FROM: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i_nM1GY1NWXggMbz7Z02_j1BmTyg
BRAMPTON, Ont. — There is "virtually no evidence" to support a Toronto 18 member's claim he was entrapped by police, a judge ruled Tuesday in dismissing what he called the confusing and illogical testimony of Shareef Abdelhaleem.
Abdelhaleem's erratic demeanour on the stand was highly unusual, the judge said, calling the now convicted terrorist the "antithesis" of a good witness.
"He often launched into lengthy, rambling answers and raised his voice in an apparent attempt to convince all those listening to his evidence of the sincerity of his position," the judge said.
"At other times he mumbled and his voice would trail off into the barely audible range as if he was consumed by his inner thoughts and did not wish to share them at the moment."
Abdelhaleem's ramblings were "almost impossible" to follow in court, the judge said. Even when he reviewed the transcripts later Abdelhaleem's testimony was difficult to decipher and was not "logically persuasive," the judge added.
Abdelhaleem, 34, was found guilty last month of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. No conviction was entered at the time because his defence brought a motion seeking a stay on the basis of entrapment.
The judge ruled that Abdelhaleem's evidence fell far short of the test for entrapment - that police created a crime that otherwise wouldn't have occurred or that they induced the commission of a crime. Abdelhaleem acted as a "co-ordinator" in a bomb plot that would have caused death and destruction "so substantial that it is difficult to comprehend," the judge said.
"Nothing occurred which would induce an average person in the position of the accused, with strengths and weaknesses, to commit a crime as serious as this one."
Abdelhaleem's lawyer, William Naylor, said outside court that he thought his client's bizarre, confusing and often heated testimony "certainly" affected the judge's decision. However, Naylor added he thought his client did well on the stand, given the circumstances.
"He was in jail for 3 1/2 years before he got to speak to anybody in the public... so you don't have a lot of the social graces after 3 1/2 years in administrative detention," he said.
"My client's an emotional type. He bursts out. He just displays his emotions on his sleeve."
The prosecution said the public should be "very happy at what happened today."
"We always knew if we were patient, if we pursued the case, that truth and justice at the end of the day would win out," said Crown attorney Croft Michaelson.
Naylor had argued his client was "dragged in" to the Toronto 18 bomb plot by a former friend seeking revenge through his work as a police agent. Shaher Elsohemy was the only witness in the first portion of the trial.
The judge found that despite a rocky friendship with tensions between their two families, nothing Elsohemy did directed Abdelhaleem - who the judge called "quite cunning and deceitful" - toward criminal activity.
Much has been made of the approximately $4-million package RCMP offered Elsohemy to work as an agent and put him and his family in the witness protection program, but the judge noted Elsohemy had already provided valuable information willingly before that money was discussed.
The Crown contended Abdelhaleem was a willing and active participant in the plot to detonate massive bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base.
Abdelhaleem and 17 others who would come to be known as the Toronto 18 were arrested in the summer of 2006 and charged with terrorism offences. Several people, including Abdelhaleem, were charged in a plot to bomb military, intelligence and financial targets.
Abdelhaleem maintained he was an "outsider" in the plot who was just delivering messages back and forth between ringleader Zakaria Amara and Elsohemy, but that he tried to stay involved so he could create opportunities for sabotage.
Amara was sentenced to life last month.
Abdelhaleem alternatively argued that he inserted himself into the plot as a middle man so his friend Elsohemy wouldn't be seen associating alone with Amara, who they knew was under surveillance. The judge dismissed both contentions, saying the latter "amounts to a loud protest without the force of any real logic."
"The accused's position that he was only involved for the purpose of protecting his friend Mr. Elsohemy is nonsensical in the context of all of the evidence," the judge said.
"The evidence contains many instances where the accused took the initiative to advance the bomb plot."
The case returns to court on Friday to set a date for sentencing submissions.
Showing posts with label Shaher Elsohemy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shaher Elsohemy. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 16, 2010
JUDGE RULES NO ENTRAPMENT AGENT #2 TORONTO 18 CASE
*** Vindication is yours and rightfully so (formerly-known-as-Shaher), rightfully so. _\ MS ***
FROM: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i_nM1GY1NWXggMbz7Z02_j1BmTyg
BRAMPTON, Ont. — A judge has ruled that a man found guilty of terror offences as part of the so-called Toronto 18 was not entrapped.
Shareef Abdelhaleem, 34, was found guilty last month of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. No conviction was entered at the time because his defence brought a motion seeking a stay on the basis of entrapment.
Today, a judge told a Brampton, Ont., court that entrapment was not an issue in the case and there was virtually no evidence to support Abdelhaleem's position.
The judge, in entering the conviction, also described Abdelhaleem's testimony as rambling and nonsensical.
Abdelhaleem's lawyer had argued his client was "dragged in" to the Toronto 18 bomb plot by a former friend seeking revenge through his work as a police agent.
The Crown contended Abdelhaleem was a willing and active participant in the plot to detonate massive bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base.
For the motion to have succeeded the defence had to prove that police created a crime that otherwise wouldn't have occurred or that they induced the commission of a crime.
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
FROM: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5i_nM1GY1NWXggMbz7Z02_j1BmTyg
BRAMPTON, Ont. — A judge has ruled that a man found guilty of terror offences as part of the so-called Toronto 18 was not entrapped.
Shareef Abdelhaleem, 34, was found guilty last month of participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. No conviction was entered at the time because his defence brought a motion seeking a stay on the basis of entrapment.
Today, a judge told a Brampton, Ont., court that entrapment was not an issue in the case and there was virtually no evidence to support Abdelhaleem's position.
The judge, in entering the conviction, also described Abdelhaleem's testimony as rambling and nonsensical.
Abdelhaleem's lawyer had argued his client was "dragged in" to the Toronto 18 bomb plot by a former friend seeking revenge through his work as a police agent.
The Crown contended Abdelhaleem was a willing and active participant in the plot to detonate massive bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base.
For the motion to have succeeded the defence had to prove that police created a crime that otherwise wouldn't have occurred or that they induced the commission of a crime.
Copyright © 2010 The Canadian Press. All rights reserved.
Thursday, January 28, 2010
TORONTO 18 BOMB PLOT : COCAINE VS AMMONIUM NITRATE
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/news/article/756935--walkom-no-saint-but-no-hardliner-either?bn=1
By his own admission, Toronto 18 terrorist Shareef Abdelhaleem is a cokehead and a wastrel.
The last time he paid income tax (which, as far as he can remember was about seven years ago), the 34-year-old Mississauga man earned $357,000 doing freelance computer work. But, he told a Brampton court Wednesday, he spent most of that on the luxuries of life – "drinking, drugs, women."
As a teenager, he was kicked out of his home several times. He spent four years in a University of Toronto computer science program but never graduated.
Oh yes. And, as he acknowledged in court, he took part in plans to blow up buildings in downtown Toronto – all of which earned him a guilty verdict last week in this judge-only trial.
Abdelhaleem is the first of the so-called Toronto 18 terror group to testify in court. The picture he presents of himself (which jibes with the one given last week by the Crown's chief witness against him) is anything but black and white.
He is certainly no hard-eyed Islamist ideologue. Some of the 9/11 bombers were said to have adopted Western vices as a guise. Not Abdelhaleem. His vices were genuine. Well before he became involved in the bomb plot, he said, he was a druggie. On the days leading up to a serious 2006 heart operation, he continued to take cocaine even though he feared this might cause surgical complications.
After his operation and while the bomb plot was being prepared, he said, he would go on regular cocaine binges, speeding along for a few days until he crashed from exhaustion. Then he would start all over again.
He popped prescription painkillers until his doctor cut him off. The high they gave him, he told the judge, "was pretty good."
But at the same time, he was hardly an innocent. He knew about convicted bomb plot mastermind Zakaria Amara's plans to wreak havoc but didn't tell the police. "I'm not a rat. Period." he explained.
Nor did he think Amara was just playing games. As he told the court, he assumed the worst – that Amara would go through with his plans and that many would die.
In what might seem a bizarre twist of logic, he said he tried to convince Amara and fellow plotter Shaher Elsohemy (who, in the end, turned out to be an RCMP mole) to set off smaller 100-kilogram bombs rather than the one-tonne versions they were contemplating.
