Canada - Three charged in NYC/Toronto VIA Rail terror plot, April 2013

[Sillybilly]

Just saw on the new that Iran is in a tizzy about the RCMP announcement. I don't know what their problem is .. it was specifically stated during the press conference that there was nothing to indicate this was state-sponsored terrorism, but it was related to al-Quada in Iran:

When pressed to specify the nature of that support, Malizia said it was in the form of “direction and guidance,” and noted that there was no information to indicate the attacks were state-sponsored.

On Tuesday, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi called the claim “ridiculous.”

"If the news that you are announcing is true, this is the most hilarious thing I've heard in my 64 years," Iran’s ISNA news agency reported Salehi as saying.

"We hope Canadian officials show a little wisdom and pay attention to the world's public opinion and intelligence," he added ...



Terrorism expert John Thompson said it’s unlikely that the Iranian government was completely unaware of whatever support Esseghaier and Jaser were receiving from operatives from within the country.

“The RCMP was careful yesterday saying this wasn’t an Iranian plot, but from what we understand, is that normally if al Qaeda in Iran does anything, the Iranians are informed of what’s going on.”

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/iran-denies-link-with-suspects-in-alleged-canadian-terror-plot-1.1249882

 

[Sillybilly]

Thinking back to a recent event in BC where an explosive device was discovered on the Skytrain tracks in Vancouver. The "witness" with the backpack in the November 2012 incident has been located and "police say he has been co-operative and provided valuable information":

http://bc.ctvnews.ca/witness-sought-in-skytrain-explosive-device-probe-1.1032541

http://www.cknw.com/news/vancouver/story.aspx/story.aspx?ID=1823333

I wonder why he has been able to provide valuable information when others at the same site had not been able to? :waitasec:

 

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Hi!
A thread in another Thread was started a few days ago.
It's in the Current Events, Up to the Minute Thread,

Major terror plot uncovered in Canada - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

 

[Intermezzo]

Another Thread on this topic in the Current Events "Crimes in the News" Thread

[ame="http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?t=206619"]Plot to attack Toronto - New York train foiled Apr 2013 - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community[/ame]

 

[Intermezzo]

I don't know which forum this topic goes in, but can we merge the threads to whichever forum they belong?

Major terror plot uncovered in Canada - Websleuths Crime Sleuthing Community

Yes, good idea

 

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http://www.montrealgazette.com/news...in+terror+plot+says+Canada/8287912/story.html

Montreal terror suspect: Canada’s Criminal Code is not ‘a holy book’

“It’s just written by set of creations and the creations they’re not perfect because only the creator is perfect.”

As a result, he said, the “conclusions taken out from these judgments” are unreliable.

-----------------------------------------------

Well I have a whole lot to say...but I'd get a T.O

 

[Intermezzo]

Hello everyone! :seeya:
I had my own personal thread on this topic over in the "Crimes in the news" forum. I'm happy to talk to myself, but I thought I'd be a bit more social and join in here.

I'm copying the content of one of my posts below:
--

One of the reasons this particular case caught my attention (other than the obvious) is that one of the men charged, who is from Tunisia, is working on his PhD and doing research on biosensors.

Here is his LinkedIn page:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chiheb-e...ier/46/604/314

This is from the Wikipedia page on biosensors:





According to this article Esseghaier was not the type of person we should allow to be working with pathogens!




http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...-suspects.html

And why the he** didn't that fellow student say something to officials?!

ETA: Just to be clear, officials said that the plan was to derail the train. There is no mention of biological agents from LE.

No need to be alone on the other thread Snoopster...we love company LOL
If you ask a Mod can merge the 2 threads...

 

[Intermezzo]

Hello everyone! :seeya:
I had my own personal thread on this topic over in the "Crimes in the news" forum. I'm happy to talk to myself, but I thought I'd be a bit more social and join in here.

I'm copying the content of one of my posts below:
--

One of the reasons this particular case caught my attention (other than the obvious) is that one of the men charged, who is from Tunisia, is working on his PhD and doing research on biosensors.

