‘Missiles Fired At Passenger Jet Over Syria’
Posted: April 29, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Bashar al-Assad, Egypt, Interfax, Kazan, Russia, Sharm el-Sheikh, Syria, Tatarstan Comments Off on ‘Missiles Fired At Passenger Jet Over Syria’
29/Apr/2013
Source: news.sky.com
A passenger jet with 200 people on board is forced to take evasive action as it is targeted by two missiles, says Russian media.
Two missiles have been fired at a Russian passenger plane flying over Syria, according to Russian media.
About 160 people were on board the charter aircraft at the time of the attack, the origin of which remains unknown, a source told the Interfax news agency.
An unnamed source is understood to have said: “Syrian [officials] informed us that on Monday morning, unidentified forces launched two ground-to-air missiles which exploded in the air very close to a civilian aircraft belonging to a Russian airline.”
The source said the pilots managed to manoeuvre but it was only because they did so that lives were saved.
The source added: “It remains unclear whether the attackers knew whether it was Russian or not.”
Russia is an ally of the embattled regime of Bashar al Assad, who is struggling to hold on to Syria amid a civil war that he seen 70,000 killed.
The targeted plane belonged to Nordwind Airlines – a Russian charter air carrier.
According to other sources, it was en route to the city of Kazan, in Russia’s republic of Tatarstan, from Egypt’s resort city of Sharm el Sheikh.
Russia’s Agency For Tourism later confirmed an incident had taken place, saying: “No one was injured, and the plane was not damaged. The aircraft landed in Kazan as it had been planned.”
Russia’s foreign ministry later issued a statement about the incident.
A spokesman said: “On April 29, at 0455 moscow, a Northern Wind plane was travelling in Syrian airspace from Sharm el Sheikh to Kazan and the pilot crew has recorded military activities on the ground that could have endangered the plane and 159 passengers.
“The Russian authorities are taking urgent measures to clarify the situation including in contact with Syrian authorities.”
The Syrian regime is battling a diverse range of opposition fighters, with some following an ideology akin to that shared by al Qaeda, and others supported by western allies who are seeking to achieve democracy.
Link: http://news.sky.com/story/1084647/missiles-fired-at-passenger-jet-over-syria
Canada’s ‘stateless’ terror suspect couldn’t be deported nine years ago
Posted: April 26, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Al-Qaeda, Canada, Germany, Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Jaser, National Post, Palestinian people, United Arab Emirates Comments Off on Canada’s ‘stateless’ terror suspect couldn’t be deported nine years ago26/Apr/2013
Source: yahoo.ca( Matthew Coutts)
Four days after two Canadian residents were arrested in connection to an alleged terrorist plot to derail a train on Canadian soil, disturbing details of their checkered pasts continue to be revealed – including revelations that Canada tried to deport one of the men nine years ago.
Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier were arrested on Monday and have made primary court appearances, but remain in custody.
Esseghaier told a judge on Wednesday that Canada’s criminal code was not a “holy book” and therefore not perfect.
Sources told the Toronto Star that Esseghaier met with an al-Qaeda operative before moving to Canada in 2009, under a student visa. Jaser, meantime, has been living in Canada for 20 years after his family moved here as refugees.
But as the National Post reported, the Canadian government attempted to deport Jaser in 2004, but was unable to remove him from the country because there was nowhere to send him.
Jaser is a Palestinian who was born in the United Arab Emirates and never received citizenship in that country. He and his family were considered “stateless,” and moved first to Germany and later Canada, where they sought refugee status.
Jaser was arrested in 2004 for allegedly working illegally under various aliases, but could not be deported because he belonged to no country.
“I am not a citizen of the United Arab Emirates, I can’t be,” the Post quotes him as telling the Immigration and Refugee Board in 2004, based on a transcript. “I am a Palestinian by blood, that does not give me any rights whatsoever in my place of birth.”
The Canadian Council of Refugees says there are some 15 million stateless people in the world, and considered displaced Palestinians one of the largest groups.
