dagblog - Comments for "Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted"

How Toronto's Muslim

artappraiser — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 00:22:50 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

How Toronto's Muslim Community Uncovered the Would-Be Train Bombers
"They focused on demonizing Western society."

By Olga Khazan, The Atlantic, April 23, 2012

[.....] the most surprising part of the story might be how the suspects were discovered: They were turned in, reports say, by leaders of their own community.

Muhammed Robert Heft, who runs Toronto's Paradise Forever Islamic Center, says that one of the suspects -- he won't say which -- started expressing extremist beliefs to a member of the city's Muslim leadership a year ago.

"They were espousing some views that were starting to ruffle feathers and make people uncomfortable," Heft said. "They focused on demonizing Western society and suggesting that there has to be some kind of retribution or revenge for the perceived grievances of this individual."

The community leader -- Heft declined to give his name -- became concerned, and suggested to Heft that he monitor the suspect.

"It went to a stage where it was a constant topic of conversation. The community leader realized that the person was not changing their views. They worried that something might eventually happen," he explained.

Heft says that when members of the Islamic community there regularly express extremist views, an Imam or other religious leader would call in Heft or another higher-up to try to convince the person of a more moderate point of view. If the person continued to try to gain converts to radical Islam, his name might be passed along to the police.

That's apparently what happened this time, and it worked. Reports show that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police believed the two suspects had the capacity to carry out the attack, but there was no imminent threat to the public, passengers, or infrastructure -- until Monday [.....]

From the CBC story you

acanuck — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:13:08 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

From the CBC story you cite:

Police have been investigating since August 2012. International intelligence sources tell CBC News that Canadian law enforcement agencies were ready to shut down the alleged plot and make the arrests months ago. But partly at the urging of U.S. intelligence agents, the investigation was left open.

Sources said that while the U.S. law enforcement agencies were co-operating in the investigation of the alleged train plot, they also wanted to know who else might be involved. The CIA has been particularly interested in the al-Qaeda operatives in Iran supporting the alleged terrorist plot in Canada.

The last sentence, I think, shows where any supposed evidence of an Iran/Al-Qa'ida link originated. But even U.S. officials are now downplaying the RCMP's "direction and guidance" allegation, saying they "wouldn't go that far." So the RCMP may have gone overboard: one charge against the suspects is that they conspired to murder "at the direction of" a foreign terrorist group. Fearless prediction: that charge will disappear by the time any trial begins. It may only be a plea-bargain chip.

Scott Stewart, a former U.S. State Department special agent, said any linkages between al-Qaida, Iran and a Canadian terror plot would be highly unusual. Raising even more doubts for him was that the flag displayed on the LinkedIn page of one of the alleged plotters, Chiheb Esseghaier, is in fact used by al-Qaida in Iraq.

“That’s completely different from al-Qaida in Iran,” Stewart said, “which isn’t really a thing.”

Other experts were also puzzled by the alleged link to Iran. Eric Margolis, a (U.S.-born) foreign affairs analyst, told CBC News:

"We've seen no evidence of this fact. Anti-Iranian sources in the Middle East and other places keep churning the story around that the Iranians are involved with al-Qaeda. It doesn't add up to me."

Wesley Wark, one of Canada's foremost experts on international and domestic terrorism, and a visiting professor in the Graduate School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Ottawa, agrees it's unlikely that the Iranian government is involved in the alleged Canadian plot.

"There is al-Qaeda in Iran, but most of the al-Qaeda figures in Iran that we know of are under arrest, or at least house arrest, by the Iranian authorities. And some of them have been for quite a long time," he said.

"The Iranian regime, whatever we might think of it, is not sympathetic to al-Qaeda and never has been, and the law enforcement people at the press conference [announcing the arrests] were at pains to say that they didn't believe this was a state-sponsored terrorist plot. So they're alleging something quite peculiar, that al-Qaeda is on the loose in Iran and communicating with overseas agents in Canada and planning this slightly bizarre attack on a soft target in Canada, a train running out of Toronto and perhaps to the United States. A lot of the pieces of this just don't add up very well at the moment."

