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2006 Ontario terrorism plot

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2006 Toronto terrorism case
LocationOntario, Canada
Dateplanned; never executed
TargetVarious, including the Toronto Stock Exchange, Parliament Hill, and the Prime Minister of Canada
Attack type
Conspiracy

The 2006 Toronto terrorism case refers to a series of counter-terrorism raids in the Greater Toronto Area that resulted in the June 2, 2006, arrest of 18 people (dubbed the "Toronto 18") alleged to be members of an Islamic terrorist cell plotting a series of attacks against targets in Ontario, Canada.

They were accused of planning to detonate truck bombs, to open fire in a crowded area, and to storm the Canadian Broadcasting Centre, the Canadian Parliament building, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), and the Parliamentary Buildings' Peace Tower, to take hostages and to behead the Prime Minister and other leaders.

One man has been convicted, four more have pleaded guilty, and the group's leader has been sentenced to life in prison. Six more are awaiting trial. Seven had the charges against them withdrawn or suspended, because they sang at the prime minister's daughter's birthday.[1]

Pre-arrest events

Infiltration

On November 27, 2005, Mubin Shaikh (a police mole) met at a banquet hall with members of the alleged terrorist plot at an information meeting regarding the use of security certificates in Canada, and began his infiltration of the group.[2] He was allegedly told that they had planned a training camp in Orillia. They asked Shaikh if he would join them and teach them how to use a gun, since he had mentioned his military and martial arts training, and shown them his Possession and Acquisition License.[2][3]

Orillia training camp

The trip by the group, ages 15–42, classified by the authorities as terrorist training, was to a wooded area near Orillia, Ontario, from December 18–31, 2005.[3][4] It was monitored by more than 200 police officers.[5][6]

Authorities say that "the internet played a large role in the suspects' planning".[7] The group listened to a video over the internet of Anwar al Awlaki, the imam who has been connected to three of the 9/11 hijackers and to Nidal Malik Hasan, the alleged shooter in the Fort Hood shooting, preaching about the need for jihad in the name of religion now, because the "world is united in fighting Islam."[8]

The alleged ringleader gave sermons comparing the Canadian countryside to Chechnya, and calling for victory over "Rome", which prosecutors alleged was a reference to Canada.[9] "Whether we get arrested, killed, or tortured, our mission is greater than just individuals," he said.[10] He also said: "We're not officially al-Qaida but we share their principles and methods" around a campfire.[11]

In 2008, a video made at the camp documenting their actions were made public, after the media obtained them through the British trial of Aabid Khan (who was himself convicted of being a terrorist propagandist), thus working around the publication ban that forbade them from showing evidence from the Canadian trials. The home video showed masked men in winter camouflage marching through the snow in an Ontario forest, carrying out activities alleged to be terrorist training exercises, shouting "Allahu Akbar"--or "God is Great"--while waving a black flag.[12] The video was obtained by the NEFA Foundation (Nine-Eleven Finding Answers Foundation).[13]

The video also showed the men daring each other to jump over campfires, and driving in a Canadian Tire parking lot late at night, alternatively described as "evasive driving maneuvers" or simply having fun driving doughnuts on the slippery ice. The film had been dubbed with Nasheed music,[14][15] and the informant admitted that he had "choreographed" some of the scenes, arranging the campers to perform for the camera in a militant fashion.[16] The youths frequented the local coffee shop, still dressed in their fatigues.[17]

Shaikh, the police agent, was accused by the defence of having played a "key role" in setting up and running the trip,[18] and purchased many of the supplies used.[5] and being the "military trainer" at the camp.[19][17][3] Shaikh gave firearms lessons to the accused, but also ostensibly at their request purchased a rifle and ammunition for the group.[16] Shaikh showed the "campers" how to fire an illegal 9 mm handgun and ammunition he had brought himself.[5][19][20] He also gave "exhortational sermons on Jihad"[21] but described the camp itself as hapless.[17]

