Terrorist suspect Momin Khawaja, an Ottawa
computer software programmer, arrives
at the Ottawa courthouse Monday May 3, 2004
under Royal Canadian Mounted Police protection.
Posted on 07/19/2006 3:20:41 PM PDT by GMMAC
Guns, jihad books found in Ottawa home of accused terrorist
Ian MacLeod in Ottawa and and Sarah Knapton in London
CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen; with files from Central News agency, London.
Wednesday, July 19, 2006
Police discovered guns, ammunition, electrical components and books on terrorism and jihad during a raid on the Ottawa home of accused terrorist Momin Khawaja, a British court was told Tuesday.
The prosecution evidence emerged at the London trial of seven British men charged with conspiring to bomb sites in and around London, including nightclubs, trains and a major shopping centre.
British authorities allege Khawaja, 27, played a "vital role" in the suspected plot by making remote-controlled detonators to be used to explode bombs constructed from 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer the group allegedly acquired.
Though he is named as a conspirator in the case, Khawaja has not been charged by British authorities with any crime. Instead, he is to stand trial in Ottawa in January as the first person charged under Canada's Anti-terrorism Act.
Terrorist suspect Momin Khawaja, an Ottawa
computer software programmer, arrives
at the Ottawa courthouse Monday May 3, 2004
under Royal Canadian Mounted Police protection.
The London trial, which began in February, is offering a preview of the federal government's case against Khawaja, in custody in an Ottawa jail since his March 2004 arrest. He denies any involvement in the alleged terror plot, as do the seven London defendants.
Crown prosecutor Mark Heywood told the Old Bailey trial Tuesday that when RCMP officers raided the home of Khawaja and his family on March 29, 2004, they found three rifles under Khawaja's bed along with dozens of rounds of ammunition. It is unclear whether the rifles were registered.
Police seized several books, he said, including: Terrorism and Self Sufficiency, Defence of The Muslim Lands, The Religion And Doctrine of Jihad, CIA Special Operations and Equipment, The Art of War, On Guerrilla Warfare and an unspecified military manual.
Also seized was a combat knife, several boxes of electronic equipment Khawaja is a computer and software expert and some hobby rocket equipment, including a small launcher.
Earlier in the trial, prosecutor David Waters told the 12-member jury RCMP officers also found a cellphone jammer in Khawaja's home, a lawful and commercially available device that prevents cellphones from working in the immediate area in a hospital, for example.
"Khawaja had it no doubt as part of his development of a more sophisticated and portable jamming device which could be carried by the bomber," to prevent a stray cellphone signal from prematurely triggering a bomb, Waters testified.
He said Khawaja visited some of the defendants in London for a few days in February 2004, allegedly to inform them of his progress in Canada with making the remote-controlled detonators.
Previous e-mails from Khawaja, court heard, expressed his concern at smuggling the devices with him on his flight to London.
Instead, prosecutors say Khawaja took some of the men to an Internet cafe in Crawley, about an hour south of London, and showed them an image of one of his remote-controlled detonators, which he supposedly told them had a two-kilometre range.
British police alerted Canadian authorities, who started watching Khawaja as he stepped off an Air Canada flight in Toronto on Feb. 22, 2004.
"Momin Khawaja is not charged in England," Khawaja's Canadian lawyer, Lawrence Greenspon, said Tuesday. "Although his name may be mentioned during the course of the trial, British authorities do not see fit to charge him, although this was open to them."
Meanwhile, Mubin Shaikh, an outspoken member of Toronto's Muslim community, revealed last week that he worked as an undercover agent for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in its investigation of 17 Toronto men and youths charged in June with conspiring to bomb public sites in and around Toronto.
Shaikh said he offered his services to CSIS soon after his boyhood friend Khawaja was arrested.
"We grew up together," he told CBC News. "We have a good connection with the family. I contacted CSIS, I phoned them and I said, 'I know the family, I know this guy Momin.Is there some way I can help, give some information in that I've grown up with him? I don't know him to be like this or his brother, definitely not his family, they're not extremists.'"
Ottawa Citizen
© CanWest News Service 2006
PING!
CAIR says its just another big misunderstanding.
Notice how they list 'guns & ammo' first.
Now, that's just plain wrong of them to take such items. I say they should give it back (modified, of course).
But, but, but 'jihad' is an innger struggle for "peace".
No need for trial. Just hang him.
...now now.....we must be fair......quick trial....then shave his beard OFF.....then hang him....sans beard...how humiliating....
Amen...I mean Allu ackbar!
I hope you receive the much coveted Hoser award, and that you will be acclaimed by your community as you justly should,and get free tickets for life to Toronto Bluejay games, at the Roger family stadium that these POSs planned to blow up.
I hope Canada doesn't waste money on central heating in the prisons where they accommodate these creeps. They should be housed north of the Arctic Circle and fed a diet of raw seal.
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