They explain the situation thusly:
Palestinians represent the largest stateless community in the world: more than half of the eight million or so Palestinians are considered to be de jure stateless persons. Partly because they are stateless, Palestinian refugees are treated more harshly than other refugees. For example, Palestinians recently forced out of Iraq have not been admitted into Syria but instead are trapped in dangerous and desolate camps on the border. Despite a special appeal by the United Nations, few countries have stepped forward to offer them resettlement.
The Post’s report suggests Jaser had remained in a state of “long-term limbo” until he received permanent citizenship. He was denied citizenship based in part on a criminal history.
This of course says nothing about the guilt or innocence of either suspect. Just more bizarre details in an increasingly bizarre story.
‘He would scream like a maniac at all hours’: VIA Rail terror suspect was a nightmare neighbour
Posted: April 26, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Canada, La Presse, McDonald, Montreal, Montreal Metro, Paris Métro, Subway, Wednesday Comments Off on ‘He would scream like a maniac at all hours’: VIA Rail terror suspect was a nightmare neighbour
26/Apr/2013
Source: news.nationalpost.com(TRISTIN HOPPER)
National Post, with files from Graeme Hamilton and Joseph Brean
Before Chiheb Esseghaier became one of two suspects in a plot to bomb a VIA Rail passenger train, the doctoral student was known to the tenants in a Montreal apartment building as a neighbour from hell, according to a report by La Presse.
“He would scream like a maniac at all hours,” remembered a man identified only as Michel, who lived in the same 20-unit Rosemont complex. “Near the end, I couldn’t take it anymore.”
Mr. Esseghaier’s Kijiji-recruited roommates appeared to concur. According to the building’s concierge, “hygiene issues” at one point forced one of them to leave in a huff, slamming the door on his way out.
The concierge added Mr. Esseghaier was a “very religious man, very devout.”
Others simply remembered him for his penchant to endanger the building with fire.
One time, he set off the smoke alarm after cranking up all four of his stove-top elements to dry a shirt. Another time, he moved his charcoal barbecue inside, alleging it was too windy outside.
“He lit briquettes. There were flames,” a tenant told the newspaper.
Tunisian-born and only recently granted permanent residency status in Canada, Mr. Esseghaier remains officially registered as a doctoral student at the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS), a research arm of the Université du Québec.
His erratic tenancy record is part of why, when officers finally arrested Mr. Esseghaier Monday, he was effectively homeless.
A Wednesday report by La Presse claimed the suspect spent a lot of his time in the Montreal Métro or hunkering down near fast-food restaurants to take advantage of their free WiFi connections.
La Presse writer Fabrice de Pierrebourg compared Mr. Esseghaier to the main character in the 1985 French film Subway. In the movie, Fred, a gangster, evades police by taking refugee in the murky depths of the Paris Métro.
Tellingly, when police located Mr. Esseghaier. he was sitting in a McDonald’s in Montreal’s Central Station, his laptop open in front of him.
Wearing a substantial length of beard and dressed in a faded ski jacket, he offered no resistance as four Mounties led him away.
The whole affair was “very calm,” said a witness.
Toronto court rules woman must remove niqab to testify
Posted: April 25, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Canada, Judge, Niqāb, Ontario, Sexual assault, Supreme Court, Supreme Court of Canada, Toronto Comments Off on Toronto court rules woman must remove niqab to testifyJudge says veil would obscure ability to assess woman’s demeanour
24/Apr/2013
Source: CBC News
An Ontario judge ruled today that a woman accusing two family members of molesting her as a child must remove her face veil during testimony. (Mohamed Abd El Ghany/Reuters)
An Ontario judge has ruled a woman must remove her niqab to testify in a Toronto sexual assault case.
Justice Norris Weisman announced his decision after applying a new testset out by the Supreme Court of Canada dealing with witnesses wearing a veil. The woman at the centre of the case is known only as N.S.