The reason, he told court, was that this would allow Amara to "get it out of his system" without doing too much damage.
The entrapment hearing taking place this week is to determine whether the RCMP, through its agent Elsohemy, encouraged Abdelhaleem to commit a crime.
The court has already heard that after Elsohemy became involved, the RCMP decided to move their counter-terror operations into high gear by providing the plotters not only with apparent bomb-making materials but with a place to store them. The Mounties also directed their mole to pressure the plotters into acting quickly.
On Wednesday, Abdelhaleem testified that the mole asked him to rent a house that could be used to make bombs. The defendant said he pretended to go along with the idea but had no intention of following through. As he explained, he didn't want to have his signature on a rental form for a bomb factory – he wasn't that stupid.
However, the main defence he articulated was that – except perhaps for his failure to notify police – he didn't think he was doing anything illegal. Referring to his role as the intermediary between the plot leader and the mole, he called himself a mailman ... strictly there passing messages ...
In Abdelhaleem's mind, as long as he confined himself to this middleman job, he'd be on the right side of the law. "I wasn't doing anything," he told the court. "I didn't think mere words were a crime."
By his own admission, Toronto 18 terrorist Shareef Abdelhaleem is a cokehead and a wastrel.
The last time he paid income tax (which, as far as he can remember was about seven years ago), the 34-year-old Mississauga man earned $357,000 doing freelance computer work. But, he told a Brampton court Wednesday, he spent most of that on the luxuries of life – "drinking, drugs, women."
As a teenager, he was kicked out of his home several times. He spent four years in a University of Toronto computer science program but never graduated.
Oh yes. And, as he acknowledged in court, he took part in plans to blow up buildings in downtown Toronto – all of which earned him a guilty verdict last week in this judge-only trial.
Abdelhaleem is the first of the so-called Toronto 18 terror group to testify in court. The picture he presents of himself (which jibes with the one given last week by the Crown's chief witness against him) is anything but black and white.
He is certainly no hard-eyed Islamist ideologue. Some of the 9/11 bombers were said to have adopted Western vices as a guise. Not Abdelhaleem. His vices were genuine. Well before he became involved in the bomb plot, he said, he was a druggie. On the days leading up to a serious 2006 heart operation, he continued to take cocaine even though he feared this might cause surgical complications.
After his operation and while the bomb plot was being prepared, he said, he would go on regular cocaine binges, speeding along for a few days until he crashed from exhaustion. Then he would start all over again.
He popped prescription painkillers until his doctor cut him off. The high they gave him, he told the judge, "was pretty good."
But at the same time, he was hardly an innocent. He knew about convicted bomb plot mastermind Zakaria Amara's plans to wreak havoc but didn't tell the police. "I'm not a rat. Period." he explained.
Nor did he think Amara was just playing games. As he told the court, he assumed the worst – that Amara would go through with his plans and that many would die.
In what might seem a bizarre twist of logic, he said he tried to convince Amara and fellow plotter Shaher Elsohemy (who, in the end, turned out to be an RCMP mole) to set off smaller 100-kilogram bombs rather than the one-tonne versions they were contemplating.
The reason, he told court, was that this would allow Amara to "get it out of his system" without doing too much damage.
The entrapment hearing taking place this week is to determine whether the RCMP, through its agent Elsohemy, encouraged Abdelhaleem to commit a crime.
The court has already heard that after Elsohemy became involved, the RCMP decided to move their counter-terror operations into high gear by providing the plotters not only with apparent bomb-making materials but with a place to store them. The Mounties also directed their mole to pressure the plotters into acting quickly.
On Wednesday, Abdelhaleem testified that the mole asked him to rent a house that could be used to make bombs. The defendant said he pretended to go along with the idea but had no intention of following through. As he explained, he didn't want to have his signature on a rental form for a bomb factory – he wasn't that stupid.
However, the main defence he articulated was that – except perhaps for his failure to notify police – he didn't think he was doing anything illegal. Referring to his role as the intermediary between the plot leader and the mole, he called himself a mailman ... strictly there passing messages ...
In Abdelhaleem's mind, as long as he confined himself to this middleman job, he'd be on the right side of the law. "I wasn't doing anything," he told the court. "I didn't think mere words were a crime."
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
TORONTO 18 BOMB PLOT : ENTRAPMENT HEARINGS
FROM: http://toronto.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20100126/tor18_trial_100126/20100126/?hub=TorontoNewHome
TORONTO — Toronto 18 member found guilty in plot to bomb Canadian targets was used by police as a conduit to reach one of the homegrown terror group's leaders, his lawyer suggested Tuesday.
Shareef Abdelhaleem was often "just a body sitting there" during meetings with ringleader Zakaria Amara and a RCMP agent, said lawyer William Naylor, who has brought a motion to stay the case, arguing his client was entrapped.
Abdelhaleem was more or less a "pathway to find out what Amara was doing," Naylor told the court while cross-examining a RCMP officer who handled the police informant.
The informant, Shaher Elsohemy, was a former friend of Abdelhaleem, and Naylor suggested Elsohemy was instructed to get Abdelhaleem and Amara to meet to try to get information about the plot.
"I guess you felt because of their friendship that he'd tell everything he knew to Elsohemy," Naylor said.
The RCMP officer testified that Abdelhaleem discussed the plot at length with Amara and was privy to many of its details, and that was the reason Elsohemy was sent to him.
"Your client was the point of contact and he was involved in the conspiracy," the officer said.
Abdelhaleem was found guilty last week of plotting to bomb financial, intelligence and military targets, but the judge did not enter a conviction pending the outcome of the entrapment motion.
On Tuesday, Naylor questioned why Elsohemy was often instructed to contact Abdelhaleem and not simply asked to speak with Amara directly. He also suggested his client was only included in a plan to acquire and deliver the chemicals needed to make bombs because of Elsohemy's involvement in what was essentially, he said, a police-engineered situation.
"Abdelhaleem wasn't looking for any chemicals before he came in contact with Elsohemy," Naylor said.
But the officer repeatedly shot down his suggestions, insisting Abdelhaleem was a clear participant in the plot.
The RCMP-controlled delivery of the chemicals, the officer said, was "just one final investigative step."
Abdelhaleem and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offences in 2006 and came to be known as the Toronto 18. The group plotted to detonate three one-tonne truck bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an unspecified Ontario military base.
Court began hearing evidence on the entrapment motion Monday with testimony from Elsohemy's handler at CSIS. Elsohemy had been in contact with CSIS for several months about Abdelhaleem as well as Amara -- who was sentenced to life in the plot -- before becoming an RCMP agent given a compensation package worth up to nearly $4 million.
The CSIS contact testified that Elsohemy's decision to give information about Abdelhaleem to the spy agency was in part motivated by the desire to do "exciting and meaningful work," but noted he also had a fractured relationship with Abdelhaleem.
The court has also heard that Abdelhaleem initially balked at the plan after hearing Amara lay it out, saying it was not correct under Islam. But he became excited at the prospect of profiting from an attack on the stock exchange and also sought the advice of his father, Tariq Abdelhaleem.
His father issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that such action would be acceptable, placating Abdelhaleem's moral objections, Elsohemy testified.
TORONTO — Toronto 18 member found guilty in plot to bomb Canadian targets was used by police as a conduit to reach one of the homegrown terror group's leaders, his lawyer suggested Tuesday.
Shareef Abdelhaleem was often "just a body sitting there" during meetings with ringleader Zakaria Amara and a RCMP agent, said lawyer William Naylor, who has brought a motion to stay the case, arguing his client was entrapped.
Abdelhaleem was more or less a "pathway to find out what Amara was doing," Naylor told the court while cross-examining a RCMP officer who handled the police informant.
The informant, Shaher Elsohemy, was a former friend of Abdelhaleem, and Naylor suggested Elsohemy was instructed to get Abdelhaleem and Amara to meet to try to get information about the plot.
"I guess you felt because of their friendship that he'd tell everything he knew to Elsohemy," Naylor said.
The RCMP officer testified that Abdelhaleem discussed the plot at length with Amara and was privy to many of its details, and that was the reason Elsohemy was sent to him.
"Your client was the point of contact and he was involved in the conspiracy," the officer said.
