SYDNEY (Agencies) - A secret Australian intelligence assessment declared the al Qaeda terrorist network a failure, according to a US embassy cable leaked to WikiLeaks. The assessment also claimed the regional offshoot, Jemaah Islamiah, has been broken in Australia, Fairfax newspapers reported on Tuesday. The head of Australias intelligence analysis agency, the Office of National Assessments, told US diplomats in October 2008 that al Qaeda ultimately has failed to achieve the strategic leadership role it sought within the Islamic world. The assessment undercuts a key argument of the federal government to justify Australias commitment to the war in Afghanistan, that al Qaeda could return to use the country as a terrorist training ground, The Sydney Morning Herald reports. Australian intelligence officers instead blamed Taliban success in Afghanistan on the failings of the Afghan government and the involvement of Pakistans intelligence and security agencies. A Canadian federal court on Thursday ruled that a former Ottawa pizza delivery man is likely an al Qaeda sleeper agent and remains a national security threat.Algerian Mohamed Harkat, 42, has been under strict bail conditions since 2006 after spending almost four years in jail under a rarely-used national security measure. Federal Court Judge Simon Noel rejected his bid to have the so-called security certificate quashed and his bail conditions lifted, saying that while in Canada Harkat maintained contacts and assisted extremists, and used some methodologies typical of a 'sleeper agent. The court also concluded that although the initial danger associated to Mohamed Harkat has diminished over time, a danger remains. Harkat has denied links to terrorism, and claimed he fled Algeria over a crackdown on a political party to which he belonged, the Front Islamique du Salut. But Noel said in his ruling that he found Harkat was not truthful, honest or transparent in his testimony.