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Great White North

Toronto 18 ringleader pleads guilty

2010-05-11

The ringleader of Canada's famous Toronto-18 terror plot pleaded guilty on Monday. Known as what could have been Canada's 9/11, the plot was unearthed in June 2006 with the arrest of 18 Muslim men, mostly Pakistanis, from the Toronto area. The plotters had planned to storm and blow up the nation's parliament in Ottawa, take leaders hostage and behead the prime minister. They had also planned to drive explosive-laden trucks into the offices of the Canadian spy agency, the Toronto Stock Exchange and a military base here. One of the main leaders of the plot, Zakaria Amara, 24, was jailed for life in February. Others have been given light sentences and let off. Seven have charges stayed against them. The plot ring leader Fahim Ahmad, 25, Steven Chand, 25, and Asad Ansari, 29, went on trial last month, with the prosecution charging with them with diabolic plans to cripple Canada. In a major development in the case Monday, Fahim Ahmad, the ringleader, pleaded guilty to plotting against his adopted land. Called a 'time bomb waiting to go off,' the 25-year-old terrorist admitted he wanted to blow up civilian, nuclear and military targets and take leaders hostage to force Canada to pull out of Afghanistan. The court was told how Ahmad, as a terrorist leader, procured firearms for his group, arranged training camps and prepared videos to fire his band as well as jihadists abroad. The court heard how his men were arrested at the border trying to smuggle guns from the US, and how he revealed to the police mole his plans to hit nuclear and military bases. In a video prepared by the terrorist leader at a training camp for his group, he is heard saying, "Victory is near... Our mission is great, whether we get arrested, tortured or killed... Rome has to be defeated.'' Though two other accused still remain to be convicted, the guilty plea by the ring leader almost brings the curtain down on what could have been the worst-ever terror attack on Canadian soil.

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Great White North

Niqab ruling in Quebec shows shred of sanity

2010-03-20

On Tuesday something remarkable happened. A human rights commission actually made a good decision. Quebec's human rights commission ruled that niqab-and burka-wearing women must uncover their faces to apply for a medicare card and cannot insist on being served by a woman. Salam Elmenyawi, chairperson of Montreal's Muslim Council, told the Montreal Gazette that the commission's stance was fair, but his reasonings for saying so are troubling. "In any Muslim state, a woman has to remove the face panel (in circumstances like voting or obtaining government services). I don't see this as a rejection," he said. With all due respect to Elmenyawi, why on earth would Canadians fashion our society after what's done in any Muslim state? This is Canada, and we have our own customs, traditions and laws that include gender equality. Most Canadians don't want our country to emulate Muslim countries, which are, according to human rights NGOs like Freedom House and Amnesty International, among the most repressive countries in the world, particularly to women. Marc-Andre Dowd, vice-chairperson of the Quebec Human Rights Commission said: "It is not a significant infringement of freedom of religion" for a woman to uncover her face for the short time required for a clerk to confirm her identity. Alas, some common sense. Dowd added: "One cannot choose the gender of the employee serving us." In other words, it's not OK to discriminate against men. En fin! And discrimination against men is what took place in another face-covering brouhaha recently in Montreal. Naema Ahmed has lodged a complaint with the Quebec Human Rights Commission stating she was kicked out of a French class in Montreal because she was wearing a niqab. Tarek Fatah, founder of the Muslim Canadian Congress, congratulated the commission for standing up for Canadian values and hopes it will do so again in Ahmed's complaint. Fatah points out that news stories that claim Ahmed was kicked out of French classes for new immigrants because she was wearing the niqab are not entirely correct. Ahmed, a 29-year-old Egyptian pharmacist, was accepted into two separate college French courses while wearing the veil worn by fundamentalist Muslim women that leaves just a slit for their eyes. What got her kicked out of one of her classes was her unreasonable demands that were discriminatory and insulting toward male students in her classroom. When she was asked to make a presentation to the class, she insisted that the three male students be forced to look the other way. When that sexist request was denied, Ahmed -- who was, remember, completely covered except for her eyes -- made her presentation facing away from all of her classmates. "We tried certain arrangements, but the demands just became too great," Paul-Emile Bourque, the principal of one of the schools, told the Globe and Mail. "In my view, cases like this are done to provoke a clash," states Fatah. "The whole objective is to portray western society as hostile and at war with Islam." The real irony, however, says Fatah, is that Canadians tend to view women wearing niqabs and burkas as subservient, vulnerable women when, in fact, other than those being forced to wear niqabs by their male family members or because it is mandated in some Muslim countries, many of the women (though not all) who wear them by choice tend to be very fundamentalist, outspoken, "radical haters of the West." "The doctrine behind niqab (where it is not mandated) is fundamentally anti-West," says Fatah. "It says to the West, 'f--k you'." How does he know this? "It is well known in Muslim circles," he says. Consider the women in the infamous Khadr family, who wear the niqab. In a CBC documentary, they very openly expressed their contempt for the West and their hope for their male relatives to die martyrs while killing infidels. Then there are the now exposed e-mails of some of the wives of the so-called Toronto 18, who conspired to blow up Parliament, behead the prime minister and explode enormous bombs in downtown Toronto. Several men have been convicted and pleaded guilty to the charges against them in that case. Nada Farooq, the wife of Zakaria Amara -- who was sentenced in January to life in prison for his leading role in the plot -- for example, referred to Canada as "this filthy country" and considered adding a clause to her pre-nuptial agreement that would allow her to file for divorce if her husband didn't pursue jihad. In Egypt, the government has banned women from wearing the niqab at universities because it says the niqab is a symbol of radicalization and fundamentalism tied to al-Qaeda. Fatah says Quebec's immigration minister, Yolande James, is a hero for saying recently, "There is no ambiguity about this question. If you want to assist at our classes, if you want to integrate into Quebec society, here are our values. We want to see your face." Here's hoping Quebec's human rights commission agrees and that the rest of Canada follows Quebec's lead.

