*** We all know violence only begets more violence - it is a rule of nature. However my view is that Canada CANNOT stay out of all conflicts in the Muslim world because fact is, some of those places are doing terrible things to their OWN people and then we DEMAND Canada do something. Damned if we do, damned if we don't. MS ***
A news story answers five Ws — who, what, when, where and why. But the “why” has mostly been missing from the coverage of the latest terrorism case in Canada.
We’ve been told a great deal about the 50-plus electronic circuit boards designed to remotely detonate bombs in Ottawa, yet very little about the motives of the Canadian citizens charged.
Serge Therriault, chief RCMP investigator, said that the group was opposed to the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan.
This is the fourth major terrorism case in Canada and all four have had to do with Afghanistan.
The Toronto 18 (who became the Toronto 11 after charges were withdrawn against seven) were convicted for plotting to attack civilian targets in Toronto and Ottawa with a view to forcing the withdrawal of Canadian troops from Afghanistan.
In February, Said Namouh of Montreal was convicted on four terrorism charges related to his involvement in a plan to bomb targets in Germany and Austria because of those countries’ military presence in Afghanistan.
In 2008, Momin Khawaja of Ottawa was convicted for helping British terrorists angry at the NATO war in Afghanistan.
Stephen Harper has said — as had George W. Bush and as does Barack Obama — that we are in Afghanistan to ensure that the terrorists don’t come here. The counter-argument has been that they might come here precisely because we are there.
It has turned out worse. Terrorists don’t have to come here to attack us. Their sympathizers here will. They may act for Al Qaeda and the Taliban or act on their own. Some may go to Pakistan for military training but many may assemble a bomb from a manual downloaded from the Internet.
Some may be religious, many not. Some may invoke Islam but many act out of solidarity with Muslims. They may be immigrants or, more likely, second-generation Canadians, as Public Safety Minister Vic Towes said Thursday.
They may be “the most unlikely individuals” — engineers, doctors, hospital technicians, seemingly well integrated, such as the pathologist Khurram Sher, a product of and participant in the popular culture of NHL hockey and Canadian Idol. Or they may be uneducated, unemployed, troubled, disaffected.
All this refutes the clichés we have been fed for the last nine years about terrorists:
They are all “Islamic radicals” nurtured in madrassas or mosques, brainwashed into jihad by antediluvian imams. If only the madrassas could be shut down, the imams made to shut up, and “moderate” Muslims rise up against “radical Islam,” the danger would disappear.
This fantasy had a purpose.
If Islam could be made the issue, writes Ron Paul, a Republican congressman, then “radical religious Islamic views were the only reasons for 9/11,” and not “a desire to retaliate against what many Muslims saw as American aggression and occupation.”
We’ve had the Afghan and Iraq wars since.
Baroness Manningham-Buller, former head of M15, the British security agency, said last month that Britain’s “involvement in Iraq radicalized a whole generation of young people . . . who saw our involvement in Iraq, on top of our involvement in Afghanistan, as an attack on Islam.” It led to an “almost overwhelming” increase in homegrown terrorism.
Leon Panetta, director of the CIA, said in June that American authorities are alarmed at the flurry of terrorist plots, by those directed by Al Qaeda and by “self-radicalized” militants.
Towes, too, talked about the threat posed by “homegrown” and “self-radicalized” terrorists in Canada.
So while Al Qaeda and its offshoots are weaker than they’ve ever been since 2001, says Panetta, the threat of the terrorist next door has increased.
The solution is not to panic or hector the Muslim community to rein in their own — they would if they could — but rather to stop being in denial that there is no connection between the wars we wage and the terrorist mayhem that they trigger, there and here.
No state can be held hostage by terrorists into changing its foreign policy. Such actors must be ferreted out, charged, convicted and jailed — as they have been, thanks to the good work of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the RCMP, other police forces and our judicial system.
Yet such cases should give us pause — so that we are not herded into blindly backing endless wars and occupations abroad.
hsiddiqui@thestar.ca
Showing posts with label homegrown terror Canada. Show all posts
Showing posts with label homegrown terror Canada. Show all posts
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Saturday, July 17, 2010
MORE CANADIANS TURN TO VIOLENT JIHAD
*** An article stating the obvious. How about the PLAN - what PLAN is in place to deal with this situation? You cannot arrest the problem away, you MUST deal with underlying causes. MS ***
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20100716/jihad-threats-mountie-100716/
The Mountie in charge of investigating terrorist threats says he's alarmed at the growing number of Canadians adopting violent jihad.
Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said RCMP are aware of a number of Canadians who are currently training at Islamic terror camps.
"We have some in Pakistan, we see some in Somalia, we see them in Afghanistan," he said.
RCMP believe that two-dozen Canadians have trained at camps in Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (the same country where the Times Square bomber is believed to have sought instruction in terrorist tactics). They suspect that several Canadians hold leadership roles in al Qaeda-linked groups.
The Mounties are investigating at least six young Somali-Canadian men from the Toronto area who are believed to have left the country to join al Shabaab, the Somalia-based group responsible for last week's suicide bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people.
But Michaud is also concerned about the threat of Islamic extremists unleashing terror on Canadian soil, particularly if those trained at terrorist camps overseas return to Canada.
There are those in Canada who are fundraising for terrorist groups "through charities, drug dealing and credit card fraud," he said.
What's more, threats from "neo-jihadist groups" are no longer limited to major Canadian cities, he said -- they now affect smaller communities across the country.
Many of the suspected terrorists being investigated by RCMP are second or third generation Canadians who have been integrated into Canadian society before becoming radicalised, Michaud said.
RCMP have even set up a national security tip line, at 1-800-420-5805, where concerned citizens can report suspicious behaviour 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But some Islamic groups say the Mounties are exaggerating the threat.
"I don't get the sense it is a huge problem within the Muslim community," said Khalid Elgazzar with the Council of American-Islamic Relations Canada. "I would say these are isolated incidents."
With a report from CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife
http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/TopStories/20100716/jihad-threats-mountie-100716/
The Mountie in charge of investigating terrorist threats says he's alarmed at the growing number of Canadians adopting violent jihad.
Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud said RCMP are aware of a number of Canadians who are currently training at Islamic terror camps.
"We have some in Pakistan, we see some in Somalia, we see them in Afghanistan," he said.
RCMP believe that two-dozen Canadians have trained at camps in Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan (the same country where the Times Square bomber is believed to have sought instruction in terrorist tactics). They suspect that several Canadians hold leadership roles in al Qaeda-linked groups.
The Mounties are investigating at least six young Somali-Canadian men from the Toronto area who are believed to have left the country to join al Shabaab, the Somalia-based group responsible for last week's suicide bombings in Uganda that killed 76 people.
But Michaud is also concerned about the threat of Islamic extremists unleashing terror on Canadian soil, particularly if those trained at terrorist camps overseas return to Canada.
There are those in Canada who are fundraising for terrorist groups "through charities, drug dealing and credit card fraud," he said.
What's more, threats from "neo-jihadist groups" are no longer limited to major Canadian cities, he said -- they now affect smaller communities across the country.
Many of the suspected terrorists being investigated by RCMP are second or third generation Canadians who have been integrated into Canadian society before becoming radicalised, Michaud said.
RCMP have even set up a national security tip line, at 1-800-420-5805, where concerned citizens can report suspicious behaviour 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
But some Islamic groups say the Mounties are exaggerating the threat.
"I don't get the sense it is a huge problem within the Muslim community," said Khalid Elgazzar with the Council of American-Islamic Relations Canada. "I would say these are isolated incidents."
With a report from CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
CSIS TO SEND SPIES OVERSEAS TO LEARN ARABIC?!
*** Concentrate on building bridges with the community FIRST otherwise your Arabic-speaking spooks will have no one to talk to when they get home. CSIS has a serious challenge ahead NOT because they cannot communicate in Arabic - it is because they do not communicate EFFECTIVELY right now. Last point I am surprised that CSIS does not get: these homegrown terrorizers you're chasing around? They speak very little Arabic. ;) MS ***
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100713/national/csis_arabic
OTTAWA - Canadian spies are heading overseas to take Arabic lessons as part of a long-term effort to help secret agents tackle terrorist threats more effectively.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Dick Fadden says the spy agency will send officers to "a country which will remain nameless" to learn the language.
Fadden told a group of military and intelligence officials the effort is "excruciatingly expensive" because of the money and time involved in mastering a new tongue.
"The difficulty, of course, is that those countries in which we're most interested — for people with brains like us — they have the most complicated language which take the longest to learn," Fadden said.
"So in some cases, for our purposes, somebody has to study for two or three years. It is excruciatingly expensive, just in plain cash bucks. And it's expensive in that it takes an experienced officer off-line for two or three years."
But he said CSIS is determined to invest more in language training because otherwise its officers will miss out on useful contacts "on the human front."
Fadden revealed the plans in March to the Royal Canadian Military Institute, but the comments are only coming to light now because of controversy over his remarks — initially made during the same speech — about CSIS suspicions of foreign influence over Canadian politicians.
The most recent CSIS annual report says 44 per cent of the service's intelligence officers can speak a language other than English or French. Collectively, CSIS employees know about 103 languages.
But when asked during the military institute event whether CSIS employees spoke foreign languages effectively, Fadden replied: "Nowhere near as we bloody well should."
"We're trying, at one level, to recruit people who speak more than just English or French," he said, describing the effort as an uphill battle.
"But in fact we've just come to an agreement with a country which will remain nameless where we'll be able to send our officers to learn Arabic, which is a big concern today.
"And we're setting aside some money to enable us to do this in a more systematic way. But we're not doing it anywhere near as much as we can." (MS: There are people right here at home who can do it too for half the price.)
CSIS has tried to build bridges with the Muslim community and other minorities in Canada following a rocky period marked by mistrust after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States. (MS: I'd like to see proof of this bridge building.)
The language initiative is a positive move because it will help CSIS make better connections and reduce the chance of misunderstandings, said Salma Siddiqui, a member of the federal Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security. (MS: The differences are not based on language but credibility.)
"I think this is money well spent because they need to have the language training," she said.
In his speech to the military institute Fadden noted how CSIS has become much more active abroad in its 26-year history.
"Initially created as a service that was literally bound to Canada, we have now more and more of our operations taking place largely in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, and I suspect this will continue."
CSIS has served alongside Canadian troops in Afghanistan since 2002. It has also worked with the RCMP, military and other government agencies on helping free Canadians kidnapped abroad — a development that worries Fadden.
"It is an extremely profitable way for terrorist groups to collect money. And it doesn't matter how often Foreign Affairs tells people not to go to a certain part of the world. Canadians will insist on going," Fadden said.
"Large ransoms are paid, or worse, terrorists are released from prisons to go out and to continue their work around the world."
He noted that a French secret agent had recently been freed by his captors after Mali agreed to release four terrorists.
"They've now lost track of them entirely, and we now have four very dangerous people who will continue to do damage in that part of the world for years and years to come," Fadden said.
Canada and its allies expect the practice to continue, he added.
"Because aside from anything else it sows discord between countries who have different views on these issues.
"And already the counter-terrorism efforts in that part of the world, in the Mahgreb and the Sahel, are suffering because governments are so annoyed with the decision to release these terrorists that they've stopped talking and stopped sharing intelligence."