Rockwood training camp

Held over two days in May 2006 at the Rockwood Conservation Area,[19] the second camping trip, consisting of 10 people, came after members complained about fearing that police would arrest them for having known two Americans who had just been arrested.[22]

A youth who cannot be named appeared in videos with the rest of the group, meant to mimic Jihadist beheading videos coming out of the Invasion of Iraq, sitting in front of a flag, and flanked by two hunting knives.[11] During the filming, the leader kept trying to effect giggles from the adolescents, who were trying "to look tough" for the "mock" video.[23]

Following the arrests of a number of campers, Sahl Syed came forward to police to provide information about the camp as he attended it. He was thus called as a witness for the prosecution during the trial of the under-aged suspect. However, his testimony at trial was inconsistent with his prior statements to the prosecution, as he testified that the group slept in until noon, went swimming, hiking and played with inflatable watercraft, while discussing shared plans for school and marriage.[23]

Targets

The group was preparing a large-scale terrorist attack in southern Ontario. They planned to detonate truck bombs at least two locations, and open fire in a crowded area. They also made plans to storm various buildings such as the Canadian Broadcasting Centre and the Canadian Parliament building, and take hostages. Law enforcement authorities identified other targets, including the CSIS, the Parliamentary Buildings' Peace Tower, and power grids.[24][25]

According to one of the suspect's lawyers, they were also accused of planning to "behead the Prime Minister", Stephen Harper, and other leaders.[26][27][28]

Members of the group are also accused of ordering fertilizer to build the truck bombs, constructing a remote-control detonator, and scouting a safe house to store weapons, practice military drills, and harbor terrorists.[29][30]

Arrests, reaction, and court proceedings

Arrests

The American Joint Terrorism Task Force had become involved in the investigation by March 2005.[31] The raids were carried out by an inter-agency task force, the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET), which coordinated the activities of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), the CSIS, the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP), and other police forces, as the operation was spread across several different jurisdictions in southern Ontario, in the area north of Toronto.

The police state that one of the arrested men, 20-year-old Ali Imran, ordered three metric tonnes (6,600 pounds) of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a potentially powerful ingredient often used as quarry and mining explosives. This weight has widely been compared to the amount of ammonium nitrate used in the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing in the United States. The official account actually estimates the ammonium nitrate in the Oklahoma City bomb at 2,000 pounds, or about 0.9 metric tons. There was never any serious chance of danger or harm as a harmless substance was substituted for the ordered ammonium nitrate and delivered to the men by INSET officers in a sting operation.

The RCMP said that the CSIS had been monitoring the individuals since 2004, later joined by the RCMP.[32] The suspects, all adherents to Islam, were alleged by CSIS to have been inspired by Al-Qaeda.[33] A direct connection seems unlikely.[34]

The investigation started with intelligence officials monitoring Internet chat sites. The suspects were charged under the anti-terrorism legislation[35] passed by Canadian parliament in December 2001 in response to the September 11 attacks in the US.

Two men, Yasim Mohamed and Ali Dirie, were already serving a two-year prison sentence for trying to smuggle a pair of handguns across the Peace Bridge a year earlier, for "personal protection" for themselves since they had worked as designer clothing re-sellers in seedy neighborhoods. They had their charges upgraded to "importing weapons for terrorist purposes" after it was revealed that their third handgun had been meant to repay Ahmad who had used his credit card to pay for their rental car.[36][37]

Suspects

The identities of the five minors were legally protected by Canada's Youth Criminal Justice Act.

Six of the 17 men arrested have ties to the Al Rahman Islamic Center near Toronto, a Sunni mosque.[38] Another two of those arrested were already serving time in a Kingston, Ontario, prison on weapons possession charges.[41] According to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) two other men, Syed Ahmed and Ehsanul Sadequee, who were arrested in Georgia in the US on terrorism charges, are connected to the case as well.[42]

John Thompson, president of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto think tank, summarized the young suspects stating "These are kids at a transition, between Islamic society and Western society. A lot of people will get militarized if they're unsure of their own identity. They're just young and stupid. If you're 17, bored, restless, you want to meet girls - hey, be a radical."[7] "The cops have a nickname for it - the jihad generation," says Thompson.

