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The Terrorist Lists

Greymatters said:
Uh... they are all foreign?  :o

The trend is pretty obvious but still only reflects current political concerns.  There are groups out there that never made the list because they have a minimal presence in Canada, or are just too small to be of concern, or nobody has made enough of a stink about to get them added to the list...

...or they're under surveillance but don't know it, and adding them to the list would tip them off...

Or, in the past, never made the lsit because government ministers went to their fundraisers...
 
dapaterson said:
Or, in the past, never made the lsit because government ministers went to their fundraisers...

Like, let's say, the IRA, for example?    ^-^
 
In a Canadian context I was thinking of the World Tamil Movement, which assiduously courted the Liberal party of Canada...
 
Stephane Dion and Jack Layton have both courted the Sikhs,who regularly parade martyrs, including the one who masterminded the Air India bombing.
 
OldSolduer said:
Stephane Dion and Jack Layton have both courted the Sikhs,who regularly parade martyrs, including the one who masterminded the Air India bombing.

If I recall correctly, Sikh ethnic groups are the third largest immigrant community(ies) in the country...
 
Greymatters said:
If I recall correctly, Sikh ethnic groups are the third largest immigrant community(ies) in the country...
That statistic I'm not sure about.

What I am sure about was that CTV or CBC (Can't remember) showed both Jack and Stephane wearing orange do rags. I think there may have been a COnservative or two who tried that....can't remember as it was a few years ago I watched this.
 
OldSolduer said:
That statistic I'm not sure about.

No, you are right, the stats I was thinking of are by nationality not religion, and Pakistan was listed as third...

 
Khawaja to be Sentenced Under Terror Law

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090311.wkhawaja12/BNStory/National


Globe and Mail: Colin Freeze
March 11, 2009 at 11:31 PM EDT

(Shared in Accordance with the Fair Dealing Provision of the Copyright Act.)


An Ottawa man convicted of building bomb components will become today the first person to be sentenced under Canada's post-9/11 terrorism laws.

After five years of legal wrangling, the landmark case of Mohammed Momin Khawaja is to be resolved this morning in a downtown Ottawa courtroom.

“I'm anticipating that it will be dramatic one way or another,” said Wesley Wark, a professor at the University of Toronto and authority on international security.

Prof. Wark predicted the trial judge will “lean in the direction of a fairly hefty sentence.”

Mr. Khawaja could be sentenced to life imprisonment after being convicted last fall on five counts of financing and facilitating terrorism as well as two lesser Criminal Code offences.

Mr. Khawaja's sentencing should help federal officials, long criticized for being soft on terrorism or for leaving the problem for other countries to deal with, show they can resolve cases against Canadian extremists in open court.

This development comes the same week as the Conservative government has signalled its plans to persuade Parliament that police need to recover certain extraordinary counterterrorism powers that MPs voted down during the last session.

The Anti-Terrorism Act was passed by parliamentarians just months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in the United States. The Act's extraordinary “sunset” powers – which gave police temporary powers of preventative arrest and the ability to compel witnesses to testify at secret hearings – were never actually used before the clock ran out on them. In 2007, the Opposition refused to renew those powers.

This week, Conservative Justice Minister Rob Nicholson gave Parliament notice that he plans to restore those powers.

Though a lightning rod for controversy, the unused sunset powers still amount to a sideshow of the Anti-Terrorism Act, the overall purpose of which was to criminalize acts of terrorism. In almost eight years, however, the act has garnered only one conviction – that against Mr. Khawaja.

Police kicked in the door of the Khawaja family home in suburban Ottawa in 2004, recovering cash, circuitry and jihadist screeds. But Mr. Khawaja was arrested at his day job – in an office building belonging to Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs, where he worked on contract to fix computers.

Mr. Khawaja, a Canadian-born Muslim, was convicted of seven offences last fall, never challenging eyewitness evidence that he took paramilitary training in the remote regions of Pakistan. A former friend told the court Mr. Khawaja's face lit up as he described firing his first rocket launcher.