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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

Canadian bomb plotter takes over his case

2010-02-02

Against advice of his lawyer, Toronto 18 member goes on rant to defend his role in terror scheme His defence lawyer thought it was a bad idea, and the judge said it was a "very bad idea." But Toronto 18 bomb plotter Shareef Abdelhaleem remained steadfast in his unusual request to take over the closing submissions from his lawyer at an entrapment hearing on Monday. Abdelhaleem was found guilty of terrorism offences last month, but before a conviction is formally registered, the judge is hearing a defence motion alleging Abdelhaleem was entrapped. To prove this, the defence must show the police created a crime or induced the commission of a crime that otherwise would not have occurred. Abdelhaleem explained to the Brampton court Monday that he thought it would be best if he pointed out the "nuances of the data" because he knows the case better than his lawyer. He even raised the possibility of firing his defence counsel so that he could address the court himself, saying this is "a critical time in my life and I'd like the opportunity to defend myself." After a 30-minute break for the judge to reflect on the request, Abdelhaleem was permitted to argue his case and launched into an hour-long ramble. He emphatically maintained that his role in a 2006 explosives plot was that of a "mailman" who passed messages between the plot's mastermind, Zakaria Amara, and friend-turned-police agent Shaher Elsohemy, who was recruited to obtain bomb-making chemicals. The Mississauga man argued Elsohemy lured him into becoming the "middleman," saying, "The agent created that role. It didn't exist before." Abdelhaleem said he agreed to accompany Elsohemy on meetings with Amara because the agent had pulled at his heart strings, saying he was afraid of being seen alone with Amara and didn't want to risk being arrested since he had a young family. "He came to me and he said, 'Please be there so that I will not be photographed with Amara,'" said Abdelhaleem. "I didn't have the heart to say 'No' ... I was tired, I was embarrassed to say 'No' and it was such a simple little small thing." At times, Abdelhaleem's arguments were long-winded and incoherent, prompting the judge to ask for clarifications and at one point say: "This is just a jumble of words that to me does not make logical sense." Prosecutors had argued Abdelhaleem was an active participant in a scheme targeting the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base. Prosecutor Croft Michaelson pointed out that Abdelhaleem was Amara's trusted confidant, ordered bomb-making chemicals and orchestrated details surrounding its delivery. He also noted that it was Abdelhaleem who reached out to Elsohemy and recruited him into the group, eventually introducing him to Amara. "(Abdelhaleem) chose to participate in the commission of this crime and nothing that was said or done by the agent induced him or would have induced the average person in the position of Mr. Abdelhaleem to commit the crime," said Michaelson.

