's already panning out. Ah, I think it is worse and it will probably get worse before we finally turn a corner. I can't see it, ah, going away any time soon or, or dissipating.

What I would hope we're heading towards - and I think we're all doing our very best to try and head towards - is we move towards prevention rather than dealing in a reactive way after someone has done something; ah, before an offence is committed.

(Footage of Curtis Cheng's funeral)

GEOFF THOMPSON: Farhad Jabar's crime shattered a family and traumatised an entire community.

ANDREW SCIPIONE, COMMISSIONER, NSW POLICE (Oct. 17): I can't describe the devastation inside police headquarters and right across the New South Wales Police Force: the gentlest of friends lost to an act of terror.

GEOFF THOMPSON: Curtis Cheng's murder tragically proves that there is only so much police can do to prevent an act terror, even against one of their own.

We pray for the NSW Police Force and those entrusted in protecting the community. And we pray that our next generation may uphold and practice peace, tolerance and especially love, towards all who share the gift of our land.

GEOFF THOMPSON: A land in which a 15-year-old can kill someone he never even knew, just to die and be buried in a grave without a name.

KERRY O'BRIEN: The only black-and-white element in this story is that an innocent man, randomly targeted, has been murdered.

The complexity and the true evil behind it is the calculated act of poisoning the mind of a 15-year-old to do the dirty work of others, whoever they may be.

The cowardice, masquerading as a cause, needs to be seen for what it is.

This is our final program for the year and my last appearance as the presenter. I've been privileged to enjoy a long and deeply fulfilling run with ABC current affairs programs over many years - and to have shared that journey with you. You are why we're here.

And I've been massively privileged to have worked alongside so many of the best craftsmen and women our industry has produced: people dedicated to the pursuit of excellence.

It should go without saying, but I'll say it anyway: the more complex our future as a nation becomes, the more vital the ABC is to that future.

I'm not retiring from journalism; just moving on to other things.

In the meantime, go well and good night.

END

Backgrounder

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