Free Republic

TORONTO - Canadian counter- terrorism investigators have dismantled a suspected terrorist cell in Toronto whose members included an al-Qaeda-trained explosives expert, the National Post has learned. The cell consisted of four Algerian refugee claimants who had lived in Canada for as long as six years and were alleged members of a radical Islamic terror faction called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The central figure of the Toronto-area cell was a former al-Qaeda training camp instructor who studied bomb-making at Osama bin Laden's Al Farooq and Khaldun training camps in eastern Afghanistan. The group was watched by intelligence officers...

Canadian agents this summer busted a suspected terrorist cell in Toronto that included an Algerian explosives expert they say was trained by al-Qaida, intelligence officials said Thursday. The cell was made up of four Algerian men who had applied for refugee status in Canada and were alleged members of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, an Islamic group with ties to al-Qaida, which is banned in Canada and Algeria, the officials said. The group was dismantled by CSIS counterterrorism and Canada Border Services Agency agents, working with police, Barbara Campion, a spokeswoman for Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said Thursday....

TORONTO - Canadian counter- terrorism investigators have dismantled a suspected terrorist cell in Toronto whose members included an al-Qaeda-trained explosives expert, the National Post has learned. The cell consisted of four Algerian refugee claimants who had lived in Canada for as long as six years and were alleged members of a radical Islamic terror faction called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat. The central figure of the Toronto-area cell was a former al-Qaeda training camp instructor who studied bomb-making at Osama bin Laden's Al Farooq and Khaldun training camps in eastern Afghanistan. The group was watched by intelligence officers...

The article is a book review, of the book The Martyr's Oath: The Apprenticeship of a Homegrown Terrorist, By Stewart Bell A decade ago, when I was investigating counter-terrorism cases for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), our targets were just as murderous as today, but they were decidedly less suicidal. However twisted, their operations were designed with at least enough pragmatic restraint that the terrorist could hope to emerge unscathed. The current generation of terrorist embraces martyrdom, that oddly archaic end that suggests dying for a cause is equivalent to achieving it. Who chooses terrorism and the hope for...

TORONTO (CP) - A suspected terrorist detained in a Canadian jail for almost four years told Federal Court on Wednesday that he has never had any contact with al-Qaida or its leader Osama bin Laden. Hassan Almrei said that although he believes in the jihad, or holy war, against Soviet invaders in Afghanistan, he would never believe in a "bin Laden jihad." "It is a duty for a Muslim to defend his country," testified a weak and soft-spoken Almrei, currently on the 29th day of a hunger strike over prison conditions. "Otherwise, no, I don't believe in the bin Laden...

Harper says Grits fail to shun groups with terrorist linksGlobe and Mail By Paul Koring July 20, 2005 With a report from David Ebner WASHINGTON -- Canada's governing Liberals associate with ethnic organizations that have terrorist links, Opposition Leader Stephen Harper said yesterday, and he urged Prime Minister Paul Martin to avoid such contacts. Mr. Harper, in Washington attending meetings with U.S. officials and a gathering of right-wing parties, accused Liberals of failing to avoid groups with terrorist links. "The Liberal Party's connections to organizations in Canada that have terrorist affiliations elsewhere," are a cause for concern, he said at...

British authorities are investigating a possible link between the London bombings and an alleged London bomb plot last year involving Canadian Momin Khawaja, now awaiting the first-ever trial under Canada's new anti-terrorism act. British investigators and security intelligence sources in Europe and the United States say Mohamed Sidique Khan, a 30-year-old primary school teacher believed to be a key figure among the four suspected London suicide bombers, was possibly associated with some of the men arrested in and around the British capital in March, 2004. As part of a global investigation dubbed Operation Crevice, British police and security agents say...

Canada urged to go after `scumbags' General evokes fight against Nazis Active role for troops pushed Bruce Campion-Smith Ottawa Bureau July 15, 2005 STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR FILE PHOTO Gen. Rick Hillier, Canada’s chief of defence staff, says last week’s terrorist attack “just tells us once more we can’t let up.” OTTAWA—Canada must take its fight against "detestable murderers and scumbags" to the failed states abroad where they are allowed to "spread their venom," the country's top general said yesterday. Comparing the situation to that of the fight against Nazi Germany, a tough-talking Gen. Rick Hillier says the attacks against the...

A Hollywood film in the works will depict a Canadian formerly detained at Guantanamo as a reformed young man who now rejects terrorism and his family's ties to al-Qaida. But there's evidence 21-year-old Abdurahman Khadr's true story doesn't fit the feel-good script proposed by Paramount Pictures, according to Andrew Walden, writing in FrontPage magazine. ABDURAHMAN KHADR Courtesy CBC Khadr is the son of Ahmed Saeed Khadr, a Canadian citizen whom the U.S. has accused of having direct ties to Osama bin Laden. He also is the brother of Omar Khadr, who, as WorldNetDaily first reported exclusively, is accused of killing...