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Great White North

Bomb plotter blames police in Toronto 18 case

2010-01-28

Toronto 18 bomb plotter Shareef Abdelhaleem testified in a Brampton court Wednesday that he was originally opposed to the explosives plot because he was against terrorism, but that an undercover police agent “was very excited' about the prospect and of making money from such an attack. The 34-year-old, who is arguing he was entrapped by friend turned informant Shaher Elsohemy, said that when details of the bomb plot were laid out for them by Zakaria Amara, he was opposed to it. “I reiterated basically why I think Zak was wrong and everything else, this and that. That was my part. Elsohemy seemed to be for it. He was very excited,' recalled Abdelhaleem about a discussion the trio had in early April 2006. “He was excited in two ways: doing something meaningful, I guess, doing something for God, and the prospect that he wouldn't have to drive a s---ty car anymore. ... We were talking about making money off the stock market, he was very excited about that.' Abdelhaleem, who took the stand for the first time in open court, said he raised the issue of making money from a terrorist attack, pointing out to Elsohemy that some people made money after 9/11 but that the discussion “was quickly dismissed.' He also admitted that he sought advice about how to play the stock market and hide money in an offshore account, but the idea “died out.' Abdelhaleem told the court that he had talked about going for jihad in Afghanistan and wanted to receive in training in Pakistan. But he dismissed it as idle chatter and as something that many Muslims talk about. He went on to explain that there is a distinction between jihad and terrorism. “A jihadist has a certain rules of engagement with whoever he's performing jihad against. Terrorism is a guy who is blind to all these rules, a guy who is pissed off and wiling to do anything. It's not right.' To this day, Abdelhaleem maintains he is against acts of terrorism, and said although prosecutors will have a “hard time' believing him, “you can't do that, you just can't do that.' Throughout his testimony, the Mississauga man appeared restless, often touching his face and rubbing his beard. At points his voice grew louder and at other points he trailed off into inaudible mumbles. Last week, Abdelhaleem was found guilty of participating in a 2006 explosives plot to bomb targets such as the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Toronto offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off Highway 401. The verdict came days after Amara was sentenced to life for his role in the plot, which included building a remote controlled detonator and purchasing three tonnes of ammonium nitrate destined for truck bombs. Before his arrest, there had also been efforts to arrange a marriage between Abdelhaleem and one of the daughters of the infamous Khadr clan, known as Canada's Al Qaeda family. “I called it off right away. ... I just wanted to stay out of trouble,' said Abdelhaleem, adding, “They're very nice people from what I hear.'

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Great White North

Life term for ringleader of the 'Toronto 18'

2010-01-19

The architect of an Al Qaeda-inspired terror plot to cripple Canada's economy and unleash mass carnage by blowing up buildings in downtown Toronto has been sentenced to life in prison. "The potential for loss of life existed on a scale never before seen in Canada," said Justice Bruce Durno, while sentencing Zakaria Amara, one of the linchpins of the Toronto 18 terror cell and mastermind of a "spine-chilling" plot. "Had the plan been implemented, it would've changed the lives of many, if not all Canadians, forever," Durno told the Brampton court, saying this is one of those "rarest of cases" where the maximum sentence is appropriate, even for a young first offender. The sentence is the stiffest ever given under the Anti-Terrorism Act, which was introduced after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the U.S. The 24-year-old Mississauga man will be eligible for parole in six years and three months. If he is ever granted parole, he will be subject to a lifetime of monitoring. At a hearing last week, Amara told the court he was sorry and deserved nothing less than "absolute contempt" from the Canadian people, whose trust he vowed to regain. "I just want to reassure you that whatever promises I made, I will still try my best," said Amara, as his wife, mother and sister looked on from the body of the court. Among other things, Amara confessed to leading a terrorist training camp, researching ways to build a bomb, ordering the necessary chemicals and building a remote-controlled detonator. He planned to detonate three one-tonne truck bombs, made with ammonium nitrate, outside the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front St. offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off Highway 401. To maximize casualties, he wanted to place metal chips in the bombs and detonate them at 9 a.m., when the downtown would be bustling. "There can be no legitimate suggestion that this was not the real thing," said Durno. "This was not a group of amateurs whose efforts were inevitably doomed to failure." Amara was among 18 people charged in the summer of 2006 after a complex investigation that involved numerous police and intelligence agencies, both domestic and international. In October, he pleaded guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious harm or death. Amara was one of the leaders at a December 2005 training camp in Washago, Ont., where recruits listened to jihadi speeches and took up firearms training with a gun that he supplied. He had photos and maps of Parliament with him and sought approval or support from the Mujahideen overseas. In the spring of 2006, he meticulously planned a deadly plot, hoping it would prompt Canadian military forces to withdraw from Afghanistan. Amara's role as the "directing mind of a plot that would have resulted in the most horrific crime Canada has ever seen" is why he was given a harsher sentence than a co-accused, Saad Gaya, also sentenced by Durno on Monday. The Oakville man, who also pleaded guilty to the bomb plot, was sentenced to 12 years in prison. But with credit for pre-trial custody, Gaya will serve another 4 1/2 years. He could be eligible for full parole after serving one third of his sentence, or about 18 months. Durno noted Gaya, 22, "was not the prime mover" in the group.