Abdelhaleem was found guilty last week of plotting to bomb financial, intelligence and military targets, but the judge did not enter a conviction pending the outcome of the entrapment motion.
On Tuesday, Naylor questioned why Elsohemy was often instructed to contact Abdelhaleem and not simply asked to speak with Amara directly. He also suggested his client was only included in a plan to acquire and deliver the chemicals needed to make bombs because of Elsohemy's involvement in what was essentially, he said, a police-engineered situation.
"Abdelhaleem wasn't looking for any chemicals before he came in contact with Elsohemy," Naylor said.
But the officer repeatedly shot down his suggestions, insisting Abdelhaleem was a clear participant in the plot.
The RCMP-controlled delivery of the chemicals, the officer said, was "just one final investigative step."
Abdelhaleem and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offences in 2006 and came to be known as the Toronto 18. The group plotted to detonate three one-tonne truck bombs at the Toronto offices of CSIS, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an unspecified Ontario military base.
Court began hearing evidence on the entrapment motion Monday with testimony from Elsohemy's handler at CSIS. Elsohemy had been in contact with CSIS for several months about Abdelhaleem as well as Amara -- who was sentenced to life in the plot -- before becoming an RCMP agent given a compensation package worth up to nearly $4 million.
The CSIS contact testified that Elsohemy's decision to give information about Abdelhaleem to the spy agency was in part motivated by the desire to do "exciting and meaningful work," but noted he also had a fractured relationship with Abdelhaleem.
The court has also heard that Abdelhaleem initially balked at the plan after hearing Amara lay it out, saying it was not correct under Islam. But he became excited at the prospect of profiting from an attack on the stock exchange and also sought the advice of his father, Tariq Abdelhaleem.
His father issued a fatwa, or religious ruling, that such action would be acceptable, placating Abdelhaleem's moral objections, Elsohemy testified.
Monday, January 25, 2010
CSIS QUESTIONED AGENT #2'S MOTIVATION - TORONTO 18
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100125/national/terror_trial
BRAMPTON, Ont. - A police agent who testified against a former friend found guilty of terrorism offences may have had motivations other than his principles, court heard Monday.
Shaher Elsohemy was the only witness in the first part of the trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem, who was found guilty last week of plotting to bomb financial, intelligence and military targets as part of the Toronto 18 terrorist group.
Though Abdelhaleem was found guilty he was not convicted, as the defence has brought forward a motion seeking to stay the case on the basis of entrapment. Court began hearing evidence in the entrapment motion Monday as defence lawyer William Naylor questioned Elsohemy's handler at CSIS.
Elsohemy had been in contact with CSIS for several months about Abdelhaleem before becoming an RCMP agent given a compensation package worth up to nearly $4 million.
Elsohemy's CSIS contact had written in a report that something more than just principles was behind Elsohemy giving information about Abdelhaleem to Canada's spy agency, court heard.
"(Elsohemy) does not forget an enemy easily," the CSIS contact wrote in his report.
"It appears that he does not brush old contacts or unresolved disputes under the carpet," the contact testified in court after Naylor asked for elaboration.
Elsohemy has testified that in exposing the plans of the failed terror attack he wasn't motivated by the money, but by a desire to be a moral, responsible Canadian citizen.
Court has previously heard Elsohemy and Abdelhaleem were friends until Abdelhaleem went to police after he suspected Elsohemy's brother of shattering the windshield of his BMW.
Elsohemy testified two weeks ago that Abdelhaleem was "aggressive" about the matter and that Elsohemy ended the friendship because Abdelhaleem was making increasing threats about the situation.
The contact's reports also suggested CSIS was interested in Elsohemy's friendship with Abdelhaleem because Abdelhaleem was close with Zakaria Amara, who was sentenced to life last week in the plot to bomb the CSIS building in Toronto, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base.
They began talking again after Abdelhaleem sent Elsohemy an instant message saying he was thinking about going "back home" - Abdelhaleem was born in Egypt - to do his "ultimate duty."
Shortly thereafter was when Elsohemy began talking to CSIS.
Court also heard that Elsohemy reported to the CSIS contact that Abdelhaleem refused to store explosives at his house and that he was at first opposed to bombing the Parliament buildings, saying he feared it "would do more harm than good for Muslims."
Elsohemy testified earlier that Abdelhaleem objected to the plot when it was revealed to them by Amara, but that Abdelhaleem became excited at the prospect of profiting from an attack on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The CSIS contact's report from March 23, 2006 quotes Elsohemy as saying he thought Abdelhaleem was "too addicted to creature comforts" to suffer or die for a cause, as he interpreted Abdelhaleem's "ultimate duty" comment to mean.
Naylor spent much time discussing a reference in the contact's notes that Elsohemy had fabricated a claim of mental distress against Air Canada, where he was on disability leave from as a flight attendant, and that he hoped to get a big disability payout.
When asked about the veracity of this statement, the contact replied that it wasn't important to him for security purposes, so he wouldn't have put much emphasis on the precise details of that situation in his report.
Abdelhaleem and 17 others were charged in June 2006 with terrorism offences. A youth was previously found guilty, five men have pleaded guilty, seven have had their charges dropped or stayed and four others are set to go on trial in March.
BRAMPTON, Ont. - A police agent who testified against a former friend found guilty of terrorism offences may have had motivations other than his principles, court heard Monday.
Shaher Elsohemy was the only witness in the first part of the trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem, who was found guilty last week of plotting to bomb financial, intelligence and military targets as part of the Toronto 18 terrorist group.
Though Abdelhaleem was found guilty he was not convicted, as the defence has brought forward a motion seeking to stay the case on the basis of entrapment. Court began hearing evidence in the entrapment motion Monday as defence lawyer William Naylor questioned Elsohemy's handler at CSIS.
Elsohemy had been in contact with CSIS for several months about Abdelhaleem before becoming an RCMP agent given a compensation package worth up to nearly $4 million.
Elsohemy's CSIS contact had written in a report that something more than just principles was behind Elsohemy giving information about Abdelhaleem to Canada's spy agency, court heard.
"(Elsohemy) does not forget an enemy easily," the CSIS contact wrote in his report.
"It appears that he does not brush old contacts or unresolved disputes under the carpet," the contact testified in court after Naylor asked for elaboration.
Elsohemy has testified that in exposing the plans of the failed terror attack he wasn't motivated by the money, but by a desire to be a moral, responsible Canadian citizen.
Court has previously heard Elsohemy and Abdelhaleem were friends until Abdelhaleem went to police after he suspected Elsohemy's brother of shattering the windshield of his BMW.
Elsohemy testified two weeks ago that Abdelhaleem was "aggressive" about the matter and that Elsohemy ended the friendship because Abdelhaleem was making increasing threats about the situation.
The contact's reports also suggested CSIS was interested in Elsohemy's friendship with Abdelhaleem because Abdelhaleem was close with Zakaria Amara, who was sentenced to life last week in the plot to bomb the CSIS building in Toronto, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base.
They began talking again after Abdelhaleem sent Elsohemy an instant message saying he was thinking about going "back home" - Abdelhaleem was born in Egypt - to do his "ultimate duty."
Shortly thereafter was when Elsohemy began talking to CSIS.
Court also heard that Elsohemy reported to the CSIS contact that Abdelhaleem refused to store explosives at his house and that he was at first opposed to bombing the Parliament buildings, saying he feared it "would do more harm than good for Muslims."
Elsohemy testified earlier that Abdelhaleem objected to the plot when it was revealed to them by Amara, but that Abdelhaleem became excited at the prospect of profiting from an attack on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
The CSIS contact's report from March 23, 2006 quotes Elsohemy as saying he thought Abdelhaleem was "too addicted to creature comforts" to suffer or die for a cause, as he interpreted Abdelhaleem's "ultimate duty" comment to mean.
Naylor spent much time discussing a reference in the contact's notes that Elsohemy had fabricated a claim of mental distress against Air Canada, where he was on disability leave from as a flight attendant, and that he hoped to get a big disability payout.
When asked about the veracity of this statement, the contact replied that it wasn't important to him for security purposes, so he wouldn't have put much emphasis on the precise details of that situation in his report.