Al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden declared Canada a "legitimate target" for attacks in March 2004. TORONTO (CP) - The perception of Canada as an immigrant-friendly place with myriad ethnic backgrounds makes it a perfect destination for would-be terrorists, a former FBI agent said Tuesday at an international conference on disaster management. Ty Fairman, who has interviewed several of the world's most notorious terrorists, said Muslim radicals looking to travel to the western world look at settling in Ontario because of the high concentration of Muslims already living there. Sixty-one per cent of the country's estimated 750,000 Muslims reside in the...

Monday July 04, 2005 By BETH DUFF-BROWN Associated Press Writer TORONTO (AP) Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, and intelligence officials believe at least 50 terror groups now have some presence here. They are from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan and points between and include supporters of some of the best-known Mideast groups, including al-Qaida, authorities say. Osama bin Laden named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror. The others, reaffirmed last year by his al-Qaida network, were the...

Mounties uncover 'Al Qaeda' cache Plans, tapes diaries seized at Pearson Zaynab Khadr denies they belong to her MICHELLE SHEPHARD STAFF REPORTER OTTAWA—The RCMP and Canadian military believe they've discovered a vital cache of information on Al Qaeda that includes the whereabouts of wanted members and details of attacks on coalition forces in Afghanistan. The information is allegedly contained in a laptop, dozens of DVDs, audiocassettes and the pages of diaries, seized by the RCMP officers who met Zaynab Khadr at Pearson airport with a search warrant as she arrived back in Canada in February, court documents state. Khadr is...

TORONTO: Canadian intelligence experts believe that converts to Islam in the country are becoming a major source of Al-Qaeda combatants and pose a risk to security. An intelligence report from Canada's spy service, released to a daily said "there is a direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from Al-Qaeda and related groups," and that those groups are attempting to expand their support in Canada. "Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and relative ease at moving through Western society," the recently declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service report said. This trend is now bringing...

Two declassified reports from the Canadian intelligence service say young Islamic militants with Canadian nationality or residency have been through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan or elsewhere and constitute "a clear and present danger to Canada and its allies." "The presence of young, committed jihadists in Canada is a matter of grave concern,"

A closer look at the activities of the Khadr family, details of their life with bin Laden, and the uproar in Canada over the mother and brother's return.

Let's hope Honduras is awash in American agents. Al Qaeda's Abu Musab al-Zarqawi reportedly has dispatched Islamo-fascist murderers to penetrate the U.S. via Tegucigalpa, where bribe-hungry authorities allegedly sell passports to smooth passage through Mexico to the human highway known as the U.S.-Mexican border. But American officials better eye the northern frontier, too. Canadians seem rather relaxed about some who inhabit the land nestled between Alaska and the Lower 48. While most Canadians are as friendly as Labrador retrievers, that attitude is not universal. "I'm not afraid of dying, and killing doesn't frighten me," Algerian-born Canadian Fateh Kamel said on...

NEW YORK — Without neglecting the U.S.-Mexican border, American officials better eye the northern frontier, too. While most Canadians are as friendly as Labrador retrievers, that attitude is not universal. "I'm not afraid of dying, and killing doesn't frighten me," Algerian-born Canadian Fateh Kamel said on an Italian counterterrorism intercept. "If I have to press the remote control, vive the jihad!" Kamel was convicted in France of distributing bogus passports and conspiring to blow up Paris Metro stations. He was sentenced April 6, 2001, to eight years in prison. But after fewer than four years, France sprang Kamel for "good...

NEW YORK, March 13 /PRNewswire/ -- Fateh Kamel, labeled a jihadi "mastermind" by law-enforcement sources in Europe and North America, was released from a French prison in January, reportedly for "good behavior," Newsweek reports in the current issue. A Canadian government source confirms Kamel is back in Canada, reports Investigative Correspondent Mark Hosenball in the March 21 issue of Newsweek (on newsstands Monday, March 14). Kamel was arrested in Jordan and extradited to France, where in 2001 he was sentenced to eight years for trafficking in forged ID papers and "association" with terrorists implicated in subway bombings there. The evidence...

MEXICO CITY - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice (news - web sites) said Thursday that al-Qaida and other terrorist groups are doing everything they can to get into the United States through Mexico and Canada. Rice, on her first trip to Mexico since taking over at the State Department, in late January, echoed concerns raised by government officials in congressional testimony last month about the motives of the terrorist network blamed for the Sept. 11 attacks. "Indeed we have from time to time had reports about al-Qaida trying to use our southern border but also trying to use our northern...

Mosque founder tied to terror group CSIS spy chief reveals names Links men to Al Qaeda group MICHELLE SHEPHARD AND TONDA MACCHARLES STAFF REPORTERS He was a founding director of a Scarborough mosque and a doting father who brought his children to the park for picnics on weekends. Now he's been named as a key commander of a terrorist group linked to Al Qaeda that's fighting against the Americans in Iraq. The allegation was made this week by Jim Judd, director of Canada's spy service. Hassan Farhat, known as Abdul Jaber to security officials and Abu Khalid to friends, was...