A terrorist mastermind has broken his silence on a foiled bomb plot that almost killed one of his brothers and left two others with decades-long jail sentences – and delivered a chilling warning about what will happen next.
Now wheelchair bound and on death row in a jail in the Iraqi desert, Tarek Khayat has no regrets about plotting to murder 400 people onboard a plane flying out of Sydney with a bomb his brother Amer had been tricked into carrying onboard.
Khayat, who was once a feared Islamic State commander, enlisted his Sydney-based brothers Khaled and Mahmoud to dupe Amer into flying to Abu Dhabi on Etihad flight 451 with a bomb in his luggage on July 15, 2017.
Eight years on, he had an evil smile as he recalled his involvement in what would have been the most deadly terror attack on Australian soil.
‘In the end, my brothers were influenced by me. That’s right,’ Khayat told 60 Minutes through an interpreter in his first ever television interview.
‘However, I did not anticipate that they would be influenced to such an extent and achieve what they have achieved.’
Brothers Khaled and Mahmoud were found guilty of conspiring to prepare or plan a terrorist act and were jailed for 40 years and 36 years respectively with non-parole periods of 30 and 27 years.
The callous disregard for Amer’s life came easily to his brothers because, unlike them, he was not a devout Muslim and enjoyed a drink and partying lifestyle – he was expendable, as were the 400 other would-be innocent victims on board the flight.
Tarek Khayat (pictured) has no regrets about a foiled bomb plot which would have murdered 400 people onboard an Etihad flight
However, the plot to trick Amer into becoming an unwitting mass murderer was thwarted at the last minute.
The plot to disguise the bomb in a meat grinder came unstuck when Amer tried to check in and was told by staff it was too heavy for his carry-on luggage.
‘It was almost 9kg, you’re allowed only 7kg,’ Amer recalled.
The woman at the Etihad check-in desk told him he had to take something out of the bag.
Khaled, who had packed Amer’s bag for him and taken him to the airport, took the meat grinder out of it and rushed away.
Amer caught the flight to Abu Dhabi and travelled on to Lebanon.
Two weeks later, the Australian Federal Police raided the Khayat brothers’ homes in south-west Sydney after a tip-off from intelligence agencies.
In Lebanon, Amer was shocked to discover what his brothers had planned.
The woman at the Etihad check-in desk told Amer Khayat (pictured) he had to take something out of his bag
Khaled Khayat (pictured) packed his brother Amer’s bag for him and drove him to the airport
Amer was also detained shortly afterwards, and spent two years in a Beirut jail without conviction before he was finally cleared of any involvement in the horrific plot and permitted to return home to Australia.
Amer said he ‘can’t forgive’ his brothers for what they did, but that he tries to ‘forget’.
‘It’s painful for me, of course, but what can you do? That’s it. Forgive, I can’t forgive. Forget them, forget I have brothers,’ he said.
‘They chose me because (they think) I’m the bad person. My lifestyle is different.’
Tarek Khayat also delivered a chilling message for the West – that Islamic State has not been defeated, and will step up its war, highlighting recent atrocities such as a 14-year-old boy who was stabbed to death in Austria.
‘This is just the beginning of a new era of terror,’ he said.
‘The Islamic State has started it. It has begun.
‘The state of Islam will not die but will return stronger than it was.’
CCTV captured the brothers arriving at Sydney Airport, with a bomb hidden in a meat grinder. The plot was later thwarted by airport check-in staff
Despite wanting to forget about his brothers and what they did to him, the consequences of what might have been continue to play on Amer’s mind, as do the clues he missed.
His brothers had shunned him for years, but they suddenly wanted him to visit their sister.
Then Khaled asked he take a meat grinder with him as a present for the sister, but he insisted on packing it himself.
Khaled, who had never before taken Amer to the airport, insisted he that he drive him on that occasion.
And, most shocking of all, Khaled gave Amer a tight hug lasting several minutes in the airport – embracing, for the what he thought was the final time, the brother he was sending to his death.
Amer (pictured in 2019) said he ‘can’t forgive’ his brothers for what they did
Andrew McCabe, who was acting director of the FBI at the time of the failed plot, said he had not seen such a level of planning and ‘creative’ execution.
‘I think the thing that shocked me the most then and still impresses me to this day is the sophistication of being able to essentially mail an explosive device into Australia from Syria, and then to be able to coach foreign-recruited operatives to work with that device, to set that device up,’ he said.
He warned that ISIS remains a threat in 2025.
‘I think there is no question that our experiences in 2024 and seeing what particularly ISIS has been able to do around the globe has got to wake up our governments and our counter-terrorism professionals to ISIS as continuing to be one of the highest priority threats we have to deal with,’ Mr McCabe said.