Abdelhaleem and 17 others were charged in June 2006 with terrorism offences. A youth was previously found guilty, five men have pleaded guilty, seven have had their charges dropped or stayed and four others are set to go on trial in March.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
VINDICATION FOR RCMP AGENT IN TORONTO 18 CASE
FROM: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/20/vindication-for-an-undercover-informant/
by Michael Friscolanti on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:46am - 0 Comments
When his testimony wraps up sometime in the coming days, the man once known as Shaher Elsohemy will step off the stand and disappear back into the arms of the witness protection program. For obvious reasons, nothing about his new life can be revealed. Not his fake name. Not his whereabouts. Nothing. But one thing is absolutely certain: when he does leave the witness box and return to location unknown, he can walk away a happy man—vindicated, finally, after all these years.
Until last week, when he showed his face for the first time since 2006, Elsohemy was famous for two things: helping the RCMP topple the worst of the so-called “Toronto 18,” and being paid millions of dollars in the process. For more than three years, the Mounties’ star informant had to stay hidden in the shadows and keep his mouth shut while countless fellow Muslims attacked his credibility. They called him a traitor. A rat. A money-hungry snitch who deserves to “suffer in this life and the next.” More than one defence lawyer accused him of concocting lies in order to line his pockets.
Today, the truth could not be clearer. Elsohemy was not motivated by dollar bills, and the terrorist plot he helped unravel was very, very real.
Although 18 people were rounded up in the raids of June 2, 2006, only four were accused of conspiring to set off a trio of explosions in southern Ontario. It was Elsohemy who infiltrated that core group, shared their deadly plans with police, and helped orchestrate the sting operation that brought them down. Three of the four have since pleaded guilty, including the confessed ringleader, Zakaria Amara (who now insists he no longer subscribes to the radical Islamic ideology that fuelled his murderous fantasies).
On Monday, with the RCMP’s prized asset safely tucked away in a nearby room, Amara was handed the harshest sentence possible: life behind bars. The punishment ensures the aspiring truck-bomber will stay in prison until the day he dies, or the day the National Parole Board decides he is no longer a threat. The judge’s words, read to a packed courtroom, confirmed what Elsohemy has long known. “What this case revealed was spine-chilling,” Justice Bruce Durno said. “The potential for loss of life existed on a scale never before seen in Canada. It was almost unthinkable.”
Back on the witness stand Tuesday morning, Elsohemy clarified some facts about the other lingering issue: his hefty compensation. As first reported in Maclean’s, the self-made businessman negotiated an unprecedented deal with the Mounties that guaranteed his family up to $4 million in cash, cars and houses for abandoning their identities in the name of national security. William Naylor, who represents Shareef Abdelhaleem—the fourth and final bombing suspect—tried to suggest during cross-examination that Elsohemy jumped at the chance to profit from his undercover exploits. His strategy flopped. Badly.
It turns out Elsohemy was co-operating with Canada’s spy agency, free of charge, as far back as January 2006, more than five months before the bust. Discussions about compensation only began in mid-April, when CSIS shared their well-placed mole with the Mounties—and the cops asked him to work as an agent, testify in court, and leave his entire life behind. “I was asked to think about it and come back at another date and talk about numbers,” Elsohemy said. “The cost of relocation and the suffering myself and my family had to go through was mentioned in the negotiations. The value of the work was also mentioned in the negotiations. They were separate issues, but they were both used in the negotiations.”
He kicked off the bargaining with a request for $15.4 million, arguing that his family deserves a “comfortable lifestyle” and that “the value of the investigation, i.e., stopping the terrorist act, would be worthy of that amount if there was no damage to life or property.” When the Mounties balked, Elsohemy did not abandon the investigation. He continued to provide crucial information to anti-terror detectives, and never once threatened to walk away.
According to documents viewed in court, after more than two weeks of talks both sides settled on a figure worth up to $3.99 million, including $1 million in “pure awards” ($500,000 for Elsohemy, $250,000 for his parents, and $125,000 for each of his brothers). The deal also listed a number of conditional amounts, including tens of thousands of dollars to cover debt repayment, dental work, and furniture purchases.
But as Elsohemy pointed out on the stand, his family actually received less than $3.99 million. Some of the items promised by the RCMP included an “up to” clause (ie. up to $900,000 for a new house, up to $750,000 for the loss of his business, a travel agency that specialized in tours to Egypt). That doesn’t necessarily mean his current home cost $900,000, or that his company was worth exactly $750,000. It just means that the Mounties refused to exceed that amount. “That number has not been used in totality even up until today,” he testified. “I’m not sure how much was used and how much was not.”
When asked to reveal the precise amount his family has received, Elsohemy repeated that he simply wasn’t sure. “Honestly, I have never calculated the numbers myself.” In fact, the first time he heard the $4 million figure was when he read it in Maclean’s in 2007.
Whatever the final tally, many Canadians would agree that it was worth every penny. If Amara and his underlings managed to set off his remote-controlled detonators, hundreds, if not thousands, would have perished in the blasts. Instead, only a handful of lives—the seven members of the Elsohemy family—have been altered forever.
by Michael Friscolanti on Wednesday, January 20, 2010 11:46am - 0 Comments
When his testimony wraps up sometime in the coming days, the man once known as Shaher Elsohemy will step off the stand and disappear back into the arms of the witness protection program. For obvious reasons, nothing about his new life can be revealed. Not his fake name. Not his whereabouts. Nothing. But one thing is absolutely certain: when he does leave the witness box and return to location unknown, he can walk away a happy man—vindicated, finally, after all these years.
Until last week, when he showed his face for the first time since 2006, Elsohemy was famous for two things: helping the RCMP topple the worst of the so-called “Toronto 18,” and being paid millions of dollars in the process. For more than three years, the Mounties’ star informant had to stay hidden in the shadows and keep his mouth shut while countless fellow Muslims attacked his credibility. They called him a traitor. A rat. A money-hungry snitch who deserves to “suffer in this life and the next.” More than one defence lawyer accused him of concocting lies in order to line his pockets.
Today, the truth could not be clearer. Elsohemy was not motivated by dollar bills, and the terrorist plot he helped unravel was very, very real.
Although 18 people were rounded up in the raids of June 2, 2006, only four were accused of conspiring to set off a trio of explosions in southern Ontario. It was Elsohemy who infiltrated that core group, shared their deadly plans with police, and helped orchestrate the sting operation that brought them down. Three of the four have since pleaded guilty, including the confessed ringleader, Zakaria Amara (who now insists he no longer subscribes to the radical Islamic ideology that fuelled his murderous fantasies).
On Monday, with the RCMP’s prized asset safely tucked away in a nearby room, Amara was handed the harshest sentence possible: life behind bars. The punishment ensures the aspiring truck-bomber will stay in prison until the day he dies, or the day the National Parole Board decides he is no longer a threat. The judge’s words, read to a packed courtroom, confirmed what Elsohemy has long known. “What this case revealed was spine-chilling,” Justice Bruce Durno said. “The potential for loss of life existed on a scale never before seen in Canada. It was almost unthinkable.”
Back on the witness stand Tuesday morning, Elsohemy clarified some facts about the other lingering issue: his hefty compensation. As first reported in Maclean’s, the self-made businessman negotiated an unprecedented deal with the Mounties that guaranteed his family up to $4 million in cash, cars and houses for abandoning their identities in the name of national security. William Naylor, who represents Shareef Abdelhaleem—the fourth and final bombing suspect—tried to suggest during cross-examination that Elsohemy jumped at the chance to profit from his undercover exploits. His strategy flopped. Badly.
It turns out Elsohemy was co-operating with Canada’s spy agency, free of charge, as far back as January 2006, more than five months before the bust. Discussions about compensation only began in mid-April, when CSIS shared their well-placed mole with the Mounties—and the cops asked him to work as an agent, testify in court, and leave his entire life behind. “I was asked to think about it and come back at another date and talk about numbers,” Elsohemy said. “The cost of relocation and the suffering myself and my family had to go through was mentioned in the negotiations. The value of the work was also mentioned in the negotiations. They were separate issues, but they were both used in the negotiations.”
He kicked off the bargaining with a request for $15.4 million, arguing that his family deserves a “comfortable lifestyle” and that “the value of the investigation, i.e., stopping the terrorist act, would be worthy of that amount if there was no damage to life or property.” When the Mounties balked, Elsohemy did not abandon the investigation. He continued to provide crucial information to anti-terror detectives, and never once threatened to walk away.