“I conclude that to permit N.S. to testify at the preliminary inquiry with her face obscured by the niqab will impair defence counsels’ ability to assess her demeanour, as well as the [judge’s] ability to assess her credibility,” Weisman said.
The woman has been fighting for six years for the right to wear her niqab during the trial of her uncle and cousin, who are accused of sexually assaulting her when she was a child in the 1980s.
Weisman had first ruled in 2008 that N.S. must remove her niqab during testimony. That decision was appealed all the way up to Supreme Court.
The test set out by Canada’s top court in December includes four issues a judge must consider, including: the potential witness’s depth of religious belief, and whether the veil could lessen the fairness of the trial.
The preliminary hearing for the two relatives accused of sexually abusing the woman is scheduled to begin next week, but her lawyer said the ruling on the niqab will be appealed.
About to turn 75, Judge Weisman is set to retire on May 1.
Link: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/story/2013/04/24/toronto-supreme-court-niqab-face-veil.html
Toronto terror suspect denies allegations: lawyer
Posted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: News, Video Comments Off on Toronto terror suspect denies allegations: lawyer[http://ca.news.yahoo.com/video/toronto-terror-suspect-denies-allegations-170000609.html]
Canada train plot suspects in court; to fight charges
Posted: April 24, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Al-Qaeda, Canada, Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique, Iran, Jaser, Montreal, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Toronto Comments Off on Canada train plot suspects in court; to fight charges
24/APR/2013
By Allison Martell and Randall Palmer
TORONTO/MONTREAL (Reuters) – Two men charged with an alleged al Qaeda-backed plot to derail a Canadian passenger train made their first court appearances on Tuesday, and the lawyer for one said his client would fight the charges vigorously.
Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto and Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montrealface charges that include conspiring with each other “to murder unknown persons … for the benefit of, at the direction of, or in association with a terrorist group.”
They were arrested on Monday in separate raids after what police said was a joint Canada-U.S. investigation that started in the middle of last year after a tip from a member of the Muslim community.
Officers detained Jaser at his home, a semi-detached house in a north Toronto neighborhood, and arrested Esseghaier at a McDonald’s restaurant at Montreal’s main train station.
Canadian police said the plot involved a passenger train route in the Toronto area, and that there had been no immediate threat to rail passengers or to the public.
U.S. officials said that the suspects were believed to have worked on a plan involving blowing up a trestle on the Canadian side of the border as the Maple Leaf, Amtrak’s daily connection between Toronto and New York, passed over it.
They said investigators on both sides of the border were trying to establish if the suspects had associates in the United States, especially in New York City. One source said Esseghaier, in particular, was believed to have made several trips to the United States. CBC Television said Canadian police had tracked him for a year, including on a visit to a conference in Mexico.
IN CUSTODY
Jaser, heavily bearded and wearing a black cap, was remanded in custody after a brief hearing in Toronto. Media were barred from giving details of Jaser’s hearing under a publication ban requested by his lawyer.
“He denies the allegations and he will vigorously defend them,” said the lawyer, John Norris, who has represented Canadian Guantanamo detainee Omar Khadr, as well as Asad Ansari, one of a group of Toronto-area men charged in 2006 with planning attacks on Canadian targets.
Norris would not disclose Jaser’s nationality, saying the publication ban precluded discussing Jaser’s personal circumstances. He said Jaser has been a resident of Canada for 20 years.
Norris questioned the timing of the arrests, given a statement by police that the suspects posed no imminent threat. He noted that the arrest coincided with debate in Canada over a vote that would revive parts of the anti-terrorism act, which is supported by the Conservative government.
“The timing of the arrest is a bit of a mystery,” he said.
DENYING THE CHARGES
Outside the courtroom, a middle-aged man and a woman in a cream-colored hijab identified themselves as members of Jaser’s family, but would not answer questions.
With them were two younger men, and two women in full black niqab face veils, who fled when confronted with a throng of reporters, photographers and television crews.