FROM: http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/100713/national/csis_arabic
OTTAWA - Canadian spies are heading overseas to take Arabic lessons as part of a long-term effort to help secret agents tackle terrorist threats more effectively.
Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Dick Fadden says the spy agency will send officers to "a country which will remain nameless" to learn the language.
Fadden told a group of military and intelligence officials the effort is "excruciatingly expensive" because of the money and time involved in mastering a new tongue.
"The difficulty, of course, is that those countries in which we're most interested — for people with brains like us — they have the most complicated language which take the longest to learn," Fadden said.
"So in some cases, for our purposes, somebody has to study for two or three years. It is excruciatingly expensive, just in plain cash bucks. And it's expensive in that it takes an experienced officer off-line for two or three years."
But he said CSIS is determined to invest more in language training because otherwise its officers will miss out on useful contacts "on the human front."
Fadden revealed the plans in March to the Royal Canadian Military Institute, but the comments are only coming to light now because of controversy over his remarks — initially made during the same speech — about CSIS suspicions of foreign influence over Canadian politicians.
The most recent CSIS annual report says 44 per cent of the service's intelligence officers can speak a language other than English or French. Collectively, CSIS employees know about 103 languages.
But when asked during the military institute event whether CSIS employees spoke foreign languages effectively, Fadden replied: "Nowhere near as we bloody well should."
"We're trying, at one level, to recruit people who speak more than just English or French," he said, describing the effort as an uphill battle.
"But in fact we've just come to an agreement with a country which will remain nameless where we'll be able to send our officers to learn Arabic, which is a big concern today.
"And we're setting aside some money to enable us to do this in a more systematic way. But we're not doing it anywhere near as much as we can." (MS: There are people right here at home who can do it too for half the price.)
CSIS has tried to build bridges with the Muslim community and other minorities in Canada following a rocky period marked by mistrust after the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the United States. (MS: I'd like to see proof of this bridge building.)
The language initiative is a positive move because it will help CSIS make better connections and reduce the chance of misunderstandings, said Salma Siddiqui, a member of the federal Cross-Cultural Roundtable on Security. (MS: The differences are not based on language but credibility.)
"I think this is money well spent because they need to have the language training," she said.
In his speech to the military institute Fadden noted how CSIS has become much more active abroad in its 26-year history.
"Initially created as a service that was literally bound to Canada, we have now more and more of our operations taking place largely in the Middle East and in other parts of the world, and I suspect this will continue."
CSIS has served alongside Canadian troops in Afghanistan since 2002. It has also worked with the RCMP, military and other government agencies on helping free Canadians kidnapped abroad — a development that worries Fadden.
"It is an extremely profitable way for terrorist groups to collect money. And it doesn't matter how often Foreign Affairs tells people not to go to a certain part of the world. Canadians will insist on going," Fadden said.
"Large ransoms are paid, or worse, terrorists are released from prisons to go out and to continue their work around the world."
He noted that a French secret agent had recently been freed by his captors after Mali agreed to release four terrorists.
"They've now lost track of them entirely, and we now have four very dangerous people who will continue to do damage in that part of the world for years and years to come," Fadden said.
Canada and its allies expect the practice to continue, he added.
"Because aside from anything else it sows discord between countries who have different views on these issues.
"And already the counter-terrorism efforts in that part of the world, in the Mahgreb and the Sahel, are suffering because governments are so annoyed with the decision to release these terrorists that they've stopped talking and stopped sharing intelligence."
Monday, July 5, 2010
MINISTER TOEWS ON TORONTO 18 CASE
Jun 23, 2010 20:29 ET
Statement by the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, in Response to the Convictions of the Final Accused in Project Osage
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 23, 2010) - "Today marks the conclusion to an important chapter in our history - the convictions on terrorism charges of the last of the accused in Project Osage, better known to many Canadians as the Toronto 18 cases. If it wasn't for the timely intervention of law enforcement and security officials, it is entirely possible that the plotters could have been successful and taken many innocent lives.
This case demonstrates that Canada is not immune from terrorist threats. Although we have been successful in disrupting terrorist plots, and convicting terrorists, we are always looking for new ways to strengthen our mutual safety and security. We must continue to remain vigilant.
While the legal process may continue for some of those found guilty, it is appropriate at this time to acknowledge the hard work and successful collaboration of CSIS, the RCMP, the Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police and other law enforcement partners, the federal Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the Department of Justice in uncovering the plot, laying charges and bringing strong cases before the courts. It is an example of how effectively different parts of our national security and justice systems work together to protect Canada and all those who live here.
On behalf of the Government of Canada and Canadians, I want to thank all of those who worked to bring Project Osage to successful conclusion."
For more information, please contact
Public Safety Canada
Media Relations
613-991-0657
Statement by the Honourable Vic Toews, Minister of Public Safety, in Response to the Convictions of the Final Accused in Project Osage
OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - June 23, 2010) - "Today marks the conclusion to an important chapter in our history - the convictions on terrorism charges of the last of the accused in Project Osage, better known to many Canadians as the Toronto 18 cases. If it wasn't for the timely intervention of law enforcement and security officials, it is entirely possible that the plotters could have been successful and taken many innocent lives.
This case demonstrates that Canada is not immune from terrorist threats. Although we have been successful in disrupting terrorist plots, and convicting terrorists, we are always looking for new ways to strengthen our mutual safety and security. We must continue to remain vigilant.
While the legal process may continue for some of those found guilty, it is appropriate at this time to acknowledge the hard work and successful collaboration of CSIS, the RCMP, the Toronto Police Service, Peel Regional Police and other law enforcement partners, the federal Public Prosecution Service of Canada and the Department of Justice in uncovering the plot, laying charges and bringing strong cases before the courts. It is an example of how effectively different parts of our national security and justice systems work together to protect Canada and all those who live here.
On behalf of the Government of Canada and Canadians, I want to thank all of those who worked to bring Project Osage to successful conclusion."
For more information, please contact
Public Safety Canada
Media Relations
613-991-0657
Friday, June 18, 2010
TORONTO 18 CASE - INTERATIONAL LINKS
*** Too bad that 4 years had to pass - and for a false narrative to have taken hold by armchair pundits who pronounced verdicts even before the trial began! NOW - 4 years later - the public will start to hear more of what they should have been given the first time: the truth. MS ***
FROM: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/18/toronto-18-jury.html
Toronto 18 details emerge as jury sequestered
What the jury didn't get to hear about Fahim Ahmad
A jury in Brampton, Ont., has started to deliberate in the latest trial for those accused in the Toronto 18 extremist plot case.
The jurors were sequestered Friday after the judge finished instructing them in the case presented against the two accused, Steven Chand and Asad Ansari. Both were charged with participating in a terrorist group, and Chand faces a further charge of counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 for the benefit of a terrorist group.
Until the moment the jury went out, a sweeping publication ban had prevented media from reporting any details of the case other than what was said in the courtroom in this trial. That included any details of past convictions and evidence in previous Toronto 18 trials.
One of the names that came up repeatedly in past trials was that of the self-acknowledged leader of the group, Fahim Ahmad. Admad was to have been tried along with Chand and Ansari on charges of participating in a terrorist group, instructing people to carry out activities for a terrorist group and a weapons offence.
But on May 10, he made a surprise about-turn. In the middle of his trial on terrorism charges he abruptly reversed himself and pleaded guilty. What the five-woman, seven-man jury had heard about Ahmad to that point was hair-raising enough.
Untold details of plot
In hundreds of hours of taped phone intercepts and secretly recorded conversations with police mole Mubin Sheik, Ahmad spoke enthusiastically of building an arsenal of high-powered weapons, including AK-47s and M-16s, and of attacking Canadian targets such as the Pickering nuclear power plant in Ontario and storming Parliament in Ottawa to "cut off some heads."
What the jury and the Canadian public didn't hear about was the story of Ahmad's ties to international terrorism.
Before turning his attention to building a Canadian al-Qaeda style terrorist cell, Ahmad was plotting acts of terrorism with alienated young Muslim men like himself in the United States, the United Kingdom and perhaps beyond.
One of those young men was Aabid Khan, who was an al-Qaeda supporter and recruiter living in Bradford, England. According to British security analyst Sajan Gohel, Khan was no foot solider, he was a plotter who put together terrorism cells on the internet.
Khan was arrested by British anti-terrorism police at Manchester International Airport on June 6, 2006, just four days after the RCMP busted the Toronto 18.
Khan was returning from one of his frequent trips to Pakistan. On his laptop computer and on 53 harddrives found at his home, police discovered what a British prosecutor later referred to as a library of violent Jihadi videos and Islamist propaganda tracts. Amongst the videos police discovered was an edited two-minute feature shot at a Canadian winter indoctrination and military training camp organized by Ahmad and by Toronto 18 co-leader Zakaria Amara at Washego, Ont.
U.K. police also found hundreds of hours of saved chats between Khan, Ahmad and other members of the Toronto 18.
Met in a chat room
Ahmad first met Kahn in 2003 in an internet chat room called Clear Guidance. The site was frequented by angry, young Muslim men — and by 2004 Ahmad had posted over 700 messages.
Other Clear Guidance members included Yanous Tsouli. The internet moniker Tsouli chose to give himself was Irhabi 007. Irhabi is Arabic for terrorist. The reference to 007 is an allusion to the fictional, over-sexed British secret agent James Bond.
Tsouli was the son of a Moroccan diplomat living in east London. Tsouli was an internet genius with close ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq. When a London SWAT team burst into his apartment on Oct. 21, 2005, to arrest him he was building a new website called YouBombit.com. The website was a do-it-yourself guide for wannabe terrorists that featured bomb-making recipes and instructions on how to make suicide vests.
Amongst the videos Tsouli planned to put up on the website were what the FBI alleges were surveillance videos of possible targets in Washington, D.C. The videos were shot by two of Fahim Ahmad's associates from Atlanta.
Ehasnul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed were also Clear Guidance regulars. In March 2005, Sadequee and Haris Ahmed travelled to Toronto to visit Fahim Ahmad and his growing band of recruits.
Over the next week, the young men talked about potential targets and the need to get paramilitary training in Pakistan. In transcripts of internet chats introduced at his trial at Blackfriars Court in London, England, Aaabid Khan told Fahim Ahmad he could arrange to get them paramilitary training with Lashkar Tayiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks.
Aabid Khan was also in Toronto that week. At his trial, Khan insisted he had come to marry Fahim Ahmad's sister-in-law, a 19-year-old woman named Saima Mohamed, not to plot terrorism. Saima was also committed to the Jihadist cause.
In transcripts of internet chats included in the evidence at Khan's trial, Saima Mohamed tells him of her desire to become a suicide commando. In a written letter she tells him: "The more I think about my goal in life, the more vivid my goals become. Whether it's exploding prisons or freeing Muslim prisoners … Let it be a martyrdom operation."
She tells Khan that although her sister Mariyam disapproves of her ambition to become a martyr, Fahim has given her his approval. Mohamed was never arrested. She declined several interview requests from CBC News but in a letter from her lawyer Faizel Kutty, he stated that she does not espouse violent views. He also reminded the CBC being young can be a difficult and confusing period.
Aabid Khan and Fahim Ahmad's plan was to rent basements apartments in Toronto where their most-committed internet recruits could live for a month and bond before leaving for Pakistan to get paramilitary training with Lashkar.
