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Great White North

Canadian guilty of planning homegrown terror plot

2010-03-01

A member of a homegrown terrorist group pleaded guilty Friday to participating in a plot to set off truck bombs in front of Canada's main stock exchange and two government buildings. Jahmaal James entered the plea Friday in an Ontario courtroom. James and 17 others were arrested and charged with terrorism offenses in 2006. The group came to be known as the Toronto 18. The group's members were charged with plotting to set off bombs outside Toronto's Stock Exchange, a building housing Canada's spy agency and a military base. The goal was to scare Canada into removing its troops from Afghanistan. Having already served more than three-and-a-half years in pretrial custody, James was sentenced Friday to one more day. "This was a very hard, arduous and difficult time for him but I think now he can look forward to sort of doing things differently," his lawyer Donald McLeod said outside court. According to court documents, the Muslim convert traveled from Toronto to Pakistan to obtain paramilitary training in November 2005 but he fell seriously ill and the plan to carry out the training was disrupted. "The (prosecution) does not allege that James actually received paramilitary training," prosecutor James Wakely said. According to the statement, James became "disgruntled by the reckless manner" in which the Toronto terror group was being led. The court heard he severed ties with the group before his arrest on June 2, 2006. "He still embraces the religion, but he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that's what he disengaged from," McLeod said. Last month, the mastermind behind the plot, Zakaria Amara, 24, was sentenced to life in prison after pleading guilty. The Jordanian-born Canadian citizen received Canada's first life sentence for a terrorism offense, and the maximum sentence under Canada's anti-terrorism laws. As for the rest of the Toronto 18, one man has been convicted and six others, including James, have pleaded guilty.

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Great White North

Toronto 18 terrorist freed after guilty plea

2010-02-27

Jahmaal James pleaded guilty on Friday to having gone to Pakistan to obtain paramilitary training for the benefit of the so-called Toronto 18 and was to be set free after being sentenced to time served. The now 26-year-old admitted in a Brampton court that he was part of a terrorist group that intended to cause violent jihad. After entering his plea of guilt, the Scarborough man, who has been in pre-trial custody since June 2006, was sentenced by Justice Bruce Durno to seven years and credited with time served. As part of a joint submission, the judge imposed a three-year probation period, a lifetime weapons prohibition and ordered James to provide a DNA sample. James, who converted from Christianity to Islam, chose not to address the near-empty court. Defence lawyer Donald McLeod later told reporters that his client is looking forward to getting on with his life. "This was a very hard, arduous and difficult time for him but I think now he can look forward to sort of doing things differently," said McLeod. He explained his client's attraction to the group as a "blunder, a misstep in his 20s," and described James as a "smart young man who has a lot going for him." According to an agreed statement of fact, James travelled from Toronto to Lahore on Nov. 5, 2005, to obtain paramilitary training at a camp in Waziristan. Crown prosecutor Jason Wakely told the court that James planned to use that training to benefit the Toronto group. James believed that once he arrived overseas, Aabid Khan, a British resident known as "Mr. Fix-It," would help him gain admission to one of the training camps in Pakistan. While there, James made several attempts to meet up with Khan, also known as Abu Omar, but became seriously ill. "This disrupted his plan," Wakely told the judge. "The Crown does not allege that James actually received paramilitary training." When James returned to Toronto, on March 22, 2006, he became disgruntled with the reckless manner in which the Toronto group was being led and eventually pulled away because he feared the authorities were onto them. Defence lawyer McLeod told the court that there was also an "ideological shift" in his client, which explains why James distanced himself from those with extremist views. Outside court, McLeod said that after James returned from Pakistan he delved deeper into Islam and gained a deeper understanding of it. "He still embraces the religion," McLeod said of his client. "But he realizes he may have aligned himself with a portion that was not really to his liking and that's what he disengaged from." James was among 18 people charged with terrorism offences in the summer of 2006. Six have pleaded guilty, two have been found guilty and seven had their charges stayed. Three men still face trial. Khan, meanwhile, is serving a 12-year sentence in Britain after being found guilty in August 2008 of terror-related offences. According to testimony heard during his London trial, Khan travelled often, including to Toronto, where he met with like-minded extremists he had met online and incited them to fight. He intended to rent an apartment for recruits on their way to Pakistan's paramilitary training camps and talked about a "worldwide battle."

