JIHAD JACK BARRED FROM CONTACTING BIN LADEN

Sydney, Sept 1 NZPA - The control order imposed on Jihad Jack Thomas was historic for Australia and controversial.

But the government's move to stop Thomas from contacting Osama bin Laden as part of the control order added a touch of the absurd to the proceedings.

Thomas, an Australian, is said to have trained with bin Laden's al Qaeda network, though he has denied doing so knowingly.

It did not take long for the wags to come out and suggest that Thomas should be encouraged to ring bin Laden in the hope the terrorist fugitive would be caught by Australia.

Mike Buky from Mooloolaba in Queensland had another take on it.

"Does the control order against Jihad Jack mean that it is legal for the remaining 20 million Australians to ring up Osama bin Laden and have a chat?" he wrote to The Australian newspaper.

Graham Mowbray, the magistrate who imposed the order on Thomas at a secret hearing last weekend, said it was silly of the government to include bin Laden's name on a list of people Thomas is not allowed to contact.

"It makes it a bit farcical and these are serious proceedings," he said at a hearing this week at which the Australian Federal Police tried to extend the control order.

He said he thought police would have had "more nous" than to name bin Laden, long the subject of an international search.

But government solicitor Tom Howe said Thomas had met bin laden in Afghanistan before the September 11 attacks and he could not accept there was "no possibility" of Thomas trying to contact him again.

It was not just bin Laden's name that attracted derision. The federal police's list of 50 includes some terrorists who are in jail. And some who are dead.

Some of the living are in the United States prison at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, where they have access only to approved visitors.

Howe quipped that where people were incarcerated or dead the order not to contact them would "not involve any difficult burden" on Thomas.

Unsurprisingly, in light of those revelations, police have decided to review the list. A further hearing reviewing the control order will be held later this month.

Thomas, sentenced to five years in prison in February for accepting $US3500 ($NZ5466) and a plane ticket to Australia from an al Qaeda agent in Pakistan, was freed on August 18 when an appeal court ruled that a jury should not have heard some of the evidence that helped convict him.

In a recently televised interview, Thomas said that he met bin Laden on several occasions in Afghanistan and found him "very polite and humble and shy".

The cartoonists have had a field day over the issue. The Australian depicted the United States President on the phone, saying: "Hello Jihad Jack? George Bush here. They tell me you have bin Laden's number.

On the other half of the cartoon is Thomas, replying: "Sorry I can't help you. He's out of mobile range."

The Australian made much of the fact that Thomas married Indonesian-born Maryati Idris on the same day they met. It said Idris was a close friend of the wife of Jemaah Islamiah spiritual leader Abu Baka Bashir, who was convicted for conspiracy in the 2002 Bali bombings but released from prison after two years.

Idris later told the newspaper Ms Idris had gone to school with a woman whom she described as a "senior" or prefect, and that that woman was friends with a woman who became Bashir's second wife.

The Australian featured a cartoon of Idris in a full-length burkha with barely a slit in it for the eyes and Thomas saying to her: "It's love at first sight."

The News Ltd broadsheet has been loud in its support for the control order. Foreign editor Greg Sheridan said Thomas' pattern of behaviour had all the characteristics of a "sleeper" agent.

While Thomas has denied he ever intended to undertake any terrorist activity in Australia, Sheridan said it was important from the police's point of view to look at the pattern of his behaviour.

"He took money from al Qaeda, offered to help them with their work in Australia, went to some lengths to conceal this connection and then planned to travel home.

"On other occasions involving other people, such behaviour has led to their eventually being contacted by al Qaeda and ordered into action."

The Age newspaper in Melbourne, Thomas' home town, took a different tack. It said Australia must be careful not to magnify the impact of terrorism with "fearful, knee-jerk responses that weaken the very foundations that make our democracy strong".