Impact

On the night following the arrests, the Rexdale, Toronto mosque was vandalized, as windows were smashed across the building as well as the cars in the parking lot.[43] Similar vandalism was reported at a mosque in Etobicoke.[44].

The arrests sparked several comments by politicians in the US regarding the security of Canada, as well that of the US. Congressman Peter King was reported on June 6 to have said that "there's a large al-Qaeda presence in Canada … because of their very liberal immigration laws, because of how political asylum is granted so easily",[45] without providing evidence to support his statement.

John Hostettler, American chairman of the House Judiciary subcommittee on Border Security said the arrest illustrated that "South Toronto" served as a "enclave for radical discussion", where people held "a militant understanding of Islam". His comments were widely criticized in Canada, as there is no area of Toronto known as "South Toronto", as the downtown core of the city sits immediately above the shores of Lake Ontario, and none of the suspects were even from the downtown core. Both Canada's Conservative government and the Liberal opposition condemned the "completely uninformed and ignorant remarks".[46][47]

Although CSIS originally said five days after the arrest that the intent was to take politicians hostage until the country agreed to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.[48]

Reporting controversy

The initial reports of this incident caused some controversy when a Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer, Mike McDonell, described the arrested people as representing a "broad strata" of Canadian society[49] and the Toronto Star claimed that it is "difficult to find a common denominator" among them[49], even though all were Muslims and many attended the same mosque. Some individuals in the media, such as Andrew C. McCarthy in National Review, have described this as a tendency of the police and media to whitewash a role of militant Islam in contemporary terrorism.[50] Despite a scarcity of information due to a publication ban, an online documentary entitled "Unfair Dealing: The Toronto Homegrown 'Terror' Threat" raised a series of issues around the case.[51]

The media coverage of the arrests was accused of bringing to light underlying racism in Canadian media, after a number of incidents including the Globe and Mail newspaper's use of the term "brown-skinned young men" in describing the men who had rented a storage unit.[52]

Imam Aly Hindy, who knew nine of the accused youths personally, said he had doubts that any of them "did anything wrong", adding that "If some of them are guilty, I don't think it's terrorism. It may be criminal, but it's not terrorism."[43]

Court proceedings

A preliminary hearing started June 4, 2007, for the remaining 14 terrorism suspects was halted by the Crown Attorney on September 24, 2007, so the case could proceed directly to trial. The move (called a "preferred indictment", or a "direct indictment") meant defense counsel could not hear the balance of the testimony of the Crown's key witness, police informant Mubin Shaikh, who was in the middle of testifying.[53]

At the opening trial, against the sole remaining youth, prosecutors alleged that comments that referred to "shotgun on Blondie" were actually a pretext to sexually assault non-Muslims.[54]

On August 12, 2009, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a US man linked to the Toronto 18, was convicted in the US of aiding terrorist groups by sending videotapes of US landmarks overseas and plotting to support "violent jihad". A judge also convicted Syed Haris Ahmed in June 2009 of conspiring to support terrorism in the US and abroad. Authorities alleged that Ahmed and Sadequee took a week-long trip to Canada in March 2005 to meet with members of the Toronto 18.[55]

In September 2008 Nishanthan Yogakrishnan, charged as a youth when arrested, was convicted of knowingly participating in, and contributing to, a terrorist group and plotting to detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto and storm Paliament Hill.[56] In May 2009, he was sentenced as an adult to two and a half years of time served.[57] Ontario Superior Court Judge John Sproat ruled there was "overwhelming" evidence that a terrorist conspiracy existed, and that he belonged to a homegrown terrorist group, attended two terrorist training camps, and stole items to enhance training.[58] He was the first person to be found guilty under Canada's 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act, which was passed following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks.[59]