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India-Pakistan

The path to terror in Canada

2006-09-03

Three months after the RCMP began arresting 18 suspects accused of plotting terror attacks in Canada, an investigation by the National Post has uncovered a web of links to Pakistan. Today, in the first of four parts, the role of a Pakistani training camp is revealed. BALAKOT, Pakistan - A worn footpath climbs from the Kaghan Valley highway into the lush mountains above the River Kunar, on Kashmir's western frontier. The locals all know where it leads. An hour's walk up the steep trail there is a training camp built by Islamic militants called Madrassa Syed Ahmed Shaheed -- a long barracks building and a few guard posts to keep outsiders away. Young Muslim volunteers from Pakistan and beyond have long trekked here to Balakot to train for jihad, and one of them was allegedly a Canadian named Jahmaal James. A National Post reporter was able to locate the Balakot training camp and hike to its periphery, where an outbuilding could be seen, possibly a guard post. Locals cautioned against visiting the "mujahedeen" camp, saying it was guarded by armed men who detained intruders as spies. "Those people are mental," one man said. An accused member of the Toronto extremist group that the RCMP says plotted al-Qaeda-inspired terror attacks in southern Ontario, Mr. James allegedly visited Balakot for training during a recent four-month trip to Pakistan. What the 23-year-old did during his stay in the land of jihad is the subject of an ongoing counterterrorism probe involving police and intelligence services in several countries.

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Great White North

It's the Jihad, Stupid

2006-06-07

By Michelle Malkin Canadian law enforcement officials should be proud of busting a reputed Islamic terrorist network that may span seven nations. Instead, our northern neighbors are trying their damnedest to whitewash the jihadi ties that bind the accused plotters and their murder-minded peers around the world. We live on a doomed continent of ostriches. A Royal Canadian Mounted Police official coined the baneful phrase "broad strata" to describe the segment of Canadian society from whence Qayyum Abdul Jamal and his fellow adult suspects Fahim Ahmad, Zakaria Amara, Asad Ansari, Shareef Abdelhaleen, Mohammed Dirie, Yasim Abdi Mohamed, Jahmaal James, Amin Mohamed Durrani, Abdul Shakur, Ahmad Mustafa Ghany and Saad Khalid came. "Broad"? I suppose it is so if one defines "broad" to mean more than one spelling variation of Mohammed or Jamal. Or perhaps, as Internet humorist Jim Treacher (jimtreacher.com) suggests, "broad" refers to the "strata" of the suspects' beard lengths. Undeterred by the obvious, Toronto police chief Bill Blair assured the public that the Muslim suspects "were motivated by an ideology based on politics, hatred and terrorism, and not on faith....I am not aware of any mosques that these individuals were influenced by." Well, Chief Blindspot, try the Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education. That's the Canadian storefront mosque where eldest jihadi suspect Qayyum Abdul Jamal is, according to his own lawyer, a prayer leader and active member-along with many of the other Muslim males arrested in the sweep.

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Great White North

Police planted evidence: Terrorists’ arrest in Toronto was a sting operation

2006-06-05

The three tonnes of ammonium nitrate found with the Totonto terrorism suspects was planted by the police in an elaborate sting operation. According to Toronto Star, “Sources say investigators who had learned of the group’s alleged plan to build a bomb were controlling the sale and transport of the massive amount of fertiliser, a key component in creating explosives. Once the deal was done, the RCMP-led anti-terrorism task force moved in for the arrests.” At the news conference held by the police, there was no mention of the sting operation. Among the intended targets of the group, one report said, was the Parliament in Ottawa and the headquarters of Canada’s premier spy agency. The 12 adults charged are: Fahim Ahmad, 21; Jahmaal James, 23; Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19; and Steven Vikash Chand, 25, all of Toronto; Zakaria Amara, 20; Asad Ansari, 21; Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30; Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21; Saad Khalid, 19; and Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, all of Mississauga; and Mohammed Dirie, 22 and Yasin Abdi Mohamed, 24. Six of the 12 suspects lived in the Toronto suburb of Mississauga, four came from Toronto and two from the town of Kingston in Ontario. The last two are already in custody on a gun smuggling charge. The police also arrested five youngsters but their identities or names have not bee made public. At a court hearing in Toronto on Saturday, all the suspects were produced and Canadian newspapers published photographs of head-to-toe, black burqa clad group of women said to belong to the one or more of the families of the men arrested. One whose face was visible looked like a Pakistani. Several of the men, photographed as they were being brought in police cars, were bearded. The charges include participating in or contributing to the activity of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; providing or making available property for terrorist purposes; and the commission of indictable offences, including firearms and explosives offences for the benefit of or in association with a terrorist group. According to the Toronto Star report, “Anser Farooq, a lawyer who represents five of the accused, pointed at snipers on the roof of the courthouse and said, “This is ridiculous. They’ve got soldiers here with guns. This is going to completely change the atmosphere. I think the police cast their net far too wide,” he said. According to the Globe and Mail, defence lawyer Rocco Galati, who was representing some of the suspects, protested the intense security measures at the court. Galati later scoffed at the allegations. “I’ve seen fertiliser for the last eight years,” he said. Aly Hindy, a Toronto imam, said he knew several of the accused because they prayed at his mosque but said they were not terrorists. “The charges are to keep George Bush happy, that’s all,” he added sardonically. The Globe and Mail did not mention that all incriminating evidence had been planted on the suspects. AP adds: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said there was no indication that the arrested were trying to plan an attack in the United States. “We certainly don’t believe that there’s any link to the United States, but obviously we will follow up,” said Rice. “I think we will get whatever information we need,” she said. “But it’s obviously a great success for the Canadians. They’re to be congratulated for it.”

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