Here is his LinkedIn page:
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/chiheb-e...ier/46/604/314

This is from the Wikipedia page on biosensors:





According to this article Esseghaier was not the type of person we should allow to be working with pathogens!




http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/...-suspects.html

And why the he** didn't that fellow student say something to officials?!

ETA: Just to be clear, officials said that the plan was to derail the train. There is no mention of biological agents from LE.

That also caught my attention, what he was researching..

 

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http://globalnews.ca/news/389270/du...rist-acts-should-lose-canadian-status-kenney/

Dual citizens who commit terrorist acts should lose Canadian status: Kenney

Kenney says other western countries have the power to revoke citizenship in cases of terrorism.

He says people involved in terrorism have clearly renounced any sense of loyalty to Canada and should be treated accordingly.

----------------------------------

 

[Sillybilly]

http://globalnews.ca/news/389270/du...rist-acts-should-lose-canadian-status-kenney/

Dual citizens who commit terrorist acts should lose Canadian status: Kenney

Kenney says other western countries have the power to revoke citizenship in cases of terrorism.

He says people involved in terrorism have clearly renounced any sense of loyalty to Canada and should be treated accordingly.

----------------------------------

My question to you Hon. Minister Kenney (can I just call you "Hon") is, who was the brainiac that put in place laws to permit revocation of citizenship for those committing citizenship fraud, but forgot to look at doing the same thing for terrorism?:

http://globalnews.ca/news/400530/on...oked-so-far-in-18-month-crackdown-on-fraud-2/

 

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http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2013/04/25/terror_suspect_bluntly_rejects_our_values_dimanno.html

In a democracy, the Criminal Code is sacrosanct.


Canada had opened its arms to Esseghaier, by all outward indications a bright young man who arrived in Sherbrooke, Que., five years ago as a promising PhD candidate and, most recently, working in the area of biosensor research at the Institut national de la recherché scientifique at the University of Quebec in Montreal.

In return for the opportunity, Esseghaier was allegedly scheming to blow up trains and their passengers.

Esseghaier is clearly not stupid. He was, however, reportedly monumentally disruptive in his workplace and as overt about his radical beliefs at his Montreal job as he was in a Toronto courtroom Wednesday.

Whether eventually found criminally guilty or not, he has already betrayed the privilege of being here.

 

[Sillybilly]

Chiheb Esseghaier’s parents in Tunisia call terror allegations ‘impossible’

The parents and family of Chiheb Esseghaier categorically reject allegations that their son wanted to attack a passenger train in collaboration with Al Qaeda ...

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...nisia_call_terror_allegations_impossible.html

I'm starting to think everyone that side of the Greenwich line is Queen of Denial

jmo

 

[Snoopster]

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...nisia_call_terror_allegations_impossible.html

I'm starting to think everyone that side of the Greenwich line is Queen of Denial

jmo

There is no way that this guy's parents didn't know how vehement he was about his hatred for the west. It still galls me to think that so many people knew of his hatred and yet he managed to stay in Canada this long!

I hope he wasn't being watched solely because of his relationship with Jaser. Hopefully someone reported him as suspicious in his own right.

And then again there are the Tsarnaev parents. :notgood:

 

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http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/terror...o-iran-the-other-fought-deportation-1.1254150

Terror case suspects: One travelled to Iran, the other fought deportation


More details also emerged Thursday about Jaser’s background.
He came to Canada with his parents and two brothers in 1993 with fake French passports. The family said claimed they had faced persecution in Germany, where they had also sought asylum.

The request for asylum in Canada was denied, but most of the family members ended up staying in the country and obtaining citizenship.

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Good Grief...They came here misrepresented themselves, used fake passports and ended up with Citizenship? Jaser was refused Citizenship because of his criminal convictions but in 2009 he received a Pardon...

