TORONTO 18 SCARED OF WEAPONS

FROM: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=3070749




The Crown launched a multi-pronged assault yesterday on the credibility of Asad Ansari, one of the final two accused in the "Toronto 18" terrorism case.

Mr. Ansari, who has denied any role in the 2006 bomb plot and professed to be "scared of weapons," could not explain why police found a cache of files on a CD in his bedroom containing images of violent jihad.

"I can't answer the why," Mr. Ansari said during his cross-examination. "I can only say that I have these images."

The files include photographs of Osama bin Laden and masked militants hoisting AK-47s. In a number of shots, bearded men pose with rocket launchers; others feature a variety of guns and swords.

Mr. Ansari agreed the images glorified the concept of armed mujahideen, but said his aversion to firearms only applied "in real life."

Mr. Ansari, 25, is on trial for participating in a terrorist group that allegedly operated between 2005 and 2006. He admits to attending a winter camping trip organized by "Toronto 18" ringleader Fahim Ahmad, but denies he had any knowledge at the time that the camp was intended as a terrorist training ground.

Ahmad pleaded guilty to terrorism charges this month.

In general, Crown attorney Jason Wakely contended, "[Ahmad] was very open about his plans to attack."

"I guess, sure," Mr. Ansari replied. Yet he maintained Ahmad concealed those plans from him specifically, with discussions on topics such as jihad occurring only in the "theoretical" realm.

The jury has seen a video of the winter camp in Washago, Ont., filmed by Zakaria Amara, who was also charged in the terror plot. In the footage, masked men are seen running through the forest, hoisting a black flag and shooting guns, with Arabic chanting overlaid as a sound-track. Mr. Ansari says he was not present during the filming of any of the violent scenes. "Everything seemed benign and innocuous," he said of the camp.

Mr. Ansari has testified that Amara brought him the camp footage after the event had ended and asked for assistance in converting it to a digital format. This was incriminating evidence, Mr. Wakely pointed out, and "Amara trusted you with that."

"That's correct," the accused testified. Yet he says he never watched any of the footage while he was converting it, simply setting up the conversion process and then leaving the room to do other tasks. The Crown suggested this was false.

"The natural thing to do is to watch it," Mr. Wakely said, noting Mr. Ansari, who was out of school and not working, had little else to focus on at the time.

"I did not [watch]," Mr. Ansari asserted. While he agreed in retrospect it would have

made sense to view the camp video, "it was only happenstance" that he failed to do so.

The Crown also pointed to an intercepted telephone call in which Mr. Ansari speaks to Ahmad about malicious software found on Ahmad's computer.

"You were deliberately cryptic and guarded in this conversation," Mr. Wakely said, alleging Mr. Ansari was aware all the while that Ahmad was the subject of police surveillance, including a wiretap.

"No I did not," Mr. Ansari said. He says he was non-specific in discussing the malicious software because Ahmad "is an idiot when it comes to computers."

At one point in the conversation, Mr. Ansari alerts Ahmad to a program that is sending information out of his computer. "I can guess [where]," Ahmad says. Mr. Ansari, however, fails to follow up with the "obvious question" of where, Mr. Wakely noted.

Mr. Ansari, a self-described computer whiz, said he was not particularly interested in the "amateurish" program, adding it never occurred to him that it was installed by a law-enforcement agency.

The trial resumes today.

TORONTO 18 TERROR TRIAL - ALMOST OVER

Finally, after 1 youth preliminary hearing, 1 adult preliminary hearing (which the Prosecution cancelled), 1 youth trial, 1 abuse of process motion and 1 trial of adults by jury - my testimony is complete.

I will not say anything further on this case until the jury has reached their verdict and the final tally can be made.

I had discontinued this blog in fairness of an unbiased trial and credit does go to the wonderful society in which we live, where secret trials are not our style and anonymous information not our evidence. Canada is indeed, the best place for all of us to be living.

More to follow when the time is right.

TORONTO 18 CASE - UPDATED MAY, 2010 - TESTIMONY ENDS FOR SHAIKH

In light of the unnecessarily hostile and misleading Wikipedia entry on myself, Mubin Shaikh, I submit that I have found Wikipedia and other web-based knowledge constructs to be subject to many enormities of factual distortion and even disinformation as Wikipedia operates according to the principle of "verifiability" not "accuracy". This means if somebody wrote it somewhere, you can quote it.

This rule has allowed for the article under "Mubin Shaikh" to cloud the issue as to what is truly important for the public to know. Rather, it reads more as a tabloid posting that I am unable to properly respond to given the slavish desire to protect the integrity of our (relatively) fair and balanced adversarial system, I would want to inhibit the accused from getting a fair shaikh. :)

In regards to my understanding of the publication ban, I have not included any evidence that is not already in the public sphere on this "blog". We live in an age where information (and access to it) abounds. We have debates over how much of it can be policed and which part(s) of it may be subject to state regulation vis-a-vis the internet. Only recently has the journalist bar of ethical reporting been "adjusted" and only then by Supreme Court intervention. Therefore, any information released thus far is with the intention to be acting in the public interest and in the interest of "truth" as it relates to events surrounded this case.


UPDATE: Fahim Ahmed plead guilty on y May 3, 2010 but the press was allowed to report on this development only today (Monday May 10, 2010). This leaves only two others remaining. The trial is expected to conclude in the very near future. According to the stated ideals of our justice system, the accused are assumed innocent until proven guilty.


OTHER SOURCES ON THE TORONTO 18 CASE

As to "Unfair Dealing - The Toronto Homegrown Terror Threat" by Josh Weingarten, the facts as they stand in the case developments thus far (convictions and guilty pleas) refute the overwhelming majority of the documentary's criticism against the case. The skepticism expressed is not a reasonable one but rather, extreme.

So also, "The Toronto 18 Frame-Up" by Prof. Keefer, an alumni of Kingston Military College and Professor of English at Guelph University. He is a specialist in Renaissance literature and early modern philosophy, having published widely on contemporary cultural and political issues.

I suggest that Prof. Keefer has put the cart before the horse by way of circular reasoning and has being determined from the outset to fit the Toronto 18 case into preconceived notions that are steeped in conspiracy theories. Again, developments in the case thus far have rendered the overwhelming majority of his narrative; fiction.

Thank you,

Mubin Shaikh