After training they would return to Toronto, choose targets and then disperse to stage spectacular acts of terrorism in at least four countries. But as Ahmad was out searching for cheap apartments to rent, the plan began to fall apart.
Grew impatient
Ahmad began to grow impatient with Khan, who wanted to move slowly. Ahmad also had trouble getting his hands on the $5,000 he calculated he would need to go to Pakistan. After splitting with Khan, Ahmad and his friend Zakaria Amara turned their attention to Canada and building an al-Qaeda type cell in Toronto.
In August 2008, Aabid Khan was convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
In 2007, another Clear Guidance regular, Mersad Bektasavic, received a 15 year, four-month sentence from a Bosnian court for plotting an attack in Europe. When Bektasevic was arrested, police found a suicide vest and 18 kilograms of factory-made explosive in his apartment.
In June 2009, American Syed Haris Ahmed was found guilty of material support for terrorism in the U.S. and sentenced to 12 years. Later that year, his friend Ehsenul Mohamed Sadequee was found guilty on four terrorism charges and sentenced to 17 years followed by 30 years of supervision. In the indictments of both men, Fahim Ahmad is named as a co-conspirator.
Fahim Ahmad has pleaded guilty to four charges. He is facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. As a result of his guilty plea, the jury is no longer involved in Ahmad's case. He will be sentenced in Federal Court in Brampton, Ont., by Justice Fletcher Dawson later this summer.
FROM: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/toronto/story/2010/06/18/toronto-18-jury.html
Toronto 18 details emerge as jury sequestered
What the jury didn't get to hear about Fahim Ahmad
A jury in Brampton, Ont., has started to deliberate in the latest trial for those accused in the Toronto 18 extremist plot case.
The jurors were sequestered Friday after the judge finished instructing them in the case presented against the two accused, Steven Chand and Asad Ansari. Both were charged with participating in a terrorist group, and Chand faces a further charge of counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 for the benefit of a terrorist group.
Until the moment the jury went out, a sweeping publication ban had prevented media from reporting any details of the case other than what was said in the courtroom in this trial. That included any details of past convictions and evidence in previous Toronto 18 trials.
One of the names that came up repeatedly in past trials was that of the self-acknowledged leader of the group, Fahim Ahmad. Admad was to have been tried along with Chand and Ansari on charges of participating in a terrorist group, instructing people to carry out activities for a terrorist group and a weapons offence.
But on May 10, he made a surprise about-turn. In the middle of his trial on terrorism charges he abruptly reversed himself and pleaded guilty. What the five-woman, seven-man jury had heard about Ahmad to that point was hair-raising enough.
Untold details of plot
In hundreds of hours of taped phone intercepts and secretly recorded conversations with police mole Mubin Sheik, Ahmad spoke enthusiastically of building an arsenal of high-powered weapons, including AK-47s and M-16s, and of attacking Canadian targets such as the Pickering nuclear power plant in Ontario and storming Parliament in Ottawa to "cut off some heads."
What the jury and the Canadian public didn't hear about was the story of Ahmad's ties to international terrorism.
Before turning his attention to building a Canadian al-Qaeda style terrorist cell, Ahmad was plotting acts of terrorism with alienated young Muslim men like himself in the United States, the United Kingdom and perhaps beyond.
One of those young men was Aabid Khan, who was an al-Qaeda supporter and recruiter living in Bradford, England. According to British security analyst Sajan Gohel, Khan was no foot solider, he was a plotter who put together terrorism cells on the internet.
Khan was arrested by British anti-terrorism police at Manchester International Airport on June 6, 2006, just four days after the RCMP busted the Toronto 18.
Khan was returning from one of his frequent trips to Pakistan. On his laptop computer and on 53 harddrives found at his home, police discovered what a British prosecutor later referred to as a library of violent Jihadi videos and Islamist propaganda tracts. Amongst the videos police discovered was an edited two-minute feature shot at a Canadian winter indoctrination and military training camp organized by Ahmad and by Toronto 18 co-leader Zakaria Amara at Washego, Ont.
U.K. police also found hundreds of hours of saved chats between Khan, Ahmad and other members of the Toronto 18.
Met in a chat room
Ahmad first met Kahn in 2003 in an internet chat room called Clear Guidance. The site was frequented by angry, young Muslim men — and by 2004 Ahmad had posted over 700 messages.
Other Clear Guidance members included Yanous Tsouli. The internet moniker Tsouli chose to give himself was Irhabi 007. Irhabi is Arabic for terrorist. The reference to 007 is an allusion to the fictional, over-sexed British secret agent James Bond.
Tsouli was the son of a Moroccan diplomat living in east London. Tsouli was an internet genius with close ties to al-Qaeda in Iraq. When a London SWAT team burst into his apartment on Oct. 21, 2005, to arrest him he was building a new website called YouBombit.com. The website was a do-it-yourself guide for wannabe terrorists that featured bomb-making recipes and instructions on how to make suicide vests.
Amongst the videos Tsouli planned to put up on the website were what the FBI alleges were surveillance videos of possible targets in Washington, D.C. The videos were shot by two of Fahim Ahmad's associates from Atlanta.
Ehasnul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed were also Clear Guidance regulars. In March 2005, Sadequee and Haris Ahmed travelled to Toronto to visit Fahim Ahmad and his growing band of recruits.
Over the next week, the young men talked about potential targets and the need to get paramilitary training in Pakistan. In transcripts of internet chats introduced at his trial at Blackfriars Court in London, England, Aaabid Khan told Fahim Ahmad he could arrange to get them paramilitary training with Lashkar Tayiba, the group behind the Mumbai attacks.
Aabid Khan was also in Toronto that week. At his trial, Khan insisted he had come to marry Fahim Ahmad's sister-in-law, a 19-year-old woman named Saima Mohamed, not to plot terrorism. Saima was also committed to the Jihadist cause.
In transcripts of internet chats included in the evidence at Khan's trial, Saima Mohamed tells him of her desire to become a suicide commando. In a written letter she tells him: "The more I think about my goal in life, the more vivid my goals become. Whether it's exploding prisons or freeing Muslim prisoners … Let it be a martyrdom operation."
She tells Khan that although her sister Mariyam disapproves of her ambition to become a martyr, Fahim has given her his approval. Mohamed was never arrested. She declined several interview requests from CBC News but in a letter from her lawyer Faizel Kutty, he stated that she does not espouse violent views. He also reminded the CBC being young can be a difficult and confusing period.
Aabid Khan and Fahim Ahmad's plan was to rent basements apartments in Toronto where their most-committed internet recruits could live for a month and bond before leaving for Pakistan to get paramilitary training with Lashkar.
After training they would return to Toronto, choose targets and then disperse to stage spectacular acts of terrorism in at least four countries. But as Ahmad was out searching for cheap apartments to rent, the plan began to fall apart.
Grew impatient
Ahmad began to grow impatient with Khan, who wanted to move slowly. Ahmad also had trouble getting his hands on the $5,000 he calculated he would need to go to Pakistan. After splitting with Khan, Ahmad and his friend Zakaria Amara turned their attention to Canada and building an al-Qaeda type cell in Toronto.
In August 2008, Aabid Khan was convicted on terrorism charges and sentenced to 12 years in prison.
In 2007, another Clear Guidance regular, Mersad Bektasavic, received a 15 year, four-month sentence from a Bosnian court for plotting an attack in Europe. When Bektasevic was arrested, police found a suicide vest and 18 kilograms of factory-made explosive in his apartment.
In June 2009, American Syed Haris Ahmed was found guilty of material support for terrorism in the U.S. and sentenced to 12 years. Later that year, his friend Ehsenul Mohamed Sadequee was found guilty on four terrorism charges and sentenced to 17 years followed by 30 years of supervision. In the indictments of both men, Fahim Ahmad is named as a co-conspirator.
Fahim Ahmad has pleaded guilty to four charges. He is facing a maximum sentence of life imprisonment. As a result of his guilty plea, the jury is no longer involved in Ahmad's case. He will be sentenced in Federal Court in Brampton, Ont., by Justice Fletcher Dawson later this summer.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
TORONTO 18 - ACCUSED DEDICATED TO JIHAD
FROM: http://www.nationalpost.com/news/canada/story.html?id=3075874
Devastated after his dreams of pursuing university-level computer science came to a crashing halt, accused terrorist Asad Ansari found a darker new purpose in life, the Crown alleged yesterday at his trial in Superior Court.
"You had become dedicated to jihad," Crown attorney Jason Wakely suggested.
"That is not true," responded Mr. Ansari, who has told the court he fell into a deep depression upon learning his parents could not afford to send him to his program of choice at the Unversity of Waterloo. But he maintains he never contemplated turning to terrorism, and was unaware his close friends were developing a homegrown terror cell during the relevant time period in 2005 and 2006.
Mr. Ansari, 25, is one of two remaining accused to be tried in the "Toronto 18" case, which involved an alleged plot to detonate bombs in the city's core and to attack senior politicians in Ottawa.
Ringleader Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last month.
The jury yesterday watched a video from a CD labelled "Good stuff: Islamic videos," which police found in Mr. Ansari's bedroom after his arrest.
In it, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri heaps scorn on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan-- a mission Mr. Ansari has testified he supported--and urges the Muslim population to seek reform through jihad.
As this would have countered the views Mr. Ansari purported to have at the time, Mr. Wakely noted, "why is it that you saved this video?"
Mr. Ansari said he often sought out controversial material for his own edification.
"If I have that, it doesn't mean I agree with it," he said, calling al-Qaeda's standpoint "completely retarded as an ideology."
The court has heard that during a winter training camp in Washago, Ont., in 2005, Ahmad likened the Toronto 18 to al-Qaeda; Mr. Ansari, who says he was unaware the camp was intended as a terrorist training ground when he attended, denies having heard such a statement, and yesterday called it a humourous concept.
Mr. Wakely challenged Mr. Ansari on the title of the CD --- "Good stuff: Islamic videos" -- containing the al-Zawahiri video and other scenes of violent jihad, including explosions and masked militants firing rocket-propelled grenades.
"This depicts warfare, killing, hatred," Mr. Wakely said. "What's good about this stuff?"
"There's nothing good about this stuff," Mr. Ansari acknowledged, noting he frequently and indiscriminately labelled CDs in that fashion: "It was not an assessment in any way."
The Crown also referred to a document called the "Terrorist Handbook" found in Mr. Ansari's possession at the time of his arrest in June 2006. But defence lawyer John Norris contended this was merely an informational document, "not for actual use."
With the defence case for Mr. Ansari now concluded, lawyer Michael Moon will open his case today for 29-year-old Steven Chand, who stands charged with participation in a terrorist group and counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 in association with that group.
Devastated after his dreams of pursuing university-level computer science came to a crashing halt, accused terrorist Asad Ansari found a darker new purpose in life, the Crown alleged yesterday at his trial in Superior Court.
"You had become dedicated to jihad," Crown attorney Jason Wakely suggested.
"That is not true," responded Mr. Ansari, who has told the court he fell into a deep depression upon learning his parents could not afford to send him to his program of choice at the Unversity of Waterloo. But he maintains he never contemplated turning to terrorism, and was unaware his close friends were developing a homegrown terror cell during the relevant time period in 2005 and 2006.
Mr. Ansari, 25, is one of two remaining accused to be tried in the "Toronto 18" case, which involved an alleged plot to detonate bombs in the city's core and to attack senior politicians in Ottawa.