According to documents viewed in court, after more than two weeks of talks both sides settled on a figure worth up to $3.99 million, including $1 million in “pure awards” ($500,000 for Elsohemy, $250,000 for his parents, and $125,000 for each of his brothers). The deal also listed a number of conditional amounts, including tens of thousands of dollars to cover debt repayment, dental work, and furniture purchases.
But as Elsohemy pointed out on the stand, his family actually received less than $3.99 million. Some of the items promised by the RCMP included an “up to” clause (ie. up to $900,000 for a new house, up to $750,000 for the loss of his business, a travel agency that specialized in tours to Egypt). That doesn’t necessarily mean his current home cost $900,000, or that his company was worth exactly $750,000. It just means that the Mounties refused to exceed that amount. “That number has not been used in totality even up until today,” he testified. “I’m not sure how much was used and how much was not.”
When asked to reveal the precise amount his family has received, Elsohemy repeated that he simply wasn’t sure. “Honestly, I have never calculated the numbers myself.” In fact, the first time he heard the $4 million figure was when he read it in Maclean’s in 2007.
Whatever the final tally, many Canadians would agree that it was worth every penny. If Amara and his underlings managed to set off his remote-controlled detonators, hundreds, if not thousands, would have perished in the blasts. Instead, only a handful of lives—the seven members of the Elsohemy family—have been altered forever.
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
MORE DETAILS ON TORONTO BOMB PLOT AGENT #2 COSTS
*** Again, I remind everyone that this is a drop in the bucket compared to how much Canada would have lost. YOU try cutting off everyone you know - uproot your whole family - tell 'em all to start over again - with new identities THEN come tell me how much YOU want in compensation. There's SEVEN people involved here folks - try not to be so envious (cardinal sin it is). Good for you Agent #2, you did what very, very few Canadians would ever even contemplate doing. MS ***
FROM: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5idLisXu6ZqmWi7mqP7Dy-JI_vjaQ
BRAMPTON, Ont. — An RCMP informant central to disrupting a plot to bomb several targets in Ontario initially requested $15 million in compensation from the Mounties, court heard Tuesday.
Shaher Elsohemy was in his second week of testimony at the trial of his former friend Shareef Abdelhaleem, who has pleaded not guilty to participating in a terrorist group and intending to detonate bombs. The explosions were to occur outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, at CSIS offices in Toronto and an Ontario military base in what's known as the Toronto 18 terror plot.
The ringleader Zakaria Amara, 24, was handed the stiffest sentence Monday under Canada's terrorism laws - life - though he can seek parole in 2016.
Abdelhaleem's lawyer William Naylor has said both publicly and in court that the compensation for Elsohemy's work to infiltrate the plot and for putting him under witness protection was $4.1 million, but documents Naylor showed in court Tuesday revealed Elsohemy was offered up to $3.99 million.
But when Elsohemy first discussed money with the RCMP in April 2006 - he had been meeting with CSIS agents before becoming a paid RCMP agent - he asked for $15 million, but was told that amount was too high.
"That was my highest level I started negotiating with," Elsohemy acknowledged Tuesday under cross-examination from Naylor.
"It was more what they asked me to go through... The cost of relocation and the suffering that myself and my family has to go through."
Elsohemy testified last week that his participation in the police operation wasn't motivated by money, but by a desire to be a moral, responsible Canadian citizen.
Abdelhaleem, 34, and 17 others were arrested and charged in the summer of 2006 in what Amara's sentencing judge characterized as a "spine-chilling" plot that but for the intervention of Abdelhaleem and another police agent would have been "the most horrific crime Canada has ever seen."
Elsohemy confirmed he received a payout of $500,000 and his parents and two brothers also received a total of $500,000.
The remaining $2.99 million consisted of money to cover costs for Elsohemy and several family members - including his wife and daughter - to relocate. Some of the figures were decided upon as fixed amounts, while the RCMP offered up to a certain amount for other costs, court heard.
Naylor showed the court documents itemizing the various amounts. The fixed costs were listed as: $750,000 for the loss of Elsohemy's business, $100,000 for Elsohemy's two cars, $100,000 for "start-up" including furniture, $200,000 in a category that had been blacked out on the document, $75,000 for his parents' cars, and $40,000 for his parents' debts. They also included $30,000 for his youngest brother's car, $100,000 for start-up for his youngest brother, $100,000 for his older brother's debts, $30,000 for his older brother's car and a further $150,000 under another blacked out category.
The RCMP compensation package also included offers of: up to $900,000 for Elsohemy's home, up to $40,000 for dental work for his wife, up to $50,000 to cover his debts, up to $300,000 for his parents' home and up to $25,000 for his youngest brother's debts, the documents showed.
It's not clear if Elsohemy and his family used all of the "up to" money, some of it or none.
The total amount offered differs drastically from what the other RCMP informant received after helping to snag the group. Mubin Shaikh received $300,000 from the Mounties.
Elsohemy has previously testified that Amara revealed his bomb plot to Elsohemy and Abdelhaleem at a restaurant and that Abdelhaleem initially objected to it, but later became excited at the prospect of profiting financially from an attack on the stock exchange
FROM: http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5idLisXu6ZqmWi7mqP7Dy-JI_vjaQ
BRAMPTON, Ont. — An RCMP informant central to disrupting a plot to bomb several targets in Ontario initially requested $15 million in compensation from the Mounties, court heard Tuesday.
Shaher Elsohemy was in his second week of testimony at the trial of his former friend Shareef Abdelhaleem, who has pleaded not guilty to participating in a terrorist group and intending to detonate bombs. The explosions were to occur outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, at CSIS offices in Toronto and an Ontario military base in what's known as the Toronto 18 terror plot.
The ringleader Zakaria Amara, 24, was handed the stiffest sentence Monday under Canada's terrorism laws - life - though he can seek parole in 2016.
Abdelhaleem's lawyer William Naylor has said both publicly and in court that the compensation for Elsohemy's work to infiltrate the plot and for putting him under witness protection was $4.1 million, but documents Naylor showed in court Tuesday revealed Elsohemy was offered up to $3.99 million.
But when Elsohemy first discussed money with the RCMP in April 2006 - he had been meeting with CSIS agents before becoming a paid RCMP agent - he asked for $15 million, but was told that amount was too high.
"That was my highest level I started negotiating with," Elsohemy acknowledged Tuesday under cross-examination from Naylor.
"It was more what they asked me to go through... The cost of relocation and the suffering that myself and my family has to go through."
Elsohemy testified last week that his participation in the police operation wasn't motivated by money, but by a desire to be a moral, responsible Canadian citizen.
Abdelhaleem, 34, and 17 others were arrested and charged in the summer of 2006 in what Amara's sentencing judge characterized as a "spine-chilling" plot that but for the intervention of Abdelhaleem and another police agent would have been "the most horrific crime Canada has ever seen."
Elsohemy confirmed he received a payout of $500,000 and his parents and two brothers also received a total of $500,000.
The remaining $2.99 million consisted of money to cover costs for Elsohemy and several family members - including his wife and daughter - to relocate. Some of the figures were decided upon as fixed amounts, while the RCMP offered up to a certain amount for other costs, court heard.
Naylor showed the court documents itemizing the various amounts. The fixed costs were listed as: $750,000 for the loss of Elsohemy's business, $100,000 for Elsohemy's two cars, $100,000 for "start-up" including furniture, $200,000 in a category that had been blacked out on the document, $75,000 for his parents' cars, and $40,000 for his parents' debts. They also included $30,000 for his youngest brother's car, $100,000 for start-up for his youngest brother, $100,000 for his older brother's debts, $30,000 for his older brother's car and a further $150,000 under another blacked out category.
The RCMP compensation package also included offers of: up to $900,000 for Elsohemy's home, up to $40,000 for dental work for his wife, up to $50,000 to cover his debts, up to $300,000 for his parents' home and up to $25,000 for his youngest brother's debts, the documents showed.
It's not clear if Elsohemy and his family used all of the "up to" money, some of it or none.
The total amount offered differs drastically from what the other RCMP informant received after helping to snag the group. Mubin Shaikh received $300,000 from the Mounties.