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Great White North

Mole crucial to Canadian terror trial

2010-01-16

The defendant is accused of helping to plan what he is said to have called the Battle of Toronto, a foiled terror attack aimed at destroying Canada's premier stock exchange and crippling the city. But the actual trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem – the first adult to be tried in the so-called Toronto 18 case – seems curiously anticlimactic. Four years ago, when he and 17 other Canadian males were first arraigned, the Brampton courthouse was frenzied. Reporters jostled one another under the watchful eyes of heavily armed police. Television cameras were everywhere. Helicopters whirred overhead. But on day three of the 34-year-old Mississauga man's trial, there are no machine guns, no helicopters and only a handful of print reporters. "Entrapment," one courthouse regular confides to me during the lunch break. "He'll have to argue entrapment. That's his only hope. Even then it might not work." Indeed, on the face of it, it seems that the computer programmer's only possible defence is that he was somehow enmeshed in the bomb plot by Shaher Elsohamy, a former friend turned RCMP informant. That there was such a plot is now beyond question. Three of the 18, including mastermind Zakaria Amara, have pleaded guilty to charges that they conspired to blow up buildings as part of a protest against Canada's involvement in the Afghan war. What's going on now is a trial to determine if Abdelhaleem – the only other member of the 18 charged in the bomb plot – was also involved. And one of the key questions that this court will have to answer is whether RCMP informant Elsohamy overstepped legal bounds when, in order to get information for his paymasters, he pretended to be a co-conspirator. Certainly, the RCMP mole's evidence to date doesn't bode well for the accused. Elsohamy has testified that Abdelhaleem, whom he said was initially a vigorous opponent of staging terrorist attacks in Canada, changed his mind in April 2006 after open heart surgery. He's also testified that the defendant hoped to make big profits from bombing the Toronto stock exchange. The mole's conversations with the accused, portions of which were recorded by the RCMP, paint a picture of someone who, while torn by doubt over the morality of killing innocents, finally determined that this was the right thing to do. As described by Elsohamy, the defendant is at times paranoid (at one point he suggests that mastermind Amara is an agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service), at times full of himself and at times resigned to capture. In one conversation, according to the informant, Abdelhaleem talks of following the Toronto attack with similar bombings in Chicago and New York. He muses about becoming renowned among world terrorists as the leader of Al Qaeda's Canadian division. In another, he talks of how he would use his time in prison to radicalize black Muslims who, he believed, filled Canadian jails. Yet throughout the trial, which continues next week, runs the nagging question of how much was serious, how much was just talk and how much was induced by the actions of the RCMP mole. Certainly, the informer can't be blamed for everything. Plot leader Amara has already admitted that, by the time the RCMP mole became involved, bomb plans were in motion. Amara had even built a working detonator. But Elsohamy's own testimony shows he was crucial in two key areas: obtaining ammonium nitrate "fertilizer" for use in bomb-making (in fact, it was not real fertilizer but a harmless substance supplied by police); and securing a place where these materials could be stored. One of the questions the judge deciding this case will presumably have to ponder is how far the plot would have progressed had the RCMP, through Elsohamy, not been involved. Would the plotters, who in most of the intercepted RCMP conversations reveal themselves to be amazingly inept, have been able to find another source of explosives? Or would some of them have abandoned the scheme. Behind this is the question of the informant's motive. Court heard that Elsohamy's friendship with Abdelhaleem was badly strained after a joint 2005 vacation in Morocco before, apparently, being repaired. A few months after he returned from that Morocco trip, Elsohamy was persuaded by CSIS to spy on his friend in return for, he testified, no remuneration except expenses. But in April 2006 he entered into negotiations with the RCMP to become their paid agent. Asked Monday how much in total he received from the Mounties, Elsohamy said he couldn't recall (as the Star has reported, it was $4.1 million). He testified that he owed about $20,000 to family and friends at the time. But, he has said, he informed not for financial but moral reasons. Defence lawyer William Naylor is to continue cross-examining Elsohamy next week. As the trial continues, we may find out more about the role of the police and security agencies in this seminal, but now very low-key, Canadian terror case.