Ringleader Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty to terrorism charges last month.
The jury yesterday watched a video from a CD labelled "Good stuff: Islamic videos," which police found in Mr. Ansari's bedroom after his arrest.
In it, al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri heaps scorn on the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan-- a mission Mr. Ansari has testified he supported--and urges the Muslim population to seek reform through jihad.
As this would have countered the views Mr. Ansari purported to have at the time, Mr. Wakely noted, "why is it that you saved this video?"
Mr. Ansari said he often sought out controversial material for his own edification.
"If I have that, it doesn't mean I agree with it," he said, calling al-Qaeda's standpoint "completely retarded as an ideology."
The court has heard that during a winter training camp in Washago, Ont., in 2005, Ahmad likened the Toronto 18 to al-Qaeda; Mr. Ansari, who says he was unaware the camp was intended as a terrorist training ground when he attended, denies having heard such a statement, and yesterday called it a humourous concept.
Mr. Wakely challenged Mr. Ansari on the title of the CD --- "Good stuff: Islamic videos" -- containing the al-Zawahiri video and other scenes of violent jihad, including explosions and masked militants firing rocket-propelled grenades.
"This depicts warfare, killing, hatred," Mr. Wakely said. "What's good about this stuff?"
"There's nothing good about this stuff," Mr. Ansari acknowledged, noting he frequently and indiscriminately labelled CDs in that fashion: "It was not an assessment in any way."
The Crown also referred to a document called the "Terrorist Handbook" found in Mr. Ansari's possession at the time of his arrest in June 2006. But defence lawyer John Norris contended this was merely an informational document, "not for actual use."
With the defence case for Mr. Ansari now concluded, lawyer Michael Moon will open his case today for 29-year-old Steven Chand, who stands charged with participation in a terrorist group and counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 in association with that group.
Wednesday, May 19, 2010
GOVT. FUNDING FOR JIHADI'S? ROBERT FULFORD
*** Mr. Fulford, I think you've missed the point.
The funding is for at-risk groups who run a serious risk of turning to extremism precisely because they feel the govt. does not care for their situation. It makes it extremely difficult for Muslim groups (who do not receive funding like their counterparts - an obvious bias that stares us in the face) to be able to run programs to counter radicalization, which will soon become the government's problem, like it or not. Believe me, there are not enough CSIS agents to keep up with the acceleration of radicalization, no effective strategies to provide a counter narrative and poor relationship building with the community you need the information from.
Second, how do you suggest we counter the millions of dollars coming from overseas to Mosques here in Toronto and elsewhere? To monitor and counter this IS the govt.'s job not ours yet WE are supposed to compete with them on OUR own dime and time? Be realistic, man!
Third, THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of tax dollars go to house and feed terrorists for years upon years in prisons. They can even get the funding for degrees and other training/study. If you funded ONE youth worker who gets paid HALF of what it costs to house ONE young offender for ONE year - you will save MANY from ending up in jail. It's a little thing called 'prevention is better than cure' and is a wisdom that rings true for all people and faiths. The math and the method make sense.
That the govt. cannot justify giving fractions of the millions that come from outside Canada, or fractions of what you are ALREADY paying just to help the pro-Canadian Muslim groups is truly, counter productive.
The choice is with the government to decide if it wishes to continue taking a hands-off approach with the Muslim community or if they are really serious about fighting extremism and terrorism by helping those who are able to do so.
Do you want to know what kind of people associate themselves with such an anti-assistance attitude: take a look at the postings after your article, Mr. Fulford, they are full of racism, hate of immigrants and white power: the main ingredients of the Nazi's. What does that tell you? They are no different than the jihadi's who post hateful message about non Muslims in the name of free speech and then end up committing crimes.
Govt. (in)action is largely responsible for the radicalization of Muslim youth - don't for a second think you can do this without us because we realize that we cannot do it without you too. We MUST work together otherwise we will BOTH pay a hefty price - ultimately to be paid by the taxpayers anyway. But who cares eh? MS ***
---
After Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty to taking part in the Toronto 18 terrorism plot on Monday, certain Muslims began to admit privately that it’s possible the police were right to charge Ahmad and others with planning to storm Parliament, behead politicians and otherwise assert themselves as jihadi warriors in Canada.
We have all heard many times that official Canada is riddled with Islamophobia, but perhaps in this case the murderous plans of radicalized Muslim youth, and their threat to their fellow Muslims and all other Canadians, must be at least discussed. It’s no longer possible to think that the arrests in 2006 were not justified.
What can be done? How can young Muslim Canadians be persuaded not to turn into radicals? Is it not the responsibility of community elders to steer the young away from the calamity of Islamist passions? One way or another, peaceful Muslims must address this problem that has arisen in their community.
On Wednesday morning, Nazim Baksh, a CBC producer who has been following the story for four years, outlined for Toronto local-radio listeners what he’s heard from Muslims trying to deal with this issue.
As Baksh described it, “The discussion was raised about -- do we get government funding to do de-radicalization programs in Toronto? Which model do we follow?”
That was the first point Baksh made about the conversations, and almost the last one. Muslims wanted to create “an internal program” in the community but, as Baksh explained, the Canadian government has been reluctant to support this kind of initiative. For that reason or some other, no program has taken shape.
Baksh’s Muslim acquaintances are obviously adapting themselves to the Canadian way. Their automatic response is to turn for help to the government. Their plan seems to me a spectacular case of state-dependency, worse even than the issue of funding for Toronto’s Gay Pride parade, discussed in a Post editorial earlier this week.
Surely, those who spoke to Baksh couldn’t have given that idea much thought. It’s obvious that anyone who might conceivably become a violent Islamist would stay as far away as possible from anything supported by the Canadian government. Running that kind of a program on a government grant perfectly defines the term “counter-productive.” Sounds like madness to me. But neither Baksh nor his interviewer on the program, Matt Galloway, raised this point.
It seems a particularly odd position for Muslims to take. Mosques, which do not receive government funding, are said to generate opinions among young Muslims. Why should mosques not provide the “deradicalization” education on their own initiative (and dime)? Much of the world, including many Muslims, believes that certain mosques can persuade impressionable young men to become radical Islamists. Why can’t other mosques persuade them otherwise?
Canadians have come to believe that almost any program for human betterment requires, first of all, public funding. Government has always played a large role in education, for instance, but its role has grown steadily greater in recent times. Middle-class Canadians (unlike middle-class Americans) don’t routinely establish college funds for their children; they assume that if their children deserve university education, government will be there to provide it, through grants or guaranteed loans.
We now have come to believe that if the quality of our education lacks something, government must be blamed. We have decided not to blame the teachers or parents. And of course no one would dream of blaming the students.
In health care, the situation is more dire because it is necessarily hidden. We are slowly (and inevitably) developing forms of private medicine that will run parallel to public medicine. But we are so devoted to a deluded belief in public medicine that we must pretend we are maintaining it in its purest sense, as mandated by the Canada Health Act of 1984. Change is inevitable but it must be clandestine. So we handle it in the most awkward way possible.
The belief that nothing can be established without government help now runs into the ugly fact that governments are desperately short of money.
How did we get into this fix? Can we ever get out of it? When even immigrant Muslims become infected by our twisted social system, we need to reconsider how we organize society.
The funding is for at-risk groups who run a serious risk of turning to extremism precisely because they feel the govt. does not care for their situation. It makes it extremely difficult for Muslim groups (who do not receive funding like their counterparts - an obvious bias that stares us in the face) to be able to run programs to counter radicalization, which will soon become the government's problem, like it or not. Believe me, there are not enough CSIS agents to keep up with the acceleration of radicalization, no effective strategies to provide a counter narrative and poor relationship building with the community you need the information from.
Second, how do you suggest we counter the millions of dollars coming from overseas to Mosques here in Toronto and elsewhere? To monitor and counter this IS the govt.'s job not ours yet WE are supposed to compete with them on OUR own dime and time? Be realistic, man!
Third, THOUSANDS and THOUSANDS of tax dollars go to house and feed terrorists for years upon years in prisons. They can even get the funding for degrees and other training/study. If you funded ONE youth worker who gets paid HALF of what it costs to house ONE young offender for ONE year - you will save MANY from ending up in jail. It's a little thing called 'prevention is better than cure' and is a wisdom that rings true for all people and faiths. The math and the method make sense.
That the govt. cannot justify giving fractions of the millions that come from outside Canada, or fractions of what you are ALREADY paying just to help the pro-Canadian Muslim groups is truly, counter productive.
The choice is with the government to decide if it wishes to continue taking a hands-off approach with the Muslim community or if they are really serious about fighting extremism and terrorism by helping those who are able to do so.
Do you want to know what kind of people associate themselves with such an anti-assistance attitude: take a look at the postings after your article, Mr. Fulford, they are full of racism, hate of immigrants and white power: the main ingredients of the Nazi's. What does that tell you? They are no different than the jihadi's who post hateful message about non Muslims in the name of free speech and then end up committing crimes.
Govt. (in)action is largely responsible for the radicalization of Muslim youth - don't for a second think you can do this without us because we realize that we cannot do it without you too. We MUST work together otherwise we will BOTH pay a hefty price - ultimately to be paid by the taxpayers anyway. But who cares eh? MS ***
---
After Fahim Ahmad pleaded guilty to taking part in the Toronto 18 terrorism plot on Monday, certain Muslims began to admit privately that it’s possible the police were right to charge Ahmad and others with planning to storm Parliament, behead politicians and otherwise assert themselves as jihadi warriors in Canada.
We have all heard many times that official Canada is riddled with Islamophobia, but perhaps in this case the murderous plans of radicalized Muslim youth, and their threat to their fellow Muslims and all other Canadians, must be at least discussed. It’s no longer possible to think that the arrests in 2006 were not justified.
What can be done? How can young Muslim Canadians be persuaded not to turn into radicals? Is it not the responsibility of community elders to steer the young away from the calamity of Islamist passions? One way or another, peaceful Muslims must address this problem that has arisen in their community.
On Wednesday morning, Nazim Baksh, a CBC producer who has been following the story for four years, outlined for Toronto local-radio listeners what he’s heard from Muslims trying to deal with this issue.
As Baksh described it, “The discussion was raised about -- do we get government funding to do de-radicalization programs in Toronto? Which model do we follow?”
That was the first point Baksh made about the conversations, and almost the last one. Muslims wanted to create “an internal program” in the community but, as Baksh explained, the Canadian government has been reluctant to support this kind of initiative. For that reason or some other, no program has taken shape.
Baksh’s Muslim acquaintances are obviously adapting themselves to the Canadian way. Their automatic response is to turn for help to the government. Their plan seems to me a spectacular case of state-dependency, worse even than the issue of funding for Toronto’s Gay Pride parade, discussed in a Post editorial earlier this week.
Surely, those who spoke to Baksh couldn’t have given that idea much thought. It’s obvious that anyone who might conceivably become a violent Islamist would stay as far away as possible from anything supported by the Canadian government. Running that kind of a program on a government grant perfectly defines the term “counter-productive.” Sounds like madness to me. But neither Baksh nor his interviewer on the program, Matt Galloway, raised this point.
