‘Grandfather of bomb makers’ behind 1982 Sydney terrorist attacks

The explosives used to attack Sydney’s Hakoah Club and the Israeli consulate in December 1982 were designed and constructed by ‘the grandfather of bomb makers’, a coronial inquiry has found.

Hussayn Al-Umari, the “the grandfather of bomb makers”, was responsible for fabricating the explosives used to attack Sydney’s Hakoah Club and the Israeli consulate in December, 1982.

The bombmaker behind the 1982 attack on Sydney’s Hakoah Club and the Israeli consulate has been revealed as a sharply dressed, Cuban cigar-smoking international terrorist who is still at large with a $US5m price-tag on his head.

The explosives used in the ­attack were designed and constructed by “the grandfather of bombmakers”, Hussayn al-Umari, who was responsible for at least 21 similar international terrorism plots, a coronial inquiry has found.

A four-day hearing into the terrorist attacks – which sent shockwaves through Australia’s Jewish community four decades ago – found that the pro-Palestinian ­terrorist group, known as 15 May, planned and directed the attacks from Lebanon, but a lack of evidence meant the matter could not be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

On Friday, NSW Coroner ­Teresa O’Sullivan found that the two bombs were mainly built outside Australia by notorious 15 May founder al-Umari, who was ­described in the hearing by a leading US counter-terrorism expert as “the most active, most dangerous and most ruthless of all” ­terrorist leaders in the world at the time of the 1982 attacks.

Police images of the people they believe can assist with inquiries into the 1982 bombing.

Detective Chief Inspector Caroline O’Hare, who led the 2010-2012 counter-terrorism task-force that probed the cold case, told the inquiry earlier this month that the group had been assisted by local members in Australia, one of whom was still likely living in the Greater Sydney area.

Chief Inspector O’Hare said at least one of the local operatives worked for the then NSW Rail Authority, and stole copper cylinders and potentially other materials from the rail yards to complete the assemblage of one of the bombs.

The first bomb exploded on December 23 outside the Israeli consulate-general office in William St, leaving two people seriously injured. A second bomb exploded five hours later in a car parked beneath the crowded ­Hakoah Club, a popular Jewish ­ social venue in Bondi.

The scene of the 1982 bombings of a car parked in the basement of the Hakoah Club at Bondi. Photograph: NSW Police

At the time, detectives said the Hakoah Club explosion was ­designed to collapse the building and kill the people inside, but the device failed to detonate correctly and no one died.

In 2012, shortly after authorities launched the new counter-­terrorism taskforce into the case, Chief Inspector O’Hare said a contingent of Australian detectives met FBI bomb technicians in the US, who confirmed the bombs detonated in the 1982 attacks shared the same features as previous 15 May terrorist plots.

Denny Kline, a former FBI agent and bomb technician, told the inquiry the various components of one of the explosives matched two other devices, including a bomb that exploded on Pan American Airways Flight 830, which was travelling from Tokyo to Honolulu, and another that was found on Pan American Airways Flight 441 in Rio de Janeiro.

Robert Baer, a former CIA agent and leading intelligence commentator, told the inquiry ­al-Umari was “the grandfather of bombmakers” throughout the 1970s and early 1980s, describing him as no less than “the most capable and most dangerous bomb maker in the world”.

Several bomb experts told the inquiry that al-Umari had devised a way to pass plastic explosive ­devices through airport security systems without being detected, and to conceal a bomb in the lining of a small suitcase.

Al-Umari is still wanted by the US Department of Justice, with a $US5m reward for his capture. An FBI watchlist warns he should still be “considered armed and ­dangerous”.

Investigations into the 1982 Sydney bombings were revived earlier this month by NSW police and the state government, following the announcement of a $1m reward that coincided with the first day of the coronial inquiry.

Following the coronial inquiry, NSW Jewish Board of Deputies chief executive Darren Bark said Friday’s findings brought some comfort to Australia’s Jewish community and those who were affected 40 years ago.

“Our community remains hopeful that the perpetrators of this heinous attack will be caught,” Mr Bark said.