 

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http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...-suspect-almost-10-years-ago/article11554622/

Canada failed to deport Via terror suspect nine years ago

Federal agents who jailed him on an outstanding deportation warrant argued that, even though he had called Canada home since arriving as teenager in 1993, his criminal record meant that he had to go.

Yet Mr. Jaser, now 35, marshalled a crucial counterargument during his hearing: He was stateless.

 

[Sillybilly]

Erratic behaviour put Via terror suspects on radar ...

One man is a school-bus driver who had a habit of proselytizing to the lone passenger on his route.

“Muslim women – even Christian women – who are unveiled will be punished when the day comes,” Raed Jaser, 35, told his congregation of one, according to the teenaged student Mr. Jaser drove to school north of Toronto a few years ago.

The other is a 30-year-old scientist and doctoral student who tore down charity posters that featured provocative portraits of women.

from:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news...via-terror-suspects-on-radar/article11589762/

 

[Sillybilly]

Terror suspect Chiheb Esseghaier met with Al Qaeda operative abroad, sources say

The Montreal suspect accused of plotting a terrorist attack on a passenger train allegedly met in person with an Al Qaeda operative before coming to Canada in the summer of 2008, putting him on the radar of security officials here, sources with knowledge of the investigation told the Star ...

from:
http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/...ad_sources_say.html?google_editors_picks=true

 

[Sillybilly]

Toronto terror plot accused to be defended by Omar Khadr's lawyer ..

TORONTO - A Toronto-area man accused of plotting a terror attack on a VIA train will be represented by prominent lawyer John Norris, who has defended the likes of notorious terrorist Omar Khadr and a Toronto 18 member ...

Norris has represented Asad Ansari, a “peripheral player with the Toronto 18.” Ansari and co-accused Steven Vikash Chand were found guilty in 2010 of participating in a terrorist group. It was the first terrorism case to be ruled on by a Canadian jury since terror legislation was enacted after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001 ...

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/04/2...-accused-to-be-defended-by-omar-khadrs-lawyer

A lot of related links on the left side of the above page.

 

[Sillybilly]

Hundreds' of radicals in GTA: Muslim youth counsellor ...

TORONTO - Radicalized Muslims do operate and recruit in Toronto and one Islamic leader warns we shouldn’t be surprised by news of more nefarious terror plots in the future.

“There are a lot of people in our community that are a little rigid,” Muhammad Robert Heft, of the Paradise Forever Islamic Centre, said Wednesday. “Not thousands but hundreds.”

Hundreds? ...

Heft said this experience helped him later while working as a liaison with the RCMP to reach out and try to help families with young men who they fear are becoming too hard-core and fundamentalist.

People like Raed Jaser’s father, Mohamed.

The man rented an apartment in Heft’s home and had mentioned his concern of son Raed.

“He felt his son was too rigid, maybe a little too self-righteous,” said Heft

http://www.torontosun.com/2013/04/24/hundreds-of-radicals-in-gta-muslim-youth-counsellor

 

[Sillybilly]

Controversial anti-terror bill passes, allowing preventative arrests, secret hearings ....

MPs voted 183 to 93 in favour of Bill S-7 which provides for the use of investigative hearings. It would allow courts to compel a witness to disclose information about a possible act of terrorism, even if that person has not been charged. The hearings could be held in secret and those who don’t comply could be subject to arrest.

Preventative arrest provisions will allow an individual suspected of engaging in terrorist activity to be brought before a judge who can impose conditions on their freedom, such as barring them from communicating with a particular person. An individual who refuses to abide by the conditions could be jailed for up to one year ...

http://news.nationalpost.com/2013/0...llowing-preventative-arrests-secret-hearings/

As for Justin Trudeau's position that we should look at the "root causes" for terrorism (noted in other articles, not linked), he may have forgotten that it was his own father, former Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau, who temporarily imposed The War Measures Act in the days of the FLQ crisis .. effectively suspending civil liberties until the terror subsided ... without ever getting to the bottom of the "root causes" that played into that situation. Sorry Justin ... we cannot "justify the unjustifiable" while risking lives of innocent human beings. MOO