canadian authorities change fertilizer story Options

[Seeker]

http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentSe...l=1149329604479 [Toronto Star]

The Canadian authorities have changed the offical story from the "terrorists" securing the purchase of three tons of ammonium nitrate to claiming that the police intervened in the purchase and switched the fertilizer with a harmless substance.

Obviously, some bigwig at the RCMP realized that the sting story would be used by lawyers for the defendants, and ordered that a safer story be spread. Rapid changes in the official story is a sure sign of official shenanigans.

Inside the bomb 'plot'
Suspects cited for terrorist training
Six are singled out in explosives plan
Jun. 6, 2006. 05:30 AM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD AND JESSICA LEEDER
STAFF REPORTERS

Government lawyers will allege 20-year-old Zakaria Amara, a university student and father of an 8-month-old daughter, was the man who purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate for bomb attacks on Canadian soil, sources have told the Star.

Court documents released yesterday claim Amara and another five suspects were involved in the bomb plot.

All 17 suspects in what police are alleging is a home-grown terrorist cell are expected to appear in a Brampton court today for the start of their bail hearings.

Amara was close friends at Mississauga's Meadowvale Secondary with Fahim Ahmad and Saad Khalid and all three received religious instruction from 43-year-old accused Qayyum Abdul Jamal at a prayer centre in a Mississauga strip mall. Asad Ansari and Shareef Abdelhaleen also were regulars at the prayer centre.

This is the group, according to court documents, who will stand trial for explosives offences, among other terrorism-related charges. The plot involved using more ammonium nitrate than was employed in 1995 to blow up the federal building in Oklahoma City. That blast killed 168 people.

Investigators who had the group under surveillance for months learned of the alleged purchase and intervened, switching the fertilizer, which can be used to make a bomb, with a benign substance, sources told the Star. Police moved in for the arrests after the bogus substance had been delivered.

Cindy Andrews, a spokeswoman for Agrium Inc., a Calgary-based fertilizer producer, said ammonium nitrate can be bought in bulk for $250 a tonne. The price usually doubles if bought in smaller bags, she said.

In total, 17 suspects, including five under the age of 18 who cannot be identified under Canadian law, were arrested Friday night and Saturday morning in raids conducted by 400 officers and led by the RCMP's anti-terrorism task force.

With the release yesterday of the breakdown of terrorist-related offences each of the 17 accused are facing, more details were added to the complicated web that links the suspects.

The charges also provide a glimpse into the roles police allege each suspect filled, although information on the five youths was not released.

According to the court documents released yesterday:

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Nine of the adults accused, including Steven Vikash Chand, who recently converted to Islam and went by the name Abdul Shakur, are alleged to have attended a "training camp," north of Toronto in Washago. Sources said the group donned fatigues and recorded a video imitating warfare akin to past jihadist battles in Afghanistan, Chechnya or Bosnia.

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Four of the men, including Chand, Ahmad and Amara, are charged with conducting training or recruiting. Amin Mohamed Durrani, who went to the same Scarborough high school where the charged youths attended, is also charged with this offence.

But the eldest suspect, Jamal, who taught some of the group's members about Islam and raised suspicion in the Muslim community for his fiery speeches and association with youths, was not charged with recruiting or training.

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Suspects Ali Dirie and Yasin Abdi Mohamed, already serving a two-year sentence in Kingston after being caught last August bringing loaded guns and ammunition from the U.S. across the Fort Erie Peace Bridge into Canada, now face additional weapons charges for allegedly acquiring the material "at the direction of or in association with a terrorist group."

Ahmad, who sources told the Star rented the white Buick the two men were driving, but who was not charged last August, is now also charged with allegedly helping to acquire the weapons.

It is not clear from the charges if government lawyers will allege there is one discernible leader.

When asked Saturday if additional arrests were expected, RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell replied: "I think all of us can say with confidence that we're satisfied this threat has been removed."

But sources familiar with the investigation and who spoke on condition of anonymity, say others are still under investigation and more arrests are expected.

While there is much speculation about international angles to the Canadian case, there are no known examples, with the exception of the arrests this spring of two Georgia men now in U.S. custody, who allegedly were associated with the Canadian group.

However one of the suspects, 23-year-old Jahmaal James, allegedly travelled to Pakistan at some point during the investigation and, said one source, evidence is expected to be entered that claims he was in search of jihadist training.

But those who know him, including Scarborough imam Aly Hindy, say that accusation is preposterous and that James went to Pakistan to get married.

Lawyers representing the accused and relatives say they're eager to hear what police have to support their claims — some already vowing to sue the government for their clients' ruined reputation if evidence doesn't support the sensational claims now being made.

Many are pointing to the 2003 immigration-RCMP investigation known as Project Thread where a group of foreign students from Pakistan and one from India were held on alleged immigration violations and classified at one of their immigration hearings as an "Al Qaeda sleeper cell."

The security allegations were later dropped and the students deported home, where they said they had difficulty shaking the stigma of being identified as terrorist suspects.

[impala454]

Steven Vikash Chand, who recently converted to Islam and went by the name Abdul Shakur

TUPAC LIVES!!

[dauss]

this is exactly the reason why when you post articles you should quote it.