Elsohemy has previously testified that Amara revealed his bomb plot to Elsohemy and Abdelhaleem at a restaurant and that Abdelhaleem initially objected to it, but later became excited at the prospect of profiting financially from an attack on the stock exchange
Friday, January 15, 2010
MONEY NOT A MOTIVATION FOR RCMP AGENT
*** Hey simple question for the naysayers and complainers: are you willing to go undercover as an agent for your country's police service in a massive investigation like this, with a real plot by (some) people with real know-how, risk it all, give it all up, cut off friends and family FOR FREE?
I didn't think so.
Canada spent over $100 million in the Air India inquiry and no one was prosecuted properly for it yet hundreds of Canadians died. 4 mil is a drop in the bucket. MS ***
FROM: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2446374
The moral imperative, and not an expectation of compensation, motivated Shaher Elsohemy to go undercover as a police agent to infiltrate the now-notorious "Toronto 18" terrorism plot, a court heard on Friday.
"The money did not play any role in my motivation," Mr. Elsohemy, the Crown's star witness, told a Brampton Superior Court judge. Though he would ultimately receive a $4-million witness protection package after helping police foil the 2006 bomb plot, Mr. Elsohemy said he was driven by his "responsibility as a Canadian citizen, and nothing but that."
Financial compensation was not discussed until mid-April, Mr. Elsohemy testified, several days after he had already unravelled for police the full Toronto 18 plot, which involved detonating powerful explosives at the Toronto Stock Exchange, a downtown CSIS facility and a military base between Toronto and Ottawa.
Mr. Elsohemy gained inside access to the terrorism plot with promises of obtaining bomb-making chemicals, including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate.
He has been testifying all week at the trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem, who is charged with playing a key role in the Toronto 18 scheme.
The court heard that right up until his arrest on June 2, 2006, Mr. Abdelhaleem was unwittingly arranging illicit dealings involving several undercover police agents: Mr. Elsohemy, an officer posing as the landlord of a warehouse the group rented to store chemicals, and a third officer who drove a truck purportedly filled with nitric acid and ammonium nitrate to that warehouse.
Right up until the moment the plot fell apart, Mr. Elsohemy testified, Mr. Abdelhaleem was finetuning a myriad of small details to ensure the chemical delivery went off without a hitch. He developed a code for communicating with two accomplices manning the Newmarket warehouse -- who were to wear shirts emblazoned with the logo "student farmers" to alleviate suspicion over the large chemical shipment -- and discussed how they pair should adapt their behaviour, the court heard.
"They will dress as we told them to, and they will shave and smoke cigarettes in front of the [chemical truck] driver," he allegedly told Mr. Elsohemy.
The accused suggested coating the warehouse doors with a layer of wax so the group could determine whether there had been any unauthorized entry, the judge heard.
Mr. Abdelhaleem also requested that once the delivery was complete, Mr. Elsohemy should bring him a small sample of the chemicals for a "trial explosion," the witness testified.
After the shipment on June 2, 2006, Mr. Elsohemy says he talked to Mr. Abdelhaleem on the phone and relayed the message, "thank God," meant to indicate a successful delivery.
"That was the last time I spoke to Mr. Abdelhaleem," Mr. Elsohemy testified. The arrests followed swiftly afterward.
Defence lawyer William Naylor is scheduled to begin his cross-examination this afternoon.
I didn't think so.
Canada spent over $100 million in the Air India inquiry and no one was prosecuted properly for it yet hundreds of Canadians died. 4 mil is a drop in the bucket. MS ***
FROM: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/story.html?id=2446374
The moral imperative, and not an expectation of compensation, motivated Shaher Elsohemy to go undercover as a police agent to infiltrate the now-notorious "Toronto 18" terrorism plot, a court heard on Friday.
"The money did not play any role in my motivation," Mr. Elsohemy, the Crown's star witness, told a Brampton Superior Court judge. Though he would ultimately receive a $4-million witness protection package after helping police foil the 2006 bomb plot, Mr. Elsohemy said he was driven by his "responsibility as a Canadian citizen, and nothing but that."
Financial compensation was not discussed until mid-April, Mr. Elsohemy testified, several days after he had already unravelled for police the full Toronto 18 plot, which involved detonating powerful explosives at the Toronto Stock Exchange, a downtown CSIS facility and a military base between Toronto and Ottawa.
Mr. Elsohemy gained inside access to the terrorism plot with promises of obtaining bomb-making chemicals, including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate.
He has been testifying all week at the trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem, who is charged with playing a key role in the Toronto 18 scheme.
The court heard that right up until his arrest on June 2, 2006, Mr. Abdelhaleem was unwittingly arranging illicit dealings involving several undercover police agents: Mr. Elsohemy, an officer posing as the landlord of a warehouse the group rented to store chemicals, and a third officer who drove a truck purportedly filled with nitric acid and ammonium nitrate to that warehouse.
Right up until the moment the plot fell apart, Mr. Elsohemy testified, Mr. Abdelhaleem was finetuning a myriad of small details to ensure the chemical delivery went off without a hitch. He developed a code for communicating with two accomplices manning the Newmarket warehouse -- who were to wear shirts emblazoned with the logo "student farmers" to alleviate suspicion over the large chemical shipment -- and discussed how they pair should adapt their behaviour, the court heard.
"They will dress as we told them to, and they will shave and smoke cigarettes in front of the [chemical truck] driver," he allegedly told Mr. Elsohemy.
The accused suggested coating the warehouse doors with a layer of wax so the group could determine whether there had been any unauthorized entry, the judge heard.
Mr. Abdelhaleem also requested that once the delivery was complete, Mr. Elsohemy should bring him a small sample of the chemicals for a "trial explosion," the witness testified.
After the shipment on June 2, 2006, Mr. Elsohemy says he talked to Mr. Abdelhaleem on the phone and relayed the message, "thank God," meant to indicate a successful delivery.
"That was the last time I spoke to Mr. Abdelhaleem," Mr. Elsohemy testified. The arrests followed swiftly afterward.
Defence lawyer William Naylor is scheduled to begin his cross-examination this afternoon.
Thursday, January 14, 2010
ZAKARIA AMARA: MORE DETAILS OF EVIDENCE
*** His claim of deradicalization requires scrutiny and monitoring. MS ***
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/750679--toronto-18-ringleader-says-he-s-sorry?bn=1
The mastermind of a deadly plot intended to cripple the economy and unleash mass carnage in downtown Toronto says he is "regretful and sorry" and wants "to pay the moral debt I owe."
"I will turn myself around, from a man of destruction to a man of construction," said Zakaria Amara, the linchpin of the so-called Toronto 18 homegrown terror cell, while addressing a Brampton court at his sentencing hearing Thursday.
The former Ryerson student pleaded guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm, death or damage to property.
The Crown is seeking a life sentence, while the defence is asking for a sentence in the range of 18 to 20 years. Under either scenario, Amara would be eligible for parole in about six years, but a life sentence would subject him to some kind of supervision for the rest of his life.
Had Amara been successful in carrying out his chilling plot, the lives of countless people would have been forever changed and those not personally touched by the devastation would have had their sense of security shattered, argued Crown prosecutor Iona Jaffe.
Also, the mere mention of Toronto would have forever evoked ghastly images of death and destruction, she told the court.
"What he planned to do can't be understated, he planned mass murder ... You don't set out to detonate three one-tonne bombs without knowing that a lot of people are going to be killed.
"The fact that Zakaria Amara did not make his indelible mark of devastation on this country is due to one thing: police intervention," Jaffe told Justice Bruce Durno.
She pointed out the 24-year-old Mississauga man, who possessed a bomb manual and a homemade detonator, would have realized his goals if he had not turned to an undercover police agent for help securing explosive materials.
"He thought he had a good supplier, but thank goodness that was the one thing he got wrong," said Jaffe. "This was no amateurish plan."
Earlier in the day, Amara told the judge he had "no excuses or explanations" for his actions, adding he had been led "down the path of extremism" and "locked in an ideological position," which he now recognizes to be wrong.
"I deserve nothing less than your complete and absolute contempt," said Amara, addressing his "fellow Canadians" from the prisoner box.