It seems a particularly odd position for Muslims to take. Mosques, which do not receive government funding, are said to generate opinions among young Muslims. Why should mosques not provide the “deradicalization” education on their own initiative (and dime)? Much of the world, including many Muslims, believes that certain mosques can persuade impressionable young men to become radical Islamists. Why can’t other mosques persuade them otherwise?
Canadians have come to believe that almost any program for human betterment requires, first of all, public funding. Government has always played a large role in education, for instance, but its role has grown steadily greater in recent times. Middle-class Canadians (unlike middle-class Americans) don’t routinely establish college funds for their children; they assume that if their children deserve university education, government will be there to provide it, through grants or guaranteed loans.
We now have come to believe that if the quality of our education lacks something, government must be blamed. We have decided not to blame the teachers or parents. And of course no one would dream of blaming the students.
In health care, the situation is more dire because it is necessarily hidden. We are slowly (and inevitably) developing forms of private medicine that will run parallel to public medicine. But we are so devoted to a deluded belief in public medicine that we must pretend we are maintaining it in its purest sense, as mandated by the Canada Health Act of 1984. Change is inevitable but it must be clandestine. So we handle it in the most awkward way possible.
The belief that nothing can be established without government help now runs into the ugly fact that governments are desperately short of money.
How did we get into this fix? Can we ever get out of it? When even immigrant Muslims become infected by our twisted social system, we need to reconsider how we organize society.
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."
Thursday, January 14, 2010
ZAKARIA AMARA INTERVIEW FROM JUNE 2008 - YOU DECIDE -
*** Arrested June 2006, interviewed June 2008, pleads guilty October 2009, apologizes January 14, 2010, four days before sentencing. MS ***
FROM: http://www.captiveincanada.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=464:zakaria-amaras-speech&catid=38:zakaria-amara&Itemid=76
Source: Zakaria Amara - 13-jun-08
In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
Bismillahir Rahman Nir raheem
Two years have passed since my arrest. When I was taken to Maplehurst I was held in the custody of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team. Whenever I was moved from place to place, they would force me to run with my hands and legs shacked while my back was bent at 90 degrees forward.
When I was first brought to cell 1 unit 1K, I was slammed face first on the floor, a huge shield was then pressed against my back while a guard smeared my face with his boots because I dared lift my head
Whenever I was moved out of my cell, I was required to slide my hands through the hatch of the door, before it was opened in order to be hand cuffed. To do this I had to kneel on both knees. Many times when I put my hands through the hatch, the guards would forcefully pull my wrists so that my forehead would slam against the metal door.
Whenever the guards came in to collect the garbage they would often apply wrestling manoeuvres on me for the purpose of entertaining themselves. They would sometimes apply pressure on sensitive areas such as my temple and fingers. One day when I came back from court, a guard twisted my hands above my head forcing me to skip on one foot back to my cell.
Since then I have languished in solitary confinement, where for the first year on a daily basis, I spent 23 hours and 40 minutes in a cell no bigger than an apartment's washroom.
The 23 hours and 40 minutes became a complete 24 hours when I was transferred to the Don Jail. Since then, I have seen the sun less than 10 times and have gone to the exercise yard less than 30 times.
My health, psychologically and physically is deteriorating. I was planning to testify at my trial but now I am not even sure if I will be mentally capable of doing so by the time it comes around, if it ever does.
(MS: Understand that this is right out of the playbook: complain about your conditions and if you don't say, "torture" somebody else will on your behalf.)
As for the state of this so called Judicial Process, then I must admit I was naïve. I came in two years ago with the expectation of transparency only to be confronted with section 38, complete denial of CSIS disclosure, censorship of vital information in the so-called RCMP disclosure, and the concealing of state agents identities which by law must be revealed as opposed to informants whose identities are protected.
To expect the accused to mount an adequate defence in the face of such barriers, in a case which is political and state entrapment is a live issue, is to expect a frail old man to defend himself with his hands tied behind and eyes blindfolded, against a professional boxer.
I am not being subjective. I realize that all government agencies have secrets that must be protected. However, authorities have in the past used ' National Security' to cover up their dirty work, exculpatory evidence and embarrassing facts. The Maher Arar case is a classic example.
(MS: AH, cite the Maher Arar case and that means EVERYTHING is suspect. Riiight.)
Last year, I was denied the freedom to mix with the other human beings due to the dreamed up danger that I could somehow pose or communicate from within a six-cell block, monitored physically by correctional officers as well as virtually by closed circuit cameras, within a maximum security prison.
During about the same time, I conceded committal to trial for the exchange of having the opportunity to cross-examine a list of witnesses agreed upon by the crown. Both parties signed this agreement yet somehow, we are to believe, there was some alleged ambiguity that allowed the crown to file a direct indictment and effectively breach its undertaking. Now I am in a difficult position of having to cross-examine the main witness in my case, for the first time, at trial.
The unfair manoeuvre has also effectively robbed me of the ability to discover my case, which is a fundamental necessity for developing my defence. This is not an alleged bank robbery or a drug bust. The stakes for the government and the authorities are high thus making the potential for corruption and malice equally high if not higher.
(MS: That's right - this is not a bank robbery or drug bust, this was plotting an act of mass murder so the stakes ARE very high - especially for you.)
During the adult preliminary, Mr. Bond used to monitor our eye blinks in the prisoner box to ensure that we were not violating the communication ban. While he was busy doing that, his star witness Mubin Shiekh was slaughtering the publication ban on National and international airwaves.
(MS: I intended no such thing, violating the ban. I have full respect for the courts, I stand when the judge enters and I give my testimony truthfully and freely as God commands me to. And YOU?)
The crown held and is still holding the accused on various charges based on the desire to exaggerate this case and in order to hamper their bail chances and not on the merits of evidence.
(MS: Merits you recently validated, WHY the deception in this interview? HOW do you expect anyone to believe you?)
These are only some of the main issues that I have. They may very well be supported by law, but at the end of the day, they remain unfair to any mind endowed with the faculty of reason and understanding. As St. Augustine said "An unjust law is no law at all".
I never asked anyone to believe that I was innocent. All I ever asked for was a chance to prove it. After two years, I have come to realize that even this simple request is too much to expect from this process.
In conclusion, to continue to respect such a process is an insult to my dignity, the very little intellect that I have and my faith.
I will God willing, continue to defend myself through my lawyers, and I will continue to obey orders made by the court with the exception of the order to show it respect since I can't be expected to give what I no longer have. This, in effect, means that I will no longer stand up for any judge as he/she enters and leaves the courtroom.
(MS: Yet you demand justice from this same court? You started off with contempt, with hate and fabrication, with sleight of hand and plans of destruction...you keep sitting down pal, some of us are the type to step up.)
Based of the rhythm of the past two years, I have extrapolated the tune of the coming two years, and I'm not willing to be the fool that dances to it.
(MS: Ah but you have admitted the role of fool - now dance! dance!)
God willing, the complete and undistorted truth about the ' Toronto18' will one day surface.
(MS: Oh it has, Zakaria, it has and it's all thanks to your admission and the mountain of evidence.)
Zakaria Amara
Accused in Toronto18 case
Don jail
FROM: http://www.captiveincanada.com/cms/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=464:zakaria-amaras-speech&catid=38:zakaria-amara&Itemid=76
Source: Zakaria Amara - 13-jun-08
In the Name of Allah the Most Merciful the Most Compassionate
Bismillahir Rahman Nir raheem
Two years have passed since my arrest. When I was taken to Maplehurst I was held in the custody of the Institutional Crisis Intervention Team. Whenever I was moved from place to place, they would force me to run with my hands and legs shacked while my back was bent at 90 degrees forward.
When I was first brought to cell 1 unit 1K, I was slammed face first on the floor, a huge shield was then pressed against my back while a guard smeared my face with his boots because I dared lift my head
Whenever I was moved out of my cell, I was required to slide my hands through the hatch of the door, before it was opened in order to be hand cuffed. To do this I had to kneel on both knees. Many times when I put my hands through the hatch, the guards would forcefully pull my wrists so that my forehead would slam against the metal door.
Whenever the guards came in to collect the garbage they would often apply wrestling manoeuvres on me for the purpose of entertaining themselves. They would sometimes apply pressure on sensitive areas such as my temple and fingers. One day when I came back from court, a guard twisted my hands above my head forcing me to skip on one foot back to my cell.
Since then I have languished in solitary confinement, where for the first year on a daily basis, I spent 23 hours and 40 minutes in a cell no bigger than an apartment's washroom.
The 23 hours and 40 minutes became a complete 24 hours when I was transferred to the Don Jail. Since then, I have seen the sun less than 10 times and have gone to the exercise yard less than 30 times.
My health, psychologically and physically is deteriorating. I was planning to testify at my trial but now I am not even sure if I will be mentally capable of doing so by the time it comes around, if it ever does.
(MS: Understand that this is right out of the playbook: complain about your conditions and if you don't say, "torture" somebody else will on your behalf.)
As for the state of this so called Judicial Process, then I must admit I was naïve. I came in two years ago with the expectation of transparency only to be confronted with section 38, complete denial of CSIS disclosure, censorship of vital information in the so-called RCMP disclosure, and the concealing of state agents identities which by law must be revealed as opposed to informants whose identities are protected.
To expect the accused to mount an adequate defence in the face of such barriers, in a case which is political and state entrapment is a live issue, is to expect a frail old man to defend himself with his hands tied behind and eyes blindfolded, against a professional boxer.
I am not being subjective. I realize that all government agencies have secrets that must be protected. However, authorities have in the past used ' National Security' to cover up their dirty work, exculpatory evidence and embarrassing facts. The Maher Arar case is a classic example.
(MS: AH, cite the Maher Arar case and that means EVERYTHING is suspect. Riiight.)
Last year, I was denied the freedom to mix with the other human beings due to the dreamed up danger that I could somehow pose or communicate from within a six-cell block, monitored physically by correctional officers as well as virtually by closed circuit cameras, within a maximum security prison.
During about the same time, I conceded committal to trial for the exchange of having the opportunity to cross-examine a list of witnesses agreed upon by the crown. Both parties signed this agreement yet somehow, we are to believe, there was some alleged ambiguity that allowed the crown to file a direct indictment and effectively breach its undertaking. Now I am in a difficult position of having to cross-examine the main witness in my case, for the first time, at trial.
The unfair manoeuvre has also effectively robbed me of the ability to discover my case, which is a fundamental necessity for developing my defence. This is not an alleged bank robbery or a drug bust. The stakes for the government and the authorities are high thus making the potential for corruption and malice equally high if not higher.
(MS: That's right - this is not a bank robbery or drug bust, this was plotting an act of mass murder so the stakes ARE very high - especially for you.)
During the adult preliminary, Mr. Bond used to monitor our eye blinks in the prisoner box to ensure that we were not violating the communication ban. While he was busy doing that, his star witness Mubin Shiekh was slaughtering the publication ban on National and international airwaves.
(MS: I intended no such thing, violating the ban. I have full respect for the courts, I stand when the judge enters and I give my testimony truthfully and freely as God commands me to. And YOU?)
The crown held and is still holding the accused on various charges based on the desire to exaggerate this case and in order to hamper their bail chances and not on the merits of evidence.
(MS: Merits you recently validated, WHY the deception in this interview? HOW do you expect anyone to believe you?)
These are only some of the main issues that I have. They may very well be supported by law, but at the end of the day, they remain unfair to any mind endowed with the faculty of reason and understanding. As St. Augustine said "An unjust law is no law at all".