Neighbors of Jaser told Reuters that he mostly kept to himself and attended a Masjid al-Faisal, a mosque in a refashioned house a short walk from his home.
“He was a normal attendee. If he’s coming he says ‘salaam’ to us and we say ‘salaam’ to him. Nothing more special, nothing more unusual, nothing more abnormal,” said Rana Khan, a congregant at the mosque. His alleged involvement in a plot was “a very, very shocking news for all of us over here.”
Esseghaier, a Tunisian-born doctoral student at a Montreal-area university, was flown to Toronto on Monday, but was quickly returned to Montreal to meet a legal requirement that he appear in a Quebec court within 24 hours of his arrest.
Bearded and bespectacled and wearing a shabby blue-and-black winter jacket, handcuffs and leg shackles, he told the judge there that conclusions had been drawn from facts and words “that are only appearances.”
A spokeswoman for the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique near Montreal confirmed to Reuters that Esseghaier was a doctoral student at the research institute.
At the hearing he was remanded in custody, and federal prosecutor Richard Roy said he expected Esseghaier to be flown back to Toronto later on Tuesday for a court appearance there.
Esseghaier represented himself at the hearing, which was not covered by a publication ban.
Canadian authorities have linked the two men to al Qaeda factions in Iran. But they said there was no indication of Iranian state-sponsorship of the plan, which police described as the first known al Qaeda-backed plot on Canadian soil.
DEATHS OR INJURIES FORESEEN
“Had this plot been carried out, it would have resulted in innocent people being killed or seriously injured,” Royal Canadian Mounted Police official James Malizia said on Monday.
Iran had some senior al Qaeda figures under a form of house arrest in the years following the September 11, 2001, attacks, but there has been little to no evidence to date of joint attempts to execute violence against the West.
However, a U.S. government source said Iran is home to a little-known network of alleged al Qaeda fixers and “facilitators” based in the city of Zahedan, very close to Iran’s borders with both Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Iran reacted angrily to being tied to the arrests. Canada last year severed diplomatic ties over what it said was Iran’s support for terrorist groups, as well as its nuclear programmed and its hostility towards Israel.
“No shred of evidence regarding those who’ve been arrested and stand accused has been provided,” Iranian Foreign Minister spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, according to the Mehr news agency.
(Additional reporting by Alastair Sharp and Mark Hosenball; Writing by Cameron French; Editing by Janet Guttsman and David Storey)
(This story is refiled to exclude ‘with each other’ from quotation marks in second paragraph)
Video: Royal Canadian Mounted Police announce terror arrests
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: News, Video Comments Off on Video: Royal Canadian Mounted Police announce terror arrestsCanadian security forces arrest two and thwart terrorist plot to derail New York to Toronto trains at Niagara Falls with the help of al-Qaeda leaders in IRAN
Posted: April 22, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Al-Qaeda, Canada, Iran, Montreal, New York City, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Toronto, United States Department of Homeland Security Comments Off on Canadian security forces arrest two and thwart terrorist plot to derail New York to Toronto trains at Niagara Falls with the help of al-Qaeda leaders in IRAN
22/APR/2013
Source: dailymail.co.uk (MICHAEL ZENNIE)
- Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, were arrested today
- Suspected received orders and got guidance from al-Qaeda leader in Iran
- Planned to target New York-bound trains in Toronto
- May have scouted targets in New York
Canadian security forces have thwarted an al-Qaeda-backed terrorist plot to derail a passenger train from New York City as it crossed the Niagara River, just a few miles from Niagara Falls.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police today arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, of Montreal, and Raed Jaser, 35, of Toronto, who they say took orders and received guidance from al-Qaeda operatives in Iran.
Officials reportedly watched the men for more than a year and say the plot never got past the planning stages. Canadian counter-terrorism officials say the public was never in danger, the the men would have carried out the attack if they had not been stopped.