To those in the Muslim community, he said he could not imagine the "embarrassment or anxiety" they must have felt back in the summer of 2006, when he and 17 others were arrested for plotting an Al Qaeda inspired attack.
"I am sure many of you received unwelcome attention and felt hopeless in trying to explain that the actions of a few were not endorsed by the community," said Amara. "To you too, I say that the gravity of the damage I caused you makes any excuse or apology inappropriate."
Amara said that during the three years spent in isolation, following his arrest, he continued to espouse extremist views because there was "no one to help me shed light on the shadows and blind spots that my ideology thrived in."
But after being released and mixing with inmates in general population, who challenged his convictions, he recognized the error of his ways.
"It was an enlightening experience," said Amara, adding he befriended people, such as Jews and Shia Muslims, whom he had never interacted with before.
One of the greatest influences on him, he said, was an inmate who had worked on Bay St. and whose brothers worked in the Exchange Tower, one of Amara's intended targets.
The thought that this inmate, who had given Amara friendship and guidance, could have been a victim of his plot made him reconsider his position, he said.
Amara broke down in tears as a letter from his wife Nada Farooq, asking for leniency, was read by defence lawyer Michael Lacy.
Lacy spoke of the "attitudinal change" in his client saying if Amara still believed in an extremist ideology, he would not have denounced it in court.
"To denounce it sends a message to like-minded extremists ... This is one of their own telling them they are wrong," said Lacy.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Amara recruited people to his group, helped organize and lead a terrorist training camp, created remote-controlled detonators and purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for truck bombs.
Amara was the "centre man," the one who knew all the details of an audacious scheme that involved parking three U-Haul vans with fertilizer bombs, complete with metal chips to ensure maximize casualties. The vehicles were to be parked outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front Street offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off Hwy 401. The intended result was for there to be blood, glass and debris everywhere, with collapsed buildings, shattered glass and burning cars in the street.
"He didn't just join a terrorist group, he formed one and then he led it," said prosecutor Jaffe, pointing out that Amara's leadership role in this conspiracy weighs heavily in requesting a life sentence.
Court has heard that Amara bragged that just one of their three planned bombs would be similar to the 2003 bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 35 people and wounded more than 160. And his plot, he said, would be bigger than the London subway bombing of 2005, which killed 56 people and injured 700.
Court was told that Amara was born in Jordan and baptized as an Orthodox Christian during one of his many visits to Cyprus, under the guidance of his mother and grandparents, who were all Christian.
At age four, the family moved to Saudi Arabia, where his father worked in an oil company. For years, his family bounced between Jordan, his father's home country, and Cyprus, his mother's native country.
At around age 10, Amara moved to Cyprus with his mom, leaving his father in Saudi Arabia. Despite the disapproval of his maternal grandparents, he converted to Islam.
When he was about 13 and his faith deepened, even though his non-religious father opposed his desire to grow a beard, eat only halal meat and pursue Islamic studies.
While attending Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga, he found support amongst his Muslim peer group and led prayer sessions.
At school, he met Farooq, who wore a niqab, and proposed marriage, despite never having seen her face. The couple married when he was 18 and within two years they were the parents of a baby girl.
In the letter read aloud in court, Farooq said her husband's extremist views were fuelled by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The oppression of Muslims by western forces became the central reason for his devising the macabre plot.
Court has heard that although Amara suspected he was being watched by the authorities, it didn't dissuade him from planning an audacious attack he hoped to kick off in September 2006.
He attempted to evade the authorities by communicating with his co-accused on pagers and passing along recorded voice messages to one another on digital memory sticks, but was unsuccessful.
After months of being closely watched by authorities, who, among other things, made surreptitious entries into Amara's home, bugged his workplace (a Canadian Tire gas bar) and intercepted his phone calls, he was arrested on June 2, 2006.
The mass arrests of 14 adults and four youth coincided with the delivery of the bomb making chemicals Amara had purchased from an undercover police agent.
Amara's confession in this landmark case was a major coup for the team of prosecutors at the helm of one of Canada's largest terrorism trials.
A key component of the case against Amara was information provided by two paid police agents, who infiltrated the group.
Court heard that in December 2005, Amara helped organize a jihadi training camp in Washago, Ont., attended by police agent Mubin Shaikh. Potential recruits, from Scarborough and Mississauga, played paintball games, ran obstacle courses and underwent firearms training. A campfire speech urging attendees to wage war on the West was videotaped by Amara, who wanted to send it to the Mujahideen.
By February 2006, a car probe captured Amara saying he had built the "first radio frequency remote control detonator," which was a "step forward." Weeks later, he was observed going to the Meadowvale Library and using a computer to research terms such as: ammonium nitrate in agriculture, nitric acid and rocket fuel.
In April 2006, a second police agent, Shaher Elsohemy, managed to gain Amara's trust, saying he could help obtain chemicals. A short time later, Amara was showing off his homemade detonator to the agent and placing orders for the chemicals he needed.
On June 2, undercover police delivered what Amara and his co-conspirators believed to be three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. As the truck was being unloaded, it set off a series of arrests throughout the GTA.
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/crime/article/750679--toronto-18-ringleader-says-he-s-sorry?bn=1
The mastermind of a deadly plot intended to cripple the economy and unleash mass carnage in downtown Toronto says he is "regretful and sorry" and wants "to pay the moral debt I owe."
"I will turn myself around, from a man of destruction to a man of construction," said Zakaria Amara, the linchpin of the so-called Toronto 18 homegrown terror cell, while addressing a Brampton court at his sentencing hearing Thursday.
The former Ryerson student pleaded guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm, death or damage to property.
The Crown is seeking a life sentence, while the defence is asking for a sentence in the range of 18 to 20 years. Under either scenario, Amara would be eligible for parole in about six years, but a life sentence would subject him to some kind of supervision for the rest of his life.
Had Amara been successful in carrying out his chilling plot, the lives of countless people would have been forever changed and those not personally touched by the devastation would have had their sense of security shattered, argued Crown prosecutor Iona Jaffe.
Also, the mere mention of Toronto would have forever evoked ghastly images of death and destruction, she told the court.
"What he planned to do can't be understated, he planned mass murder ... You don't set out to detonate three one-tonne bombs without knowing that a lot of people are going to be killed.
"The fact that Zakaria Amara did not make his indelible mark of devastation on this country is due to one thing: police intervention," Jaffe told Justice Bruce Durno.
She pointed out the 24-year-old Mississauga man, who possessed a bomb manual and a homemade detonator, would have realized his goals if he had not turned to an undercover police agent for help securing explosive materials.
"He thought he had a good supplier, but thank goodness that was the one thing he got wrong," said Jaffe. "This was no amateurish plan."
Earlier in the day, Amara told the judge he had "no excuses or explanations" for his actions, adding he had been led "down the path of extremism" and "locked in an ideological position," which he now recognizes to be wrong.
"I deserve nothing less than your complete and absolute contempt," said Amara, addressing his "fellow Canadians" from the prisoner box.
To those in the Muslim community, he said he could not imagine the "embarrassment or anxiety" they must have felt back in the summer of 2006, when he and 17 others were arrested for plotting an Al Qaeda inspired attack.
"I am sure many of you received unwelcome attention and felt hopeless in trying to explain that the actions of a few were not endorsed by the community," said Amara. "To you too, I say that the gravity of the damage I caused you makes any excuse or apology inappropriate."
Amara said that during the three years spent in isolation, following his arrest, he continued to espouse extremist views because there was "no one to help me shed light on the shadows and blind spots that my ideology thrived in."
But after being released and mixing with inmates in general population, who challenged his convictions, he recognized the error of his ways.
"It was an enlightening experience," said Amara, adding he befriended people, such as Jews and Shia Muslims, whom he had never interacted with before.
One of the greatest influences on him, he said, was an inmate who had worked on Bay St. and whose brothers worked in the Exchange Tower, one of Amara's intended targets.
The thought that this inmate, who had given Amara friendship and guidance, could have been a victim of his plot made him reconsider his position, he said.
Amara broke down in tears as a letter from his wife Nada Farooq, asking for leniency, was read by defence lawyer Michael Lacy.
Lacy spoke of the "attitudinal change" in his client saying if Amara still believed in an extremist ideology, he would not have denounced it in court.