Other offences involved Mr. Khawaja's travels to London, where he was overheard on surveillance tapes discussing detonators with U.K. co-conspirators who were plotting to blow up nightclubs or shopping malls.

The British cell had been discussing bombing civilians as payback for the Western invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, before their scheme was thwarted.

Before Scotland Yard detectives figured out Mr. Khawaja's identity, they codenamed the Canadian interloper ‘Undue Haste.' Before long, authorities teamed up to identify him, intercepting e-mails in which he discussed constructing detonators and signal jammers.

Mr. Khawaja frequently referred to his project as the ‘Hi Fi Digimonster.'

Since his arrest, the case against ‘Undue Haste' has been characterized by much ponderous deliberation. All levels of Canadian courts have spent years debating the implications of the case, government secrecy and the constitutionality of the Anti-Terrorism Act itself.

The trial itself was relatively short, concluding within six months. Very little of the evidence was ever in dispute.

 
I would strongly suggest if you are about to retire, keep your helmet.
It is not the begining that I am concerned with, it is the ending.
Whats in between and coming, isn't going to be pretty.
The alarm clock has been ringing for decades.
And everyone's asleep.
(Well, almost everyone)
 
Yet even more signs that our judges have severe rectal-cranial inversion issues and don't give two craps about the needs of our society.  My emphasis added for the extra-idiotic parts:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090312.wkhawajanews0312/BNStory/National/home

An Ottawa bomb builder today became the first man to be sentenced under Canada's post-9/11 laws, as a judge meted out a 10 1/2-year sentence against Mohammad Momin Khawaja, atop of the five years he has already spent jailed awaiting trial.

Justice Douglas Rutherford of Ontario Superior Court essentially split the difference between the Crown and the defence positions on sentencing, calling Mr. Khawaja “a willing and eager participant” in a terrorist scheme based in the United Kingdom.

“Sentencing in cases of terrorist activity must strongly repudiate activity that undermines our core values,” Judge Rutherford wrote in his 20–page decision released this morning. “Canada must certainly not accept the exportation of terrorism from within its borders to victimize innocent people in other parts of the world.”

But he added that Mr. Khawaja was a lesser terrorist compared to certain British co-conspirators, who have already been sentenced to life in prison in the U.K. The judge considered them to be “away out in front of Momin Khawaja in terms of their determination to bring death, destruction, and terror to innocent people.”

Ottawa software developer found guilty on five charges of financing and facilitating terrorism. He was also found guilty of two Criminal Code offences related to building a remote-control device intended to trigger bomb blasts.

He added that Mr. Khawaja, 29, “is still a young man. There is evidence of some redeeming qualities in him.”

The Crown had been asking for life in prison, the defence for time served.

Mr. Khawaja's parents plead for clemency during sentencing. But Judge Rutherford wrote yesterday that their credibility was an issue, given how they turned a blind eye to a son's activities.

“What did his parents think was going on?” he wrote in his sentencing decision, pointing out that Mr. Khawaja was a 24-year-old living in his family home in suburban Orleans, Ont., whilst putting together a treasure trove of terrorist materials police later recovered.

“Reading those [the parents'] statements [at sentencing], one might think this was a very normal family situation,” Judge Rutherford wrote.

“There was no mention of the array of military-style rifles, the crates of ammunition, the other weapons, the projectile-pocked human target on the basement wall, the mini-library of violence and  books or the workshop of electronic constructs found throughout the family home when police searched it.

“It is impossible to think that the other members of the family were oblivious to Momin's preoccupation with and proclivity to participate in violent jihad,” he concluded.

Judge Rutherford later added that "it was apparent that Momin and his brother Qasim lacked expertise in the effort to perfect the hifidigimonster" – the name of the detonation device at the centre of the bomb scheme – but it would be folly to conflate amateurishness a lack of "seriousness of his criminal intent."

The judge dispensed with conventional criminal-justice wisdom that would have awarded Momin Khawaja a two-for-one credit for his five years in custody, a logic that would have eaten 10 years off his penitentiary sentence.