Suspect in alleged Canadian

artappraiser — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 20:03:04 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

Suspect in alleged Canadian terror plot claims charges 'based on appearances'
By Isabeau Doucet in Montreal, guardian.co.uk, 23 April 2013

[.....] At a brief hearing in Montreal, prosecutors laid outlined the accusations against Chiheb Esseghaier, 30. His alleged accomplice, Raed Jaser, 35, made a separate court appearance in Toronto. [.....]

Esseghaier, 30, calmly confirmed that he understood the charges. He said in French: "The conclusions have been made based on acts and words which are only appearances." The judge told him he would have a chance to address the charges in due course. He was sent to Toronto and will appear in court there later this week.

Esseghaier, a Tunisian doctoral student at the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, has "no fixed" address, according to police documents. Richard Roy, public prosecutions of Canada in Montreal's Palais de la Justice, said Esseghaier declined an offer of representation by a court-appointed lawyer. [.....]

Jaser's lawyer, John Norris, had said Jaser was "in a state of shock and disbelief" and "anxious to see the evidence that the crown says it has against him". Norris said his client would "defend himself vigorously" against the accusations, and noted that his client is a permanent resident of Canada who has lived there for 20 years. He refused to say where Jaser was from, saying that revealing his nationality in the current climate amounted to demonizing him. [.....]

Opposition MPs and political analysts have expressed suspicion at the timing of the arrests, a week after the Boston bombings and the same day as a the House of Commons in Canada debated a controversial anti-terrorism bill. The Combating Terrorism Act, or Bill S-7, which was put into effect after 9/11, was never used and fell into abeyance, due to a "sunset" provision, five years ago. It could be reinstated by Tuesday night, if the government gains enough support. It would allow secret trials, pre-emptive detention and expansive security and surveillance powers. Its critics say it is as incompatible with the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. [.....]

The accused are a Tunisian

artappraiser — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:41:14 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

The accused are a Tunisian and a Palestinian; quite a few more details @

The Toronto Star: RCMP arrest two in alleged plot to derail VIA Rail train

by Michelle Shephard, National Security Reporter & Andrew Livingstone, News reporter, April 22, 2013

Analysts surprised by alleged

artappraiser — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:25:49 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

Analysts surprised by alleged Al Qaeda in Iran tie in Canada plot
By Emily Alpert, Los Angeles Times, April 22, 2013, 6:40 p.m

[.....] Canadian police said there was no reason to believe that the plotted attacks were sponsored by any state, which would mean the Iranian government was not involved. Police provided no further details regarding the alleged involvement of Al Qaeda elements in Iran in the plot.

Even if Iran and Al Qaeda share some of the same enemies, “it’s not like Iranians are going to allow a Sunni terrorist group to plan an attack that might result in more hostilities against the Shiite nation of Iran,” said Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, a former U.S. counter-terrorism official and a senior affiliate at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “There’s no love lost between them.”

If Al Qaeda members detained in Iran were able to continue orchestrating attacks, that could mean members of the terrorist group have more freedom there than previously believed, Nelson said. That might mean they were able to plot an attack without being detected by Iranian authorities.

The question could be, "How much of this was them just not paying attention?" Nelson said.

Not everyone has been skeptical of the idea that Iran and Al Qaeda could team up, however. “Iran appears willing to expand its limited relationship with Al Qaeda,” Rand Corp. senior political scientist Seth G. Jones wrote in Foreign Affairs magazine last year. Al Qaeda would probably reject any direction from Iran, he wrote, but “any support or tentative permission to plot on Iran’s soil would be helpful.” The U.S. Treasury Department said in October that Iran has allowed Al Qaeda to operate a pipeline moving money and fighters to support Al Qaeda activities in South Asia. While Sunni extremists often consider Shiites to be “heretics,” some Shiite extremists have tried to forge alliances, said Jeffrey M. Bale, a senior researcher at the Monterey Institute of International Studies [.....]

Isabeau Doucet @ The Guardian

artappraiser — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 02:16:45 +0000

In reply to Canada: Alleged terror plot targeting Via train thwarted

Isabeau Doucet @ The Guardian from Montreal:

Two arrested in Canada over alleged passenger train terrorist plot, April 22

Police say men had direction and guidance from al-Qaida elements in Iran and that attack was still at the planning stage