"To denounce it sends a message to like-minded extremists ... This is one of their own telling them they are wrong," said Lacy.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Amara recruited people to his group, helped organize and lead a terrorist training camp, created remote-controlled detonators and purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer for truck bombs.
Amara was the "centre man," the one who knew all the details of an audacious scheme that involved parking three U-Haul vans with fertilizer bombs, complete with metal chips to ensure maximize casualties. The vehicles were to be parked outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front Street offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off Hwy 401. The intended result was for there to be blood, glass and debris everywhere, with collapsed buildings, shattered glass and burning cars in the street.
"He didn't just join a terrorist group, he formed one and then he led it," said prosecutor Jaffe, pointing out that Amara's leadership role in this conspiracy weighs heavily in requesting a life sentence.
Court has heard that Amara bragged that just one of their three planned bombs would be similar to the 2003 bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 35 people and wounded more than 160. And his plot, he said, would be bigger than the London subway bombing of 2005, which killed 56 people and injured 700.
Court was told that Amara was born in Jordan and baptized as an Orthodox Christian during one of his many visits to Cyprus, under the guidance of his mother and grandparents, who were all Christian.
At age four, the family moved to Saudi Arabia, where his father worked in an oil company. For years, his family bounced between Jordan, his father's home country, and Cyprus, his mother's native country.
At around age 10, Amara moved to Cyprus with his mom, leaving his father in Saudi Arabia. Despite the disapproval of his maternal grandparents, he converted to Islam.
When he was about 13 and his faith deepened, even though his non-religious father opposed his desire to grow a beard, eat only halal meat and pursue Islamic studies.
While attending Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga, he found support amongst his Muslim peer group and led prayer sessions.
At school, he met Farooq, who wore a niqab, and proposed marriage, despite never having seen her face. The couple married when he was 18 and within two years they were the parents of a baby girl.
In the letter read aloud in court, Farooq said her husband's extremist views were fuelled by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The oppression of Muslims by western forces became the central reason for his devising the macabre plot.
Court has heard that although Amara suspected he was being watched by the authorities, it didn't dissuade him from planning an audacious attack he hoped to kick off in September 2006.
He attempted to evade the authorities by communicating with his co-accused on pagers and passing along recorded voice messages to one another on digital memory sticks, but was unsuccessful.
After months of being closely watched by authorities, who, among other things, made surreptitious entries into Amara's home, bugged his workplace (a Canadian Tire gas bar) and intercepted his phone calls, he was arrested on June 2, 2006.
The mass arrests of 14 adults and four youth coincided with the delivery of the bomb making chemicals Amara had purchased from an undercover police agent.
Amara's confession in this landmark case was a major coup for the team of prosecutors at the helm of one of Canada's largest terrorism trials.
A key component of the case against Amara was information provided by two paid police agents, who infiltrated the group.
Court heard that in December 2005, Amara helped organize a jihadi training camp in Washago, Ont., attended by police agent Mubin Shaikh. Potential recruits, from Scarborough and Mississauga, played paintball games, ran obstacle courses and underwent firearms training. A campfire speech urging attendees to wage war on the West was videotaped by Amara, who wanted to send it to the Mujahideen.
By February 2006, a car probe captured Amara saying he had built the "first radio frequency remote control detonator," which was a "step forward." Weeks later, he was observed going to the Meadowvale Library and using a computer to research terms such as: ammonium nitrate in agriculture, nitric acid and rocket fuel.
In April 2006, a second police agent, Shaher Elsohemy, managed to gain Amara's trust, saying he could help obtain chemicals. A short time later, Amara was showing off his homemade detonator to the agent and placing orders for the chemicals he needed.
On June 2, undercover police delivered what Amara and his co-conspirators believed to be three tonnes of ammonium nitrate. As the truck was being unloaded, it set off a series of arrests throughout the GTA.
Monday, January 11, 2010
AGENT # 2 IN TORONTO BOMB PLOT PAID $4 MILLION
*** The headlines are misleading: $4 million refers to RELOCATION & OTHER COSTS not the amount of money paid out to him. MS ***
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/749191--undercover-agent-paid-4-1m-to-infiltrate-toronto-18-court-told?bn=1
A police agent who was paid $4.1 million to infiltrate an alleged terror group today testified for the first time on the opening day of the trial for Shareef Abdelhaleem, a member of the so-called Toronto 18.
Abdelhaleem, 34, is alleged to have used his friend, undercover police agent Shaher Elsohemy, to set up the purchase of three tones of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, destined for truck bombs targeting sites in downtown Toronto.
This morning, Elsohemy, currently in witness protection, told a Brampton court that he had developed a "strong" friendship with Abdelhaleem and frequented an Islamic school in Mississauga run by the accused's father. Their relationship was such that the two vacationed together, taking a trip to Morocco in 2005.
The Crown's star witness in this case has yet to testify about details involving the purchase of the ammonium nitrate, but Abdelhaleem's lawyer, William Naylor, has said he believes his client was entrapped and paid handsomely for it.
"A $4.1 million payoff is pretty steep...It's unprecedented in Canada," Naylor later told reporters, adding that's one of the problems with the case against his client. He went on to suggest that Elsohemy was more concerned with getting money than searching for the truth.
Naylor described his client as "relatively unIslamic," who doesn't fit the typical profile of a terror suspect. Before his arrest in the summer of 2006, Abdelhaleem was a well-educated engineer programmer earning six figures and driving around in a BMW convertible.
In court documents, the Crown alleges Abdelhaleem wanted to profit from the bomb plot by buying up stocks right before what he dubbed would be the "Battle of Toronto." The intended targets included the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front Street offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off of Hwy 401.
Abdelhaleem is the first adult linked to the Toronto 18 to stand trial. The Mississauga man, who will testify in his own defence, is charged with participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Of the 18 people who were charged, four have pleaded guilty, a youth was convicted and seven had their charges stayed. Five remaining accused are scheduled to begin their trial in late March.
Abdelhaleem has elected to be tried by a judge alone and not a jury. He has been in custody since his June 2006 arrest.
*** Please note that the other 3 major players in this plot have all plead guilty. MS ***
FROM: http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article/749191--undercover-agent-paid-4-1m-to-infiltrate-toronto-18-court-told?bn=1
A police agent who was paid $4.1 million to infiltrate an alleged terror group today testified for the first time on the opening day of the trial for Shareef Abdelhaleem, a member of the so-called Toronto 18.
Abdelhaleem, 34, is alleged to have used his friend, undercover police agent Shaher Elsohemy, to set up the purchase of three tones of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, destined for truck bombs targeting sites in downtown Toronto.
This morning, Elsohemy, currently in witness protection, told a Brampton court that he had developed a "strong" friendship with Abdelhaleem and frequented an Islamic school in Mississauga run by the accused's father. Their relationship was such that the two vacationed together, taking a trip to Morocco in 2005.
The Crown's star witness in this case has yet to testify about details involving the purchase of the ammonium nitrate, but Abdelhaleem's lawyer, William Naylor, has said he believes his client was entrapped and paid handsomely for it.
"A $4.1 million payoff is pretty steep...It's unprecedented in Canada," Naylor later told reporters, adding that's one of the problems with the case against his client. He went on to suggest that Elsohemy was more concerned with getting money than searching for the truth.
Naylor described his client as "relatively unIslamic," who doesn't fit the typical profile of a terror suspect. Before his arrest in the summer of 2006, Abdelhaleem was a well-educated engineer programmer earning six figures and driving around in a BMW convertible.
In court documents, the Crown alleges Abdelhaleem wanted to profit from the bomb plot by buying up stocks right before what he dubbed would be the "Battle of Toronto." The intended targets included the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front Street offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off of Hwy 401.
Abdelhaleem is the first adult linked to the Toronto 18 to stand trial. The Mississauga man, who will testify in his own defence, is charged with participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He pleaded not guilty to both counts.
Of the 18 people who were charged, four have pleaded guilty, a youth was convicted and seven had their charges stayed. Five remaining accused are scheduled to begin their trial in late March.
Abdelhaleem has elected to be tried by a judge alone and not a jury. He has been in custody since his June 2006 arrest.
*** Please note that the other 3 major players in this plot have all plead guilty. MS ***
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