I never asked anyone to believe that I was innocent. All I ever asked for was a chance to prove it. After two years, I have come to realize that even this simple request is too much to expect from this process.
In conclusion, to continue to respect such a process is an insult to my dignity, the very little intellect that I have and my faith.
I will God willing, continue to defend myself through my lawyers, and I will continue to obey orders made by the court with the exception of the order to show it respect since I can't be expected to give what I no longer have. This, in effect, means that I will no longer stand up for any judge as he/she enters and leaves the courtroom.
(MS: Yet you demand justice from this same court? You started off with contempt, with hate and fabrication, with sleight of hand and plans of destruction...you keep sitting down pal, some of us are the type to step up.)
Based of the rhythm of the past two years, I have extrapolated the tune of the coming two years, and I'm not willing to be the fool that dances to it.
(MS: Ah but you have admitted the role of fool - now dance! dance!)
God willing, the complete and undistorted truth about the ' Toronto18' will one day surface.
(MS: Oh it has, Zakaria, it has and it's all thanks to your admission and the mountain of evidence.)
Zakaria Amara
Accused in Toronto18 case
Don jail
BLOOD GLASS AND DEBRIS EVERYWHERE: TORONTO BOMB PLOT
FROM: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/13/%E2%80%9Cthere-will-be-blood-glass-and-debris-everywhere%E2%80%9D/
For a man who insists he is innocent, Shareef Abdelhaleem sure spent a lot of time worrying about police surveillance teams. The accused Canadian terrorist was so afraid of being photographed by CSIS and the RCMP that he grew increasingly paranoid about meeting in certain places or being seen with certain people, especially outdoors. Three weeks before being rounded up as part of the “Toronto 18”, he asked Zakaria Amara—the group’s confessed ringleader—whether he thought the authorities were watching him. “No,” he assured him. “Not anymore.”
The irony, of course, is that Abdelhaleem’s every word—including that chat with Amara—was being secretly recorded by the very investigators he was desperate to dodge. As he now painfully realizes, anti-terror cops used at least two tiny microphones to capture his conversations: one inside the Canadian Tire gas station where Amara worked, and another hidden somewhere on the body of a police informant named Shaher Elsohemy. In other words, whenever Abdelhaleem mused about whether police were watching him, he was speaking directly to them.
Abdelhaleem’s stress level about being caught fluctuated depending on the day, says Elsohemy, who is now testifying at the criminal trial of his old “friend.” On May 15, 2006, for example, Abdelhaleem told the RCMP’s undercover asset that “he does not believe authorities know anything about this plot.” Three days later, though, he said a CSIS spy followed he and Amara as they drove around Mississauga. “He told me they went after [the CSIS agent] and tried to check him out,” Elsohemy testified on Wednesday. “They videotaped him, too. Mr. Abdelhaleem believed his picture was taken, too.”
Now 34, Abdelhaleem is charged with participating in a now-infamous terrorist plot to detonate truck bombs at three locations in southern Ontario, including the Toronto Stock Exchange. Although 18 suspects were rounded up in the sensational raids of June 2, 2006, only four were accused of actually participating in the bomb conspiracy. Three of those men, including the mastermind Amara, have since pleaded guilty, but Abdelhaleem has chosen to fight the charges in court. He denies any involvement, and claims that the RCMP’s prized informant cannot be believed because he was paid $4 million for his covert services.
Despite the other confessions, Abdelhaleem is considered innocent until proven guilty. However, in order to walk away a free man, he must convince a judge that he was oblivious to a murderous plot that clearly unfolded right under his nose—and, as the wiretaps reveal, he spent hours talking about.
“He described it as ‘the perfect crime,’ ” said Elsohemy, answering questions from the prosecution. “He said this plot will screw Stephen Harper, the government and the military, and might lead to Canada puling its troops out of Afghanistan because they are not tough like the British and the Americans.”
A former Air Canada flight attendant with a university degree in agricultural engineering, Elsohemy infiltrated the group by “dangling” his ability to acquire large quantities of explosive fertilizer from his “uncle’s” company. Amara, who had already built and perfected a cell phone-controlled detonator, trusted Elsohemy enough to place a $5,500 order for three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, the missing component of his would-be bombs.
According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem was Amara’s loyal deputy—the buffer between the ringleader and his newfound chemical supplier. It was Abdelhaleem, Elsohemy said, who placed Amara’s order, delivered envelopes full of cash, and boasted that their attack would “shut down” the entire country.
Testifying for the third consecutive day, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem was obsessed with every aspect of the plot, from how to store the fertilizer to how to profit from the explosion. “Shareef went to a library and checked the stock market situation after Sept. 11th,” he testified. “He said our money could be increased seven times.”
In one breath, Abdelhaleem talked about fleeing the country 15 days before the attack (perhaps to his sister’s house in Cleveland) in order to avoid suspicion. In the next, he talked about being sentenced to ten years at Kingston Penitentiary, “where he will be considered a leader” by other Muslim inmates. “He also explained to me that when he thinks about being arrested, it is only after the fact, after the bombings,” said Elsohemy, a stocky, well-spoken man with a bald head and a pair of glasses. “He never imagined that the arrests would happen before the bombs were detonated.”
As for those bombs, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem relished in the carnage they would cause. One of the three selected targets, the CSIS headquarters in downtown Toronto, “will be affected from the main floor to the top floor,” Abdelhaleem said. “There will be blood, glass and debris everywhere.” In his words, the attack will be dubbed “The Battle of Toronto.”
But of all the tough talking he did in the weeks leading up to the arrests, surveillance was a recurring theme. According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem believed that because he was in charge of purchasing the ammonium nitrate—and not driving one of the three truck bombs—he could be not convicted of a serious offence. “He said he will probably be charged with assisting, but not performing,” said Elsohemy, who has yet to be cross-examined. “In his opinion, as he described it to me, he thought there was a difference between assisting and performing. If he didn’t drive the truck, that was not performing.”
In some ways, it’s hard to blame Abdelhaleem for his flawed logic. Determined to keep his plot a secret, Amara didn’t share every aspect with every accomplice. Two of his underlings—Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya—were tasked with renting a storage facility and unloading the delivery of ammonium nitrate. Two others—Abdelhaleem (allegedly) and Elsohemy—were in charge of securing the chemicals. The parallel groups never crossed paths. In fact, Abdelhaleem did not even meet his two Saads until they were arrested and thrown in the same prison wing.
Which is exactly the way Abdelhaleem preferred it, Elsohemy said. In the days before the bust, Elsohemy began to press Amara for more details. He wanted to know how the detonators worked, how many people were involved in the plot, and when the event would occur. When Amara suggested that the three of them meet at a Toronto park to discuss specifics, Abdelhaleem refused. He didn’t want to draw any further attention to himself, Elsohemy said, and he questioned his friend for wanting to know so much. “It’s better not to know,” he said, according to Elsohemy. “If you are arrested and you go under a lie detector test, if you don’t know something, you don’t know it.” Translation: Abdelhaleem was more than happy to be a naïve accomplice, because the consequences were far less severe.
Instead of a meeting, Amara suggested that Elsohemy record his questions on a USB memory stick and hand it to Abdelhaleem. Again, Abdelhaleem was furious. “You shouldn’t ask questions about things that don’t involve you.” But Abdelhaleem did as he was told, Elsohemy said. He delivered the USB stick to Amara.
On March 26, one week before Elsohemy and his entire family vanished into the witness protection program, he met the ringleader at the Café de Khan restaurant in Mississauga, in the same strip mall as the Al-Rahman Islamic Centre, the mosque where they attended Friday prayers. Amara handed him a USB stick. It included an audio message with answers to all of Elsohemy’s questions, and a short video depicting his homemade detonator in action (on the carpet of Amara’s living room, surrounded by his daughter’s toys).
Later that day, Elsohemy drove to an RCMP safe house and handed the memory stick to investigators. Played in court on Wednesday, Amara’s message assures Elsohemy that “nobody even knows you exist”—except two people. Amara. And Shareef Abdelhaleem.
The informant is back on the stand Friday morning.
For a man who insists he is innocent, Shareef Abdelhaleem sure spent a lot of time worrying about police surveillance teams. The accused Canadian terrorist was so afraid of being photographed by CSIS and the RCMP that he grew increasingly paranoid about meeting in certain places or being seen with certain people, especially outdoors. Three weeks before being rounded up as part of the “Toronto 18”, he asked Zakaria Amara—the group’s confessed ringleader—whether he thought the authorities were watching him. “No,” he assured him. “Not anymore.”
The irony, of course, is that Abdelhaleem’s every word—including that chat with Amara—was being secretly recorded by the very investigators he was desperate to dodge. As he now painfully realizes, anti-terror cops used at least two tiny microphones to capture his conversations: one inside the Canadian Tire gas station where Amara worked, and another hidden somewhere on the body of a police informant named Shaher Elsohemy. In other words, whenever Abdelhaleem mused about whether police were watching him, he was speaking directly to them.
Abdelhaleem’s stress level about being caught fluctuated depending on the day, says Elsohemy, who is now testifying at the criminal trial of his old “friend.” On May 15, 2006, for example, Abdelhaleem told the RCMP’s undercover asset that “he does not believe authorities know anything about this plot.” Three days later, though, he said a CSIS spy followed he and Amara as they drove around Mississauga. “He told me they went after [the CSIS agent] and tried to check him out,” Elsohemy testified on Wednesday. “They videotaped him, too. Mr. Abdelhaleem believed his picture was taken, too.”
Now 34, Abdelhaleem is charged with participating in a now-infamous terrorist plot to detonate truck bombs at three locations in southern Ontario, including the Toronto Stock Exchange. Although 18 suspects were rounded up in the sensational raids of June 2, 2006, only four were accused of actually participating in the bomb conspiracy. Three of those men, including the mastermind Amara, have since pleaded guilty, but Abdelhaleem has chosen to fight the charges in court. He denies any involvement, and claims that the RCMP’s prized informant cannot be believed because he was paid $4 million for his covert services.
Despite the other confessions, Abdelhaleem is considered innocent until proven guilty. However, in order to walk away a free man, he must convince a judge that he was oblivious to a murderous plot that clearly unfolded right under his nose—and, as the wiretaps reveal, he spent hours talking about.
“He described it as ‘the perfect crime,’ ” said Elsohemy, answering questions from the prosecution. “He said this plot will screw Stephen Harper, the government and the military, and might lead to Canada puling its troops out of Afghanistan because they are not tough like the British and the Americans.”
A former Air Canada flight attendant with a university degree in agricultural engineering, Elsohemy infiltrated the group by “dangling” his ability to acquire large quantities of explosive fertilizer from his “uncle’s” company. Amara, who had already built and perfected a cell phone-controlled detonator, trusted Elsohemy enough to place a $5,500 order for three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, the missing component of his would-be bombs.
According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem was Amara’s loyal deputy—the buffer between the ringleader and his newfound chemical supplier. It was Abdelhaleem, Elsohemy said, who placed Amara’s order, delivered envelopes full of cash, and boasted that their attack would “shut down” the entire country.
Testifying for the third consecutive day, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem was obsessed with every aspect of the plot, from how to store the fertilizer to how to profit from the explosion. “Shareef went to a library and checked the stock market situation after Sept. 11th,” he testified. “He said our money could be increased seven times.”
