Anti-terrorism squads raid Ottawa homes

[girlfiredup]

Eavesdropping by U.S. agency led to arrests of terrorist suspects

10:12 PM EDT Apr 04

The Canadian Press, 2004

LONDON (CP) - The arrests of nine terrorist suspects in Britain and one in Canada last week began with a message intercepted by the National Security Agency in the United States that appeared to give instructions for an attack in the United Kingdom by al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan, The Sunday Times reports.

The newspaper says the message was received by computers at the NSA‘s electronic eavesdropping centre in Maryland, which monitors millions of telephone calls and e-mails a day.

Police in Britain were alerted of the threat after the NSA analysed the automatic translation of the communication that The Sunday Times said was "thought to be between Britain and Pakistan."

Once alerted, senior British police and intelligence officers, including David Veness, head of special operations at Scotland Yard, and Eliza Manningham-Buller, director general of MI5, set up Operation Crevice, the code name for the international anti-terrorist sweep.

Meanwhile in Canada, the RCMP arrested Momin Khawaja, 24, a software developer in Ottawa, in an investigation they have dubbed Project Awaken. He is the first Canadian charged under the Anti-Terrorism Act and faces two counts for unspecified offences between Nov. 10, 2003 and last Monday.

Published reports say the RCMP had Khawaja under surveillance for more than a month at the request of British police. During a recent visit to Britain he was shadowed by British undercover police.

Investigators claim he had a "pivotal role" in the alleged plot, as well as links to Saudi Arabian extremists, The Sunday Times said.

But Khawaja‘s lawyer, Steven Greenberg, said Friday there has been "no link established at this time" between the case and allegations of the London bomb plot. Khawaja is slated for a bail hearing Wednesday and will plead not guilty, Greenberg added.

The Mounties have said legal and operational limitations prevent them from releasing more information on the case.

Detectives from the National Crime Squad in Britain were redeployed from dealing with organized crime to keep surveillance on the suspects in Britain and the operation led to the seizure last week of a half a tonne of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a chemical used to make home-made terrorist bombs, in a storage garage near London‘s Heathrow Airport.

The newspaper said the original tip, picked up by NSA satellites, was given high priority because it appeared to be instructions for an attack passing between Al-Qaida commanders in Pakistan and associates in Britain.

The sender was apparently in the circle around Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, believed to be the mastermind of attacks in Baghdad and Karbala last month in Iraq that killed 280 people during a Muslim religious festival.

The link to Pakistan is also seen as significant because it disproves a view that al-Qaida‘s command structure had been broken up and scattered by the fall of the Taliban in Afghanistan and arrests made around the world in the last 2 ½ years of the war on terror, The Sunday Times said.

"We all thought there were cells operating in isolation and had been told that the al-Qaida network had been destroyed from the top when suddenly we find a chain of command leading back to Pakistan," a senior Scotland Yard source is quoted as saying.

 

[Infanteer]

What I am saying is that there is a balance to be struck between the obligation of the state to protect its citizens and maintain social order and the need to protect the rights of citizens. I believe that balance has been struck quite well. What the cases I quoted serve to demonstrate is the fallacy of a blanket statement that those who are not breaking the law have nothing to fear from increased police powers.

What value do those rights have if you live under constant fear that you are going to be killed the next day at work by a suicide bomber, release of a nerve-agent, or a hijacked airliner. The fact that we are rooting these guys out says something for increased security powers in a time of war.

There is also a very clear distinction to be made between an environment such as post-war Bosnia and Canada. What I am saying is that the reasonable restrictions on police powers exist for a reason, they protect your, and my liberties. I have yet to see anyone post in regards to what tools they believe the police are lacking in regards to the tools they have to do their job.

I am not trying to advocate any specific policy. My response is aimed to those who suffer from immediate knee-jerk reaction that occurs whenever the police are given special powers or undertake a major crackdown.

I do know this. This discussion would be irrelevant had Mr Khawaja toppled the CN tower with a truck bomb.

 

[xFusilier]

What value do those rights have if you live under constant fear that you are going to be killed the next day at work by a suicide bomber, release of a nerve-agent, or a hijacked airliner.

The fear of terrorist attack is the price we now must pay for the liberties that we have. If we are not willing to endure the possible threat of terrorist attack in order to live in the type of society which those who would bomb, and murder, and hijack despise what value do those liberties have?

My response is aimed to those who suffer from immediate knee-jerk reaction that occurs whenever the police are given special powers

To be fair, could one not also argue that immediate knee-jerk reaction to terrorist attacks, is to give the police extraordinary powers without consideration of whether or not they are needed?

I do know this. This discussion would be irrelevant had Mr Khawaja toppled the CN tower with a truck bomb.

It would probably be more relevant.

 

[rdschultz]

I just want to make a post regarding CSIS and the supposed "clicks on the line". This is purely anecdotal evidence, so I trust that everybody will take it at face value.

A couple years ago, while I was attending university, my mother worked for a doctor. One night, I phoned my mother and I made a remark to hearing a number of odd clicks. At the time, I chalked it up to lousy cell phone towers (which it may well have been). But then I found out some rather troubling information a short while later.

As it turned out, the doctor had been investigated by CSIS on account of signing a bunch of blank passports (doctors and other professionals are capable of this). Or so the rumour goes. Shortly before the phone call I made, he had shut his practice down in a hurry, and skipped town. In addition to this, there‘s other evidence to support that there was a wiretap in place. My mother, in the days following the shut down had been called in to fill in for another doctors practice in an emergency. While working there (she had informed no one, and it was only hours after she was called in) she recieved a call from the RCMP asking about the doctors whereabouts.

Honestly, I have no idea if my telephone call had been bugged, nor would I understand why. And all the ‘evidence‘ I‘ve got to support that it was is sketchy at best, and is easily attributable to other things. But honestly, I don‘t care.

But anyways, this doesn‘t lend much to the argument at hand, I‘m just incredibly bored right now so I thought I‘d add my experience with this "clicking sound". I also disclosed far more details than I needed to, but like I said, I‘m bored.