22 February 2008

The Harper government...

Is shining a pretty bright light on homegrown terror...
The case against a group of Canadian prisoners sometimes referred to as “the secret trial five” isn't as secret as it used to be.

Ottawa yesterday unveiled a string of more specific allegations against five terror suspects, detailing, for example, how one suspect called the satellite phone of al-Qaeda's second-in-command and how another was in charge of a group of training camp recruits in Afghanistan.
And the facts coming to light are unsettling indeed.
Syrian Hassan Almrei, an alleged document forger, was involved in a bizarre incident at Toronto's Pearson Airport in September, 1999. It's alleged that Mr. Almrei gained access to a restricted area.

“Almrei and the five individuals appeared to have access cards and codes for a restricted access building on the [Pearson] grounds,” the documents state.

Egyptian Mahmoud Jaballah, long alleged to be a communications conduit for terrorist cells involved in the 1998 African embassy bombings, is now said to have “communicated closely” with Ayman al-Zawahiri, the al-Qaeda No. 2.
Read the whole thing.

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UPDATE: More on this at DMB
As you read keep in mind the political connections as well. Jack Layton and members of the NDP Party have consistently provided material support for the Secret Five. They've signed petitions and lobbied on their behalf.

They helped to crush provisions of the Anti-Terrorism Act and pushed to eliminate security certificates.

Some of their members even went so far as to introduce a resolution at their 2006 convention that Canadian troops were terrorists.
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ONE LAST NOTE:
Guess who else is all broken up about these poor lost souls being victimised "by the man"?
And it's CTV for the defense...
"They're simply allegations," Matthew Behrens, an activist with Campaign to Stop Secret Trials, told CTV News. "They might as well be saying these guys are from Mars, because there's no evidence to back it up."
Big surprise, huh?

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