In one breath, Abdelhaleem talked about fleeing the country 15 days before the attack (perhaps to his sister’s house in Cleveland) in order to avoid suspicion. In the next, he talked about being sentenced to ten years at Kingston Penitentiary, “where he will be considered a leader” by other Muslim inmates. “He also explained to me that when he thinks about being arrested, it is only after the fact, after the bombings,” said Elsohemy, a stocky, well-spoken man with a bald head and a pair of glasses. “He never imagined that the arrests would happen before the bombs were detonated.”
As for those bombs, Elsohemy said Abdelhaleem relished in the carnage they would cause. One of the three selected targets, the CSIS headquarters in downtown Toronto, “will be affected from the main floor to the top floor,” Abdelhaleem said. “There will be blood, glass and debris everywhere.” In his words, the attack will be dubbed “The Battle of Toronto.”
But of all the tough talking he did in the weeks leading up to the arrests, surveillance was a recurring theme. According to Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem believed that because he was in charge of purchasing the ammonium nitrate—and not driving one of the three truck bombs—he could be not convicted of a serious offence. “He said he will probably be charged with assisting, but not performing,” said Elsohemy, who has yet to be cross-examined. “In his opinion, as he described it to me, he thought there was a difference between assisting and performing. If he didn’t drive the truck, that was not performing.”
In some ways, it’s hard to blame Abdelhaleem for his flawed logic. Determined to keep his plot a secret, Amara didn’t share every aspect with every accomplice. Two of his underlings—Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya—were tasked with renting a storage facility and unloading the delivery of ammonium nitrate. Two others—Abdelhaleem (allegedly) and Elsohemy—were in charge of securing the chemicals. The parallel groups never crossed paths. In fact, Abdelhaleem did not even meet his two Saads until they were arrested and thrown in the same prison wing.
Which is exactly the way Abdelhaleem preferred it, Elsohemy said. In the days before the bust, Elsohemy began to press Amara for more details. He wanted to know how the detonators worked, how many people were involved in the plot, and when the event would occur. When Amara suggested that the three of them meet at a Toronto park to discuss specifics, Abdelhaleem refused. He didn’t want to draw any further attention to himself, Elsohemy said, and he questioned his friend for wanting to know so much. “It’s better not to know,” he said, according to Elsohemy. “If you are arrested and you go under a lie detector test, if you don’t know something, you don’t know it.” Translation: Abdelhaleem was more than happy to be a naïve accomplice, because the consequences were far less severe.
Instead of a meeting, Amara suggested that Elsohemy record his questions on a USB memory stick and hand it to Abdelhaleem. Again, Abdelhaleem was furious. “You shouldn’t ask questions about things that don’t involve you.” But Abdelhaleem did as he was told, Elsohemy said. He delivered the USB stick to Amara.
On March 26, one week before Elsohemy and his entire family vanished into the witness protection program, he met the ringleader at the Café de Khan restaurant in Mississauga, in the same strip mall as the Al-Rahman Islamic Centre, the mosque where they attended Friday prayers. Amara handed him a USB stick. It included an audio message with answers to all of Elsohemy’s questions, and a short video depicting his homemade detonator in action (on the carpet of Amara’s living room, surrounded by his daughter’s toys).
Later that day, Elsohemy drove to an RCMP safe house and handed the memory stick to investigators. Played in court on Wednesday, Amara’s message assures Elsohemy that “nobody even knows you exist”—except two people. Amara. And Shareef Abdelhaleem.
The informant is back on the stand Friday morning.
Tuesday, January 12, 2010
TORONTO BOMB PLOT: A FATHER'S FATWA?
*** Charge and arrest him if the info checks out. MS ***
FROM: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/13/accused-bomb-plotter-was-acting-on-his-fathers-advice-informant/
Accused bomb plotter was acting on his father’s advice: informant
Abdelhaleem had “no doubts about the Islamic correctness” of the planned bombing
by Michael Friscolanti on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 11:26am
An accused Canadian terrorist on trial for his role in an attempted bomb plot had the full support of his father, a prominent Muslim scholar who assured his son that an attack on Canadian soil was “Islamically correct,” and if innocent civilians are killed, it is “their destiny.”
The damning allegation—which the father vehemently denies—was leveled Tuesday during another round of testimony by Shaher Elsohemy, a civilian informant who was paid more than $4 million to infiltrate the so-called “Toronto 18.” Elsohemy, whose entire family is now in the witness protection program, said Shareef Abdelhaleem sought the advice of his dad, Tariq, before committing himself to mass murder. “Abdelhaleem said he obtained a religious fatwa from his father,” he testified on Tuesday. “He told me his father told him there was nothing wrong with it. In other words, it was acceptable. And if civilians were to be there, that was their destiny.”
With his dad’s approval, Elsohemy said, Abdelhaleem stopped wavering and started acting. He urged the RCMP’s undercover mole to purchase three tonnes of explosive fertilizer, brainstormed ways to profit from an attack, and suggested to the other suspects that, for maximum effect, they trigger the explosions on three consecutive days. “He informed me that by obtaining this fatwa from his father, things are clear for him,” Elsohemy said. “He has no doubts about the Islamic correctness. Had there been before, there is no doubt anymore.”
Tariq Abdelhaleem, Shareef’s father, is a civil engineer by training and a lecturer at the Dar Al-Arqam Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ont. Until recently, the 67-year-old worked on a contract basis for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that oversees the country’s nuclear reactors. Because he’s scheduled to testify as a witness for the defence, Tariq is not allowed attend any other part of the hearing. However, when contacted by Maclean’s via e-mail, he called Elsohemy a liar. “I have never said such a thing…what do you expect him to say!” he wrote. “I have been consistent throughout my life, in my writings and speeches, that it is completely un-Islamic to kill any person in Canada or anywhere else.” He added later: “This is [Elsohemy’s] day in court. We will have ours.”
Of the 18 suspects rounded up in the summer of 2006, only four were accused of actually participating in the bomb plot that dominated media coverage of the case. The other suspects, though charged with terrorism crimes, had no idea that a core group was armed with remote-controlled detonators and a list of three targets: the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto headquarters of Canada’s spy agency, and an unnamed military base. All they needed to complete their plan was a deadly batch of explosive fertilizer. Unfortunately for them, the Muslim businessman they trusted to orchestrate that delivery turned out to be on the RCMP’s payroll.
Three of the four bombing suspects, including the ringleader, have since confessed and pleaded guilty, but Abdelhaleem is fighting the charges in court, claiming he had no knowledge of what the others were planning, and that Shaher Elsohemy was motivated by dollar signs, not the truth. When his trial finally began on Monday, he laid eyes on his old “friend” for the first time in almost four years.
Although much has been made of the mole’s hefty compensation (many in the Muslim community have branded Elsohemy a traitor) his payday garnered barely a mention during his first two days on the witness stand. Instead, Elsohemy provided a blow-by-blow account of how he went from an Air Canada flight attendant with a slew of side businesses to the Mounties’ primary asset inside the country’s biggest anti-terror bust. Among the many revelations, one thing is now clear: there is a long history of bad blood between the Elsohemys and the Abdelhaleems.
Their paths first crossed in 2004, when Elsohemy, looking to pursue a “proper Islamic education,” enrolled in weekend classes at Dar Al-Arqam. His teacher was Tariq Abdelhaleem; Shareef was one of his classmates. “Our relationship started to go from there,” he testified. They went to the gym together, ate Chinese food, and later booked a weeklong vacation to Morocco with Elsohemy’s younger brother. That’s when the trouble began.
Near the end of the trip, Abdelhaleem accused the younger brother of stealing his money; Elsohemy sided with his friend, forcing his sibling to hand over the cash. Back in Canada, things only got worse. When someone smashed the front windshield of Abdelhaleem’s convertible BMW, he again pointed the finger at Elsohemy’s little brother. And this time, Tariq—his teacher—joined in on the accusations. “I had respect for both Shareef and Tariq Abdelhaleem, but things became a little bit shaky,” Elsohemy testified. “The threats were just increasing.” By the end of 2005, Shaher and Shareef were no longer speaking to one another.
In yet another twist, Elsohemy was dealing with a separate headache at the same time: U.S. Customs. For reasons that remain unclear, the Americans wouldn’t let him board a Miami-bound jet, jeopardizing his job as a flight attendant. Air Canada, he says, told him to stay home until the matter was resolved. Then, in December 2005, he received a surprise phone call from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The spy agency wanted a meeting, and he happily obliged, anxious to clear up any misunderstanding about his border problems.
He was so anxious, in fact, that he offered the CSIS agent a juicy hypothesis: Maybe the Americans are suspicious of me because Tariq Abdelhaleem is my teacher?
Indeed, the elder Abdelhaleem is no stranger to CSIS. Long before the son was accused of plotting death and destruction, Canada’s spies were keeping a close eye on the father. Abdelhaleem himself admits that his phones are tapped and his e-mails are monitored. Why? “Because I talk,” he told Maclean’s two years ago. “But I don’t condone violence. I never condone violence. I swear to God—to Allah in heaven—if I know somebody is going to do this, the first thing to do is to go and report it. I’m not going to hesitate for one second. It’s totally wrong to kill innocent people. How can you kill innocent people? It’s not in my book.”
After his son was taken into custody, Tariq launched captiveincanada.com, a website that “appeals to the Canadian intellect and conscience” to learn the truth about his son and the rest of the “Toronto 18.” In a post published five months ago, Abdelhaleem revealed that CSIS “denied me a permit to enter my job site as a Nuclear Planner; a job I held for the last 20 years in Canada.” He continued: “It is obvious that the agency has determined that I am a dangerous person, all of a sudden, in spite of the fact that I have no role [in] the so called ‘terror’ plot, or, otherwise, I would be in a cell room wearing an orange jumper!” (Whether CSIS has truly banned him from nuclear plants has not been independently confirmed).
In February 2006, Shareef Abdelhaleem rekindled his relationship with Elsohemy, right around the time he started working with CSIS, and later, the RCMP. Elsohemy testified that his friend was a changed man. A talented computer programmer who earned a six-figure income was suddenly obsessed with jihad videos and joining the fight in Afghanistan. By April 2006, he was obsessed with something else: planting truck bombs in downtown Toronto. A heavy man with a dark black beard and a shaved head, Abdelhaleem is now facing two charges under the Criminal Code: participation in a terrorist organization, and intent to cause an explosion. Despite the other confessions, he is considered innocent unless proven guilty.
Maclean’s requested an interview with him last week, but through his father, he declined. During a series of jailhouse discussions in 2008, however, Abdelhaleem professed his innocence and vowed to sue the federal government after his acquittal. “I was not involved,” he said. “I am just listening to people talking. I didn’t do anything, I didn’t build no damn detonator, I didn’t pay for anything, I didn’t rent anything. It wasn’t my idea.”
When asked about Elsohemy, he answered this way: “I always knew what a low-life he was. I don’t care to see him in my life again, but I need him to go on the stand so I can get the answers I want so I can walk. Let’s put it this way: He has reason to lie. He has very strong motivations, which will come up in court.”
The informant is back on the stand Wednesday morning.