“Such a large block of credit cannot but invite public suspicion, even if unfairly, that the sentencing is being manipulated by delay in going to trial,” Judge Rutherford ruled. He decided instead that Mr. Khawaja should get the 10.5 years on top of the time spent in custody, with no chance of parole for five years.

Effectively, those factors make the ruling more akin to a 15 or 20-year sentence than a 10-year sentence.

Mr. Khawaja, a Pakistani-Canadian born in Ottawa, grew up in Canada prior to falling in with a British cell of al-Qaeda-inspired extremists.

He is he first criminal to be sentenced under Canada's controversial Anti-Terrorism Act, a controversial law passed just months after the 9/11 attacks in the United States. There were no sentencing precedents prior to today's decision.

The resolution of the important test case has been keenly anticipated for years, though appeals are looming. After Mr. Khawaja was arrested in 2004, matters frequently bogged down in preliminary arguments. Judges in various courts spent years wrestling with implications of the anti-terror law and the international investigation that targeted Mr. Khawaja.

The trial itself was a relatively speedy affair that concluded in 29 trial days spread out over six months last year. Nearly all of the Crown evidence went unchallenged into the court record.

Mr. Khawaja was left with little to offer in his defence: The investigation against him amounted to a rare textbook counterterrorism case led by British agents, but also involving Canadian and U.S. counterparts, who managed to accomplish the rare feat of converting secret intelligence into evidence publicly produced in open court.

As he passed sentence, Judge Rutherford considered both the lengthy pretrial legal debates and the admissions made by Mr. Khawaja's legal team. He cautioned that “there is an ethical duty on trial counsel not to unnecessarily take up the time of the law courts” but also added that courts should give “some specific incentives” to accused who admit incriminating facts at trial.

Mr. Khawaja was found guilty of seven crimes last October. The most serious charges involved two counts of bomb-making.

British agents spotted Mr. Khawaja visiting London for three days in 2004, as he interacted with a cell of local extremists who were under surveillance. Codenamed "Undue Haste" before he was identified, Mr. Khawaja was caught on tape giving them a progress report on a detonator he was constructing in Canada.

The surveillance was rounded out by police discovery of 600 kilograms of ammonium nitrate fertilizer stashed in a storage shed in London.

Authorities also intercepted e-mails Mr. Khawaja sent from Canada to the British ringleader, Omar Khyam, about a gadget codenamed “the Hi Fi Digimonster.”

“Praise the most high, we got the devices working. I am gonna try and get a booking asap to come over and see you,” Mr. Khawaja wrote to his co-conspirator, a few weeks before his London trip. “One transmitter that sends the signal, another receiver that will be at a distance of one to two kilometres ... send out five volts down the line and then we get fireworks!”

In 2007, members of the British cell were sentenced to life in prison after a jury found they were plotting to bomb a shopping mall or night clubs. Some peripheral figures in the U.K. group were never arrested, but later surfaced as suicide bombers in the subway bombings in London that killed 52 people in 2005.

There was no evidence presented at trial that Mr. Khawaja met the subway bombers while he was in Britain.

Judge Rutherford also concluded that the Crown failed to provide any evidence that he had specific knowledge of any U.K. targets contemplated by the London ringleaders.

This was a key finding, as the lack of mens rea led Judge Rutherford to ratchet down two bomb-making charges from relatively hefty Antiterrorism Act offences, to less serious offences long ensconced in the Criminal Code. The impact is made clear in the sentence meted today, with Mr. Khawaja being sentenced to for years in total for the bomb-making charges.

The other five charges, less-serious Anti-Terrorism Act offences involving facilitation and participation in terrorist activities, resulted in terms of between three months and two years each.

These lesser charges involve Mr. Khawaja's travels in Pakistan in 2003, where he took paramilitary training in the lawless mountain regions of the country. An eyewitness testified his face lit up shortly after the training, as he recounted how he learned to fire a rocket launcher.

