Protective cover...normal. All of the terrorists can not be expected to
look like the Blind Sheik or Richard Reid.
Bruce
Notes:
*
The alleged ringleaders of the plot have been identified as Fahim
Ahmad and Zakaria Amara
*
six of the accused (including Amara, Jamal, Ansari, Abdelhaleem, and
Ghany) attended the Al-Rahman Islamic Centre (ARIC) in Mississauga. The
Ar-Rahman centre was 'an extremist hub, but not a terror centre' according
to one member.
*
Ahmad, James, Chand, and one of the five unnamed youths attended the
Kennedy Road mosque in Toronto
*
Jamal is described as an 'aggressive elder' who was angry about
Canada's role in Afghanistan, as well as the way they treated the Khadr
family (an al-Qa'eda-linked family who once lived in one of UBL's compounds)
*
Jamal's wife is Caucasian. After 9/11, she began to wear the
full-body bourka
*
Chand converted to Islam from Hinduism and changed his name to Abdul
Shakur
*
Several of the men were radicalised in under a year. Once some of
their friends began to embrace radicalism, they were influenced by their
peers.
*
The operation first gained traction in 2004 when investigators
noticed some Canadian teens spending more and more time reading and posting
to extremist websites
http://www.canada.com/globaltv/national/story.html?id=e063e1e3-a64f-42ca-9a4
d-0630717f92c8
'Nice, normal guy' accused of leading plot
Ringleader said to be angry about Canada's Afghan mission, mistreatment of
Muslims
National Post; with files from The Canadian Press
Monday, June 05, 2006
TORONTO - The alleged ringleaders of a group of young extremists police say
were planning terrorist attacks in southern Ontario have been identified as
Fahim Ahmad and Zakaria Amara.
The two men, one from Toronto, the other a resident of Mississauga, are
being described as the key figures among the 12 adults and five juveniles
charged over the weekend with terrorism-related offences.
Mr. Amara, 20, was described by a neighbour yesterday as "a nice, normal
guy" who had just moved into a suburban Mississauga basement suite in a
neighbourhood filled with children. Mr. Ahmad is 21.
Police seized firearms, computer hard drives, camouflage clothing, an
electronic detonator and three tonnes of ammonium nitrate from the group
during raids that started Friday.
A Canadian terrorism expert said the type of fertilizer ordered by the group
-- 34-0-0 -- is the highest grade and the best for making explosives.
"This would indicate that they had done their homework," said Tom Quiggin, a
senior fellow at the Centre of Excellence for National Security in
Singapore.
The RCMP, which had been monitoring the group, switched the fertilizer with
a benign substance before it was delivered to the suspects on Friday. Police
then moved in to make the arrests.
Several of the accused attended the same two mosques in the Greater Toronto
Area, including Mr. Amara, who was a regular at the Al-Rahman Islamic Centre
in Mississauga.
A man who helped run the centre, a tiny storefront sandwiched between a
variety store and a cafe in a suburban strip, was among those arrested.
Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, the oldest of the accused, is not the mosque's imam,
but was a senior and heavily involved member of the congregation.
"He's a quiet person, he's a soft person," Sam Lela, who worships at the
mosque, said following afternoon prayers. "Whatever anybody here in the
community -- whether he is Muslim or not Muslim -- wants anything, Mr. Jamal
and the others come first to help."
Although Mr. Lela admitted six of the accused frequented the centre, he
insisted it was not responsible for driving the arrested men down a
"negative slope."
"According to my experience here, that's completely wrong. That's not true
whatsoever," he said.
The other suspects said to have prayed regularly at the Mississauga centre
are Asad Ansari, 21, Shareef Abdelhaleem, 30, and Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21.
Aly Hindy, imam at the Salaheddin Islamic Centre in Scarborough, yesterday
described Mr. Jamal as an aggressive "elder," angry about Canada's role in
Afghanistan.
He also said Mr. Jamal was upset at the way some in Toronto's Muslim
community have distanced themselves from the Khadrs, the Toronto family that
once lived in Osama bin Laden's compound in Afghanistan.
Several of the Khadr sons attended training camps in Afghanistan, and one,
Abdurahman, says his father, Ahmed Khadr, encouraged him to become a suicide
bomber. Another of the Khadr sons, Omar, is being held at Guantanamo Bay
after allegedly killing a U.S. soldier. The eldest son, Abdullah, has been
charged with selling explosives to al-Qaeda for attacks against coalition
troops in Afghanistan.
At Mr. Jamal's townhouse yesterday, neighbours recalled a string of bizarre
incidents involving his family. They also said his wife, who is Caucasian,
began donning a full burka shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
Accompanied by a man believed to be one of Mr. Jamal's brothers, the wife
emerged from the house yesterday afternoon dressed in an intricately
embroidered gold burka. She declined to speak with a reporter.
Mr. Hindy said four others picked up in the sweep attended his mosque on
Toronto's Kennedy Road, including Fahim Ahmad, 21, Jahmaal James, 23, Steven
Vikash Chand, 25 -- a Hindu convert to Islam who changed his name to Abdul
Shakur -- and one of five youths charged with taking part in the alleged
plot.
"I am sure, 100 per cent, none of these guys would do anything in Canada,"
Mr. Hindy said, adding he was aware some of the men from both mosques were
being tailed by CSIS and the RCMP.
Several of the young men arrested over the weekend allegedly went from being
typical Muslim adherents to radicalized extremists in little more than a
year.
"They seemed like normal, somewhat religious kids," said a man in the Muslim
community who claimed he knew several of those arrested in 2004 and 2005.
He remembers them clowning around together as young, fun-loving Muslims. But
when a few of the friends started to embrace more extremist ideology they
influenced some of their peers and the radicalization began, he said.
At the Al-Rahman centre they found a more appealing message and spent time
listening to Mr. Jamal. "The Al-Rahman centre was an extremist hub, but not
a terror extreme, just extreme in their interpretation," said the man.
The suspects first drew attention from investigators two years ago when
tech-savvy spies noticed some teens spending more and more time reading and
posting to extremist websites, sources revealed to the Toronto Star. The
sleuthing sparked a CSIS probe that culminated with the weekend arrests.
It remains unclear how two Americans -- Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 19, and Syed
Haris Ahmed, 21, both from the Atlanta area -- are connected to the Toronto
group. The pair, currently in custody, visited some of the 17 alleged
terrorists, said FBI spokesman Special Agent Richard Kolko.
Court documents allege Mr. Sadequee and Mr. Ahmed travelled by Greyhound bus
in March 2005 to Toronto where they met with other "like-minded Islamic
extremists" to discuss terrorist training and bomb plots against military
bases and oil refineries.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~-->
You can search right from your browser? It's easy and it's free. See how.
http://us.click.yahoo.com/_7bhrC/NGxNAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM
--------------------------------------------------------------------~->
--------------------------
Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, [EMAIL
PROTECTED]
--------------------------
Brooks Isoldi, editor
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://www.intellnet.org
Post message: [email protected]
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
*** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has
not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of
The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT
YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of
intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods,
techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other
intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes
only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material
as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use
this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,'
you must obtain permission from the copyright owner.
For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
Yahoo! Groups Links
<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/
<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
