Terror Witness Waiting to Speak Out
Jack Roche, convicted in a bomb plot, may have firsthand knowledge of Islamic extremists. But a battle over his sentence is preventing its use. Convicted terrorist Jack Roche, whose offer to provide information about Osama bin Laden and other Al Qaeda leaders was ignored by authorities four years ago, wants to volunteer his help again. From Hakea prison in suburban Perth, where he is serving nine years for plotting to blow up the Israeli Embassy in Canberra, Roche has offered to testify in the trials of top suspected terrorists in Europe and Asia, including Indonesian cleric Abu Bakar Bashir. In exchange, he’s angling for an early release from prison and placement in a witness-protection program. Instead, the Australian government has gone to court to try to add a decade to his sentence. Roche, whose sentence has already been trimmed from 10 years on condition that he answer investigators’ questions, has given police detailed statements intended for authorities in Indonesia, Germany and France. The European countries are interested in his knowledge of Christian Ganczarski, an alleged conspirator in the 2002 bombing of a Tunisian synagogue that killed 21 people, mostly German tourists. Ganczarski is being held in France. Full Story