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Great White North

Witness testifies in Toronto 18 terror trial

2010-01-12

Star witness describes plan hatched by accused in suburban restaurant to cash in on terror It was after midnight in a Mississauga restaurant when Shareef Abdelhaleem had a eureka moment. Abdelhaleem and two other men – one of them an undercover police agent – had been discussing an audacious bomb plot that would target buildings in downtown Toronto and a military base off Highway 401. Even though Abdelhaleem initially had challenged the "Islamic correctness" of a potentially deadly terrorist plot, he piped up in an excited voice and threw his keys on the table. Maybe money could be made on the stock market, said the computer engineer who earned a six-figure salary and drove a BMW. "He described it as people made money from the attacks on Sept. 11," recalled the police agent Shaher Elsohemy on Monday, testifying for the first time on the opening day of Abdelhaleem's trial. The Crown's star witness in this case said Abdelhaleem went on to say that, had people known about the attacks on the U.S. earlier, they could have played the stock market and made money. "The rest of the discussion was about how to profit off an attack on the stock exchange," said Elsohemy, recounting their talk in the early hours of April 8, 2006. Elsohemy, who came out of witness protection to testify against his former friend, told the Brampton court that Abdelhaleem also told him he planned to ask someone to act as an investor so he could buy stocks. Days later, when Abdelhaleem was in hospital recovering from heart surgery and on morphine, he told Elsohemy he was committed to the plot because "the Americans ... are killing a million children." Abdelhaleem, the first adult to stand trial of the so-called Toronto 18 terror group busted in the summer of 2006, stared at Elsohemy as he entered the courtroom from a side door, flanked by officers. The 34-year-old accused Mississauga man squinted his eyes, lowering his glasses to the tip of his nose to get a better look at the witness. During his testimony, expected to last all week, Elsohemy kept his gaze on counsel and appeared to avoid looking at the prisoner box. In addition to his testimony, court also heard electronic intercepts between Elsohemy, Abdelhaleem and the third man at the Mississauga restaurant – Zakaria Amara, mastermind of the bomb plot – many of them recorded at the Canadian Tire gas bar where Amara worked. Abdelhaleem is alleged to have used Elsohemy to set up the purchase of three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, destined for truck bombs targeting the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Front St. offices of Canada's spy agency and a military base off Highway 401. Abdelhaleem, expected to testify in his own defence, is charged with participating in a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion. He pleaded not guilty to both counts. Elsohemy testified he developed a "strong" friendship with Abdelhaleem and frequented an Islamic school in Mississauga. The two vacationed together, taking a trip to Morocco in 2005. But shortly after returning, they had an argument that strained their friendship. In December 2005, he was approached by agents with Canada's spy agency about Abdelhaleem. Elsohemy co-operated with authorities and, as the bomb plot began to take shape, he started working for the RCMP, which paid him $4.1 million for his work. Abdelhaleem introduced Amara to Elsohemy, who had a degree in agricultural sciences. The agent also told Abdelhaleem that his uncle owned a huge chemical plant. It was a matter of time before Amara placed orders with Elsohemy for nitric acid and ammonium nitrate. Outside court, Abdelhaleem's lawyer, William Naylor, told reporters he believes his client was entrapped, with Elsohemy paid handsomely for it. "A $4.1 million payoff is pretty steep. ... It's unprecedented in Canada," Naylor later told reporters, adding that's one of the problems with the case against his client. He suggested that Elsohemy was more concerned with getting money than searching for the truth. Of the 18 people charged, four, including Amara, have pleaded guilty, a youth was convicted and seven have had their charges stayed. Five remaining accused are scheduled to begin trials in March. Abdelhaleem elected to be tried by a judge alone and not a jury.

