Jax had heard nothing about this. The military prison had been a black hole. Kept in the brig from the time of his arrest until his sentencing, he’d had no word of the outside world at all. He hadn’t even been allowed visitors. He was escorted off-base by armed soldiers to his legal meetings and taken to and from court in an armour-plated Humvee. Long Bay had not been much better, the only news he got coming from other inmates, whom he did his best to avoid.

He read the next page.

The mastermind behind the Sydney reactor bomb plot can be revealed as an Australian-born Islamic extremist who was trained by ISIS.

Ali Hammad, 52, from Greenacre in southwest Sydney, received expert training in bomb-making, surveillance and espionage from high-ranking Al-Qaeda soldiers at a terrorist training camp in Syria. Travel records also show Hammad spent time in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ASIO officers suspect Hammad to be the leader of Australia’s first ever ISIS terrorist cell and will allege in court that he and the other 11 men arrested as part of ‘Operation Flying Fox’ were acting under orders originating from Syria.

All 12 men were denied bail and are being housed in police holding cells at the NSW Police Centre, Surry Hills.

Interesting. A local cell of an international terrorist group. Radicalised Australian men, trained overseas and then sent back home to put their training into practice. This was straight out of the Terror 101 textbook. Jax looked at Clarke for a hint of what this had to do with him, but the man simply nodded as if to indicate Jax should keep on reading.

The ‘Terror 12’ could be just one of ‘several’ cells operating in Australia, according to NSW Police.

As Australia’s biggest terrorism case continues in the High Court, tendered police documents allege the terror cell headed by reported mastermind Ali Hammad was just one of ‘several’ groups of trained militants suspected to be operating in Australia.

Hammad is alleged to have knowledge of the other cells after being personally groomed by ISIS commanders.

The frightening document written by the nation’s chief intelligence-gathering organisation also claimed Australia is ripe for an attack and urged the government to pass legislation to give ASIO, the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) and the Federal Police special powers of arrest and detention, similar to those implemented in the US after 9/11.

A spokesman for the Opposition last night dismissed the report as an overreaction. ‘It’s hysterical rhetoric from an organisation trying to justify its existence,’ the spokesman said. ‘We have not been provided with any concrete evidence that Australia is at risk of a future attack. As far as we are concerned, the Lucas Heights reactor threat was a one-off.

‘Certain organisations are using recent events to extort money from taxpayers by demanding funding increases and calling for unconstitutional and unlawful special powers. It is just fearmongering. Australia is half a world away from the real threat.’