The woman in the center of this bomb plot is Ms. Jill Courtney (26), a Muslim convert who has opened a new chapter of counterterrorism in Australia: Jillhad. Courtney was arrested by New South Wales’ Counter Terror Command and Australian Federal Police counterterrorism operatives under national antiterrorism laws on March 24 in her father’s Sydney suburb home on charges of plotting to bomb Sydney. She was charged with one count each of “conspiracy to murder and conspiracy to cause explosives to be placed in or near a public place.” Authorities believe her attack was to take place between July 1, 2005 and her arrest. Courtney, according to The Sydney Morning Herald, is Australia’s only female terrorism suspect and may be the first woman imprisoned in the “Super Max” prison, the highest security prison in the country, in Goulburn. She would join 11 other terrorism suspects at Goulburn.
While yet unconfirmed, authorities widely speculate that Courtney was a puppet of her lover, an imprisoned murderer named Hassan Kalache, who wanted to avenge race riots in Croa from December 2005 and promised to marry Courtney if she carried out an attack. According to the Daily Telegraph, “no target had been selected?and no explosives had been obtained.” The report goes on to say that she “had access to material on how to carry out the attack,” although no details are provided. The Sydney Morning Herald supports this contention, claiming that Courtney had obtained information on how to construct explosive devices and had contacted “a number of people.” However, homes in Casula and Hoxton Park were also searched for evidence in connection to the plot. Kalache (28) is serving a sentence at Lithgow prison for the shooting death of rival drug lord Wassim Chehade in 2000 and involvement in the stabbing murder of Jason Burton in 1997. The two allegedly first met when Courtney visited Kalache in prison.
Courtney is likely to be charged with criminal offenses, not terrorism. As such, this may be an indicator that her plotting was more targeted at Kalache’s rivals or authorities involved in his incarceration, rather than on either of their willingness to bring jihad to Australia. However, Courtney’s physical characteristics bring to mind that of two recent successful acts of terrorism: Belgian convert Muriel Degauque (WAR Report and WAR Report)?as a Western-looking convert to Islam?and Sajida Rishawi ?as a woman so influenced by her husband to commit an act of terrorism.
The defense lawyer, Adam Houda, who is a renowned attorney for those charged with terrorism offenses, has been granted access for his client to a psychiatrist, as he claimed, “I am a little concern about her mental health.” Houda has a client list to include: Mamdouh Habib, Zekky Mallah, Bilal Khazal, Izhar Ul-Haque, among others. Courtney was to appear before a court on April 3; however, details have yet to be released. As this writer has long posited in these pages, in presentations, and in media interviews, the threat of female terrorism is rife on a global scale and now specifically in Australia.