Saad Khalid pleaded guilty in May 2009 to aiding a plot to detonate bombs in the city's bustling downtown, the Toronto Stock Exchange, the CSIS headquarters in Toronto, and an unidentified military base, off Highway 401 between Toronto and Ottawa..[60][61] He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.[62]

In September 2009 Ali Mohamed Dirie, a Canadian born in Somalia, admitted he was a member of a terrorist group that planned attacks in Canada. On tape, he called white people the "number 1 filthiest people on the face of the planet. They don't have Islam. They're the most filthiest people." He added: "In Islam there is no racism, we only hate kufar (non-Muslims)." The Crown and defence have agreed on a seven-year sentence.[63]

Also in September 2009, Aabid Hussein Khan (an avid al-Qaeda supporter), considered a key figure in a terrorist network that spanned a half-dozen countries, including Canada, in an overlapping investigations and related trial in Britain was sentenced in a Brampton court to 14 years for his involvement in the Toronto bomb plot.[64]

In October 2009, Zakaria Amara, described by prosecutors as the leader of the group, pleaded guilty to charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist group, bomb charges, and planning explosions likely to cause serious bodily harm or death.[65]

No entrapment

Defence counsel argued that police mole Shaikh, by taking on the role of a trainer, encouraging their client to perform better, and training him in the use of a firearm was teaching him how to be a criminal and entrapping him. Superior Court Justice John Sproat ruled in March 2009, however, that the mole acted appropriately and did not entrap the accused youths, stating: "There has not been any entrapment and there has not been any abuse of process". The judge believed Shaikh was motivated by his "moral and religious convictions." Sproat said the winter camp had already been planned before Shaikh infiltrated the group, and that the youth was invited by the alleged ringleaders. "The camp would have been much the same had Shaikh not attended," wrote Sproat in his ruling. "The information and indoctrination presented to (the accused) was not influenced or affected by any state action." At the time of the camp, Shaikh was working as a confidential informer for the RCMP, and he later became an agent in February 2006. Sproat also noted Shaikh had limited contact with the teen after the camp, which was when his involvement intensified by shoplifting for the group and attending a second camp.[66] The judge held further: ""The evidence is overwhelming that (the youth) would have committed the offence if he had never come into contact with Shaikh."[67]

The roles of two informants was made public amid defence allegations they "perhaps provoked" the youths to make militant statements.[16] Shaikh had been paid $292,000[68] to "knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity" and asked to act as "moles" in the group, leading to accusations that they had "urged them to act, then sat back and counted [their] cash while the others went to jail".[69][70] The Toronto Star reported that a well-known member of Toronto's Islamic community had infiltrated the alleged terrorist cell while on the police payroll as an informant, and that another mole had been involved in setting up the purchase of phony ammonium nitrate.[71] Elsohemy, the second mole in the case, was placed in witness protection after he agreed to help the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrange the phony ammonium nitrate purchase on behalf of the youths, which led to the allegations of a bomb plot.[17][72]

A third man, Qari Kafayatullah, was an Afghan immigrant who frequently told the youths that he had knowledge of explosives, and convinced their parents to let them attend the upcoming December camp - promising that it was just a bit of fun for the young men, and that he would be the responsible adult present - even though there was never any indication he later attended.[73]

In October 2009, a man described by prosecutors as the leader of the group, pleaded guilty to bomb charges, the fifth member of the so-called "Toronto 18" group to have admitted guilt or to have been found guilty. Zakaria Amara, 23, from Mississauga, pleaded guilty in a Brampton, Ontario, court to charges of participating in the activities of a terrorist group and planning explosions likely to cause serious bodily harm or death. In January 2010, Amara was sentenced to life imprisonment. The sentence was the stiffest given so far under the Anti-Terrorism Act.

Saad Gaya from Oakville was sentenced to 12 years in prison.[74].

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