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Great White North

Lawyers claim Toronto terror suspects being mistreated in jail

2006-06-22

Damn those bloodthirsty Canucks! Lawyers for the accused in the Toronto terrorist conspiracy have charged authorities with violating their clients’ rights and subjecting them to various forms of abuse, including sleep deprivation and violence, according to a report. Keith Jones writes in the World Socialist Website (WSWS) from Toronto that 15 of the 17 accused are being held at the Maplehurst Correctional Centre in Milton, Ontario. The two who are not being held at Maplehurst were already in jail at the time of the June 2-3 operation that authorities are claiming averted a terrorist atrocity. The 15, almost exclusively young men or boys, have been denied the right to meet with their lawyers in private. They are being held in isolation in small, windowless cells that are lit at all times, and are permitted just 20 minutes of exercise alone every day. Lawyers for several of the accused claim that guards are waking the detainees every 30 minutes, have ordered them to remain silent and with their eyes turned toward the floor at all times, and are giving them just five minutes to eat their meals. Guards are also said to have manhandled and roughed up some of the detainees. When moving them about, the detainees are shackled at their hands and feet, then forced to march bent over at a 90-degree angle at the waist According to Jones, who has followed this story form the day it broke, David Kolinsky, the lawyer for Zakaria Amara, said that a guard had pinned his client to the ground, poked his finger in his cheek and brushed his eye, after Amara, who is ticklish, laughed while being searched. When astride Amara, the guard reportedly exclaimed, “Is this funny?” Kolinsky said that keeping people in solitary confinement is known to cause depression and suicides and “is normally a form of punishment” reserved only “for people who misbehave and are violent against other offenders”.

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Great White North

Teacher witnessed transformation of some bomb-plot suspects

2006-06-09

A Muslim religious leader in Toronto who knows some of those charged in the suspected bomb plot says the young men underwent rapid transformations from normal Canadian teenagers to radicalized introverts. Sayyid Ahmed Amiruddin got to know Saad Khalid, 19, and some of the other alleged conspirators at a local mosque. Khalid was arrested last Friday at a warehouse, where he and another suspect allegedly took delivery of what they thought was ammonium nitrate, a fertilizer, and the same substance used in the deadly Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. Fifteen others are also facing charges connected to the alleged plot. Amiruddin says Khalid used to come to his mosque to pray, sometimes in the company of Zakaria Amara and Fahim Ahmad, two of the alleged ringleaders. "They would enter into the mosque to pray, and they would pray in a very aggressive manner, and they would come in military fatigues and military touques and stuff. It looked to me that they were watching a lot of those Chechnyan jihad videos online and stuff."

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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

For Muslim students, school can alienate

2006-06-07

Offensive remarks can fuel anger at society, some say `They judge you just because you're wearing a scarf' A darker side of Toronto's diversity is emerging on school campuses in the aftermath of arrests in an alleged terrorist plot involving at least five suspects younger than 18. Most of the other 12 are in their late teens or early 20s, which raises the question: How could young people brought up in our own backyard, in a place that seemingly affords them every opportunity, be motivated to carry out a potentially horrific act of terrorism in Toronto? While speculation has focused on mosques and prayer halls as possible places of indoctrination, students across Greater Toronto are suggesting that alienation might just begin at school. One of the accused is Saad Khalid, 19, a former student at Meadowvale Secondary School in Mississauga. He and two other former Meadowvale students charged in the case — Fahim Ahmad and Zakaria Amara — were known by some of the teenagers the Toronto Star talked to there this week. The current students declined to be identified, in part because of an announcement made by a school administrator strongly encouraging them "to refrain from talking to reporters." But white students, as well as those of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent, painted a picture of a divided student body, with a so-called "brown corner" at one end of the school where Muslim teens hang out, often speaking in their mother tongue. They also pointed to the trend among some Muslim students to take on a more visibly orthodox appearance as they progress through Meadowvale.

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