Full details were never disclosed at trial, but some evidence indicates that certain “core” al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan took an interest in meeting the Western jihadists, and in making sure they got training and discussing targets.

Mr. Khawaja was further convicted of offering up a house belonging to a Pakistani uncle to fellow extremists he was meeting over there. Judge Rutherford agreed with the Crown that this offer of a loan amounted to a form of material support.

Activities in Canada also led to the convictions. In addition to building detonators, Mr. Khawaja directed wire transfers of money to individuals overseas.

Today's sentencing might help Canadian officials argue that they can resolve terrorism cases in open court. The country's agencies have long been criticized for being soft on terrorism or for chasing suspects out of the country, and leaving them for other nations to deal with.

So in essence, the stupe who places the bomb (who is typically a stooge and the lowest rung on the ladder) is going to get more hammered than the brains and creators.  Predictable, but no less pathetic. 
Plus, hope and pray that this idiot refuses any counselling or treatment so he takes the full ten year ride.  Because if he makes the right noises, look for this arse to be living next to you within a little more than three years. 
There really won't be anything that has a whiff of justice until there is a sufficient body count. 
 
Maybe, just maybe, he will end up in General Population.....get my drift???

I doubt that will happen as the AQ and Taliban apologists would scream "Conspiracy" very shrilly
 
[/quote]

"zipperhead_cop" you were far to courteous and polite in your description of our Jurors.

However, you are responsible for me attempting to tear out my hair, that is whats left of it after reading your post and the events of Khawaja and his trial.

You are absolutely right in your suggestion, that we won't wake up until some terrible disaster befalls us.

But on a serious note, thank you for bringing Khawaja's sentencing to our attention.

On a after thought, Khawaja's parents or anyone else should have been arrested and found guilty by association.

Cheers.
 
Really hope in 5 years after he gets out on parole he doesnt target things in his neighborhood. Like the OC transpo stop and Place d'Orleans mall.

Actually......
 
This New York Times January 27, 2010 article is 11 pages and includes a multi-media diarized account of the life and formative years of American-turned- terrorist 'Abu Mansoor Al-Amrika' who is still at large in Somalia and is said to be a key figure in the extremist Islamic Somalian guerrilla wing known as 'Shabab.'

Born as Omar Hammami in Alabama to an American mother and Syrian father, it must be terrible for the parents to try to reconcile the way they raised their child (a moderate Christian and a moderate Muslim) to the video images of what he's become: a violent jihadi ringleader and follower of OBL. He's quoted as having once said, "Human rights is the western form of democracy which cannot be reconciled with Islam." 

These stories are becoming all too common but if you have time this is a good read:

The Jihadist next Door

Edit: re-format
 
Reviving necrothread with latest - highlights mine:
The country's top court has agreed to hear an appeal on the legal definition of "terrorist activity."

The appeal was launched by Momin Khawaja, an Ottawa software developer and the first person ever charged under Canada's anti-terror laws.

He was convicted of five terrorism charges and sentenced in 2008 to 10 1/2 years in prison but Ontario's highest court later increased his sentence to life with no chance of parole for 10 years.

Ontario's appeals court rejected the argument by Khawaja's lawyer that the Criminal Code definition of "terrorist activity'' is unconstitutional.

The Supreme Court of Canada has also granted the application for leave to appeal of two other men wanted in the United States on terrorism charges relating to the banned Tamil Tigers organization.

Like Khawaja, Suresh Sriskandarajah and Piratheepan Nadarajah are also arguing that because the definition required the terrorist conduct to be performed for political, religious or ideological reasons, it infringes the Charter right to express religious beliefs and political opinions.

Last December, the Court of Appeal for Ontario rejected that argument.

It said an "unmistakable message" must be sent that terrorism offences would be severely punished. The justices on the appeal court also concluded that Khawaja's commitment to jihad runs deep, and that there was no evidence he could be rehabilitated ....
Source:  The Canadian Press, 30 Jun 11
 
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