FROM: http://www2.macleans.ca/2010/01/13/accused-bomb-plotter-was-acting-on-his-fathers-advice-informant/
Accused bomb plotter was acting on his father’s advice: informant
Abdelhaleem had “no doubts about the Islamic correctness” of the planned bombing
by Michael Friscolanti on Wednesday, January 13, 2010 11:26am
An accused Canadian terrorist on trial for his role in an attempted bomb plot had the full support of his father, a prominent Muslim scholar who assured his son that an attack on Canadian soil was “Islamically correct,” and if innocent civilians are killed, it is “their destiny.”
The damning allegation—which the father vehemently denies—was leveled Tuesday during another round of testimony by Shaher Elsohemy, a civilian informant who was paid more than $4 million to infiltrate the so-called “Toronto 18.” Elsohemy, whose entire family is now in the witness protection program, said Shareef Abdelhaleem sought the advice of his dad, Tariq, before committing himself to mass murder. “Abdelhaleem said he obtained a religious fatwa from his father,” he testified on Tuesday. “He told me his father told him there was nothing wrong with it. In other words, it was acceptable. And if civilians were to be there, that was their destiny.”
With his dad’s approval, Elsohemy said, Abdelhaleem stopped wavering and started acting. He urged the RCMP’s undercover mole to purchase three tonnes of explosive fertilizer, brainstormed ways to profit from an attack, and suggested to the other suspects that, for maximum effect, they trigger the explosions on three consecutive days. “He informed me that by obtaining this fatwa from his father, things are clear for him,” Elsohemy said. “He has no doubts about the Islamic correctness. Had there been before, there is no doubt anymore.”
Tariq Abdelhaleem, Shareef’s father, is a civil engineer by training and a lecturer at the Dar Al-Arqam Islamic Centre in Mississauga, Ont. Until recently, the 67-year-old worked on a contract basis for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., the Crown corporation that oversees the country’s nuclear reactors. Because he’s scheduled to testify as a witness for the defence, Tariq is not allowed attend any other part of the hearing. However, when contacted by Maclean’s via e-mail, he called Elsohemy a liar. “I have never said such a thing…what do you expect him to say!” he wrote. “I have been consistent throughout my life, in my writings and speeches, that it is completely un-Islamic to kill any person in Canada or anywhere else.” He added later: “This is [Elsohemy’s] day in court. We will have ours.”
Of the 18 suspects rounded up in the summer of 2006, only four were accused of actually participating in the bomb plot that dominated media coverage of the case. The other suspects, though charged with terrorism crimes, had no idea that a core group was armed with remote-controlled detonators and a list of three targets: the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto headquarters of Canada’s spy agency, and an unnamed military base. All they needed to complete their plan was a deadly batch of explosive fertilizer. Unfortunately for them, the Muslim businessman they trusted to orchestrate that delivery turned out to be on the RCMP’s payroll.
Three of the four bombing suspects, including the ringleader, have since confessed and pleaded guilty, but Abdelhaleem is fighting the charges in court, claiming he had no knowledge of what the others were planning, and that Shaher Elsohemy was motivated by dollar signs, not the truth. When his trial finally began on Monday, he laid eyes on his old “friend” for the first time in almost four years.
Although much has been made of the mole’s hefty compensation (many in the Muslim community have branded Elsohemy a traitor) his payday garnered barely a mention during his first two days on the witness stand. Instead, Elsohemy provided a blow-by-blow account of how he went from an Air Canada flight attendant with a slew of side businesses to the Mounties’ primary asset inside the country’s biggest anti-terror bust. Among the many revelations, one thing is now clear: there is a long history of bad blood between the Elsohemys and the Abdelhaleems.
Their paths first crossed in 2004, when Elsohemy, looking to pursue a “proper Islamic education,” enrolled in weekend classes at Dar Al-Arqam. His teacher was Tariq Abdelhaleem; Shareef was one of his classmates. “Our relationship started to go from there,” he testified. They went to the gym together, ate Chinese food, and later booked a weeklong vacation to Morocco with Elsohemy’s younger brother. That’s when the trouble began.
Near the end of the trip, Abdelhaleem accused the younger brother of stealing his money; Elsohemy sided with his friend, forcing his sibling to hand over the cash. Back in Canada, things only got worse. When someone smashed the front windshield of Abdelhaleem’s convertible BMW, he again pointed the finger at Elsohemy’s little brother. And this time, Tariq—his teacher—joined in on the accusations. “I had respect for both Shareef and Tariq Abdelhaleem, but things became a little bit shaky,” Elsohemy testified. “The threats were just increasing.” By the end of 2005, Shaher and Shareef were no longer speaking to one another.
In yet another twist, Elsohemy was dealing with a separate headache at the same time: U.S. Customs. For reasons that remain unclear, the Americans wouldn’t let him board a Miami-bound jet, jeopardizing his job as a flight attendant. Air Canada, he says, told him to stay home until the matter was resolved. Then, in December 2005, he received a surprise phone call from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). The spy agency wanted a meeting, and he happily obliged, anxious to clear up any misunderstanding about his border problems.
He was so anxious, in fact, that he offered the CSIS agent a juicy hypothesis: Maybe the Americans are suspicious of me because Tariq Abdelhaleem is my teacher?
Indeed, the elder Abdelhaleem is no stranger to CSIS. Long before the son was accused of plotting death and destruction, Canada’s spies were keeping a close eye on the father. Abdelhaleem himself admits that his phones are tapped and his e-mails are monitored. Why? “Because I talk,” he told Maclean’s two years ago. “But I don’t condone violence. I never condone violence. I swear to God—to Allah in heaven—if I know somebody is going to do this, the first thing to do is to go and report it. I’m not going to hesitate for one second. It’s totally wrong to kill innocent people. How can you kill innocent people? It’s not in my book.”
After his son was taken into custody, Tariq launched captiveincanada.com, a website that “appeals to the Canadian intellect and conscience” to learn the truth about his son and the rest of the “Toronto 18.” In a post published five months ago, Abdelhaleem revealed that CSIS “denied me a permit to enter my job site as a Nuclear Planner; a job I held for the last 20 years in Canada.” He continued: “It is obvious that the agency has determined that I am a dangerous person, all of a sudden, in spite of the fact that I have no role [in] the so called ‘terror’ plot, or, otherwise, I would be in a cell room wearing an orange jumper!” (Whether CSIS has truly banned him from nuclear plants has not been independently confirmed).
In February 2006, Shareef Abdelhaleem rekindled his relationship with Elsohemy, right around the time he started working with CSIS, and later, the RCMP. Elsohemy testified that his friend was a changed man. A talented computer programmer who earned a six-figure income was suddenly obsessed with jihad videos and joining the fight in Afghanistan. By April 2006, he was obsessed with something else: planting truck bombs in downtown Toronto. A heavy man with a dark black beard and a shaved head, Abdelhaleem is now facing two charges under the Criminal Code: participation in a terrorist organization, and intent to cause an explosion. Despite the other confessions, he is considered innocent unless proven guilty.
Maclean’s requested an interview with him last week, but through his father, he declined. During a series of jailhouse discussions in 2008, however, Abdelhaleem professed his innocence and vowed to sue the federal government after his acquittal. “I was not involved,” he said. “I am just listening to people talking. I didn’t do anything, I didn’t build no damn detonator, I didn’t pay for anything, I didn’t rent anything. It wasn’t my idea.”
When asked about Elsohemy, he answered this way: “I always knew what a low-life he was. I don’t care to see him in my life again, but I need him to go on the stand so I can get the answers I want so I can walk. Let’s put it this way: He has reason to lie. He has very strong motivations, which will come up in court.”
The informant is back on the stand Wednesday morning.
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
ASSOCIATES OF TORONTO 18 SENT TO PRISON
SOURCE: http://www.thestar.com/news/world/article/738757--u-s-associates-of-toronto-18-sent-to-prison
ATLANTA–Two Georgia men with ties to members of the so-called Toronto 18 terror cell have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for conspiring to support terrorist groups by sending homemade videos of U.S. landmarks overseas.
Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was sentenced to 17 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of four terror-related charges in August. He faced a maximum sentence of as many as 60 years behind bars.
Hours later, Sadequee's friend, Syed Haris Ahmed, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a charge of conspiring to support terrorist groups. The 25-year-old could have received as many as 15 years in prison after his June conviction.
The men, who are both American citizens, were also sentenced to 30 years in supervised release.
Court heard the co-conspirators developed relationships over the Internet with other supporters of violent jihad in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.
In March 2005, they travelled to Toronto by bus to meet members of the Toronto 18, an alleged homegrown terror cell that was broken up by Canadian authorities in June 2006 when 14 men and four youths from the GTA were arrested.
Since the mass arrests, seven of those charged from the Toronto group have had their charges stayed, five have been convicted and six are awaiting trial.
A court in Atlanta was told that during the week-long trip to Canada, the American men met several times, including once in an unidentified Toronto mosque, with two Toronto 18 members, whose trial is expected to start in the spring.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney told the Georgia court that online chatter revealed one of the Toronto men had spoken with Ahmed and Sadequee about going to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, during court proceedings in Toronto, evidence was heard that the trio spoke of attacking oil refineries and military bases, as well as disabling global positioning satellites.
About a month after the Toronto trip, Ahmed and Sadequee travelled to Washington to videotape potential targets for terrorist attacks, including the Pentagon, the Capitol and World Bank.
Later, the "casing videos" were found on the London computer of Al Qaeda online propagandist Younis Tsouli, also known as "Irhabi 007" (Terrorist 007), who is now serving 10 years in prison for inciting terrorist acts over the Internet.
ATLANTA–Two Georgia men with ties to members of the so-called Toronto 18 terror cell have been sentenced to lengthy prison terms for conspiring to support terrorist groups by sending homemade videos of U.S. landmarks overseas.
Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was sentenced to 17 years in prison after a jury found him guilty of four terror-related charges in August. He faced a maximum sentence of as many as 60 years behind bars.
Hours later, Sadequee's friend, Syed Haris Ahmed, was sentenced to 13 years in prison on a charge of conspiring to support terrorist groups. The 25-year-old could have received as many as 15 years in prison after his June conviction.
The men, who are both American citizens, were also sentenced to 30 years in supervised release.
Court heard the co-conspirators developed relationships over the Internet with other supporters of violent jihad in the U.S., Canada, Britain, Pakistan, Bosnia and beyond.
In March 2005, they travelled to Toronto by bus to meet members of the Toronto 18, an alleged homegrown terror cell that was broken up by Canadian authorities in June 2006 when 14 men and four youths from the GTA were arrested.
Since the mass arrests, seven of those charged from the Toronto group have had their charges stayed, five have been convicted and six are awaiting trial.
A court in Atlanta was told that during the week-long trip to Canada, the American men met several times, including once in an unidentified Toronto mosque, with two Toronto 18 members, whose trial is expected to start in the spring.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert McBurney told the Georgia court that online chatter revealed one of the Toronto men had spoken with Ahmed and Sadequee about going to Pakistan.
Meanwhile, during court proceedings in Toronto, evidence was heard that the trio spoke of attacking oil refineries and military bases, as well as disabling global positioning satellites.
About a month after the Toronto trip, Ahmed and Sadequee travelled to Washington to videotape potential targets for terrorist attacks, including the Pentagon, the Capitol and World Bank.
Later, the "casing videos" were found on the London computer of Al Qaeda online propagandist Younis Tsouli, also known as "Irhabi 007" (Terrorist 007), who is now serving 10 years in prison for inciting terrorist acts over the Internet.
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