Neither of the men are Canadian citizens, but security officials wouldn’t say where they were from or why they were in the country.
A U.S. law enforcement source told Reuters the alleged plot was not linked with last week’s Boston Marathon bombings.
The two men allegedly planned to derail an Amtrak or Canadian Via train as it crossed over the Whirpool Rapids Bridge from the United States into Canada.
The historic arch bridge spans the Niagara River 225 feet above the water.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said the operations was conducted with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the FBI.
A source told Reuters that the Amtrak Maple Leaf line, which runs from New York City to Toronto, was targeted. Canadian officials declined to confirm which trains were targeted.
‘Today’s arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat to Canada,’ Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told reporters in Ottawa.
‘Canada will not tolerate terrorist activity and we will not be used as a safe haven for terrorists or those who support terrorist activities.’
Perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of the announcement is that the orders were given by al-Qaeda leaders in Iran.
Iran, a Shi’a-majority country, is a strange ally for the fiercely Sunni Muslim terrorist group.
CNN reported last month that the few surviving members of Osama bin Laden‘s inner circle currently reside in Iran.
Some of bin Laden’s family are said to be under house arrest in Tehran. Others – including top advisers – live in the ski resort city of Chalus on the Caspian Sea.
Canadian authorities, though, were careful to make clear that this was not an instance of state-sponsored terrorism.
The arrests follow not only the Boston bombings but revelations that Canadians took part in an attack by militants on a gas plant in Algeria in January.
It also recalls the arrests in 2006 of a group of more than a dozen Toronto-area men accused of planning to plant bombs at various Canadian targets. Eleven men were eventually convicted of taking part on the plot.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2313125/Canada-terror-plot-Authorities-thwart-al-Qaeda-backed-attack-trains-Toronto.html#ixzz2RER6uFGB
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U.S. Arrests Saudi Student in Bomb Plot
Posted: April 16, 2013 Filed under: News | Tags: Aldawsari, David Kris, Federal Bureau of Investigation, George W. Bush, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, Osama Bin Laden, Saudi Arabia, United States Comments Off on U.S. Arrests Saudi Student in Bomb Plot
15/Apr/2013
Source: tvinx.com
A 20-year-old Saudi Arabian student living in Texas has been arrested by federal agents, who charged him with planning to build bombs for terror attacks in the United States, the Justice Department announced Thursday.
According to an affidavit filed by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the student, Khalid Ali-M Aldawsari, indicated in online research and in a journal that he was considering attacking the Dallas residence of former President George W. Bush as well as hydroelectric dams, nuclear power plants, nightclubs and the homes of soldiers who were formerly stationed at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.
Mr. Aldawsari, a business major at South Plains College in Lubbock, Tex., is in the United States legally on a student visa, the bureau said. He came to the government’s attention on Feb. 1, when a North Carolina supply company reported that he had tried to order five liters of a chemical that can be used to make an explosive.
A subsequent investigation found that he had already obtained large supplies of the other two chemicals needed for the explosive compound — trinitrophenol or TNP — in December, court documents said.
“Aldawsari purchased ingredients to construct an explosive device and was actively researching potential targets in the United States,” said David Kris, the assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s national security division. “Thanks to the efforts of many agents, analysts and prosecutors, this plot was thwarted before it could advance further.”
There was no indication on Thursday that investigators had found links between Mr. Aldawsari and Al Qaeda or some other foreign militant group. According to the affidavit, he wrote in his journal that he wanted to found a new terrorist group modeled after Al Qaeda, which he would lead, and he indicated that he had been methodically planning for years to commit a terrorist attack.
“I excelled in my studies in high school in order to take advantage of an opportunity for a scholarship to America” that was offered by the Saudi Arabian government, investigators said he wrote. “And now, after mastering the English language, learning how to build explosives, and continuous planning to target the infidel Americans, it is time for Jihad.”
The journal was also said to list “important steps” toward his goal, including obtaining a forged United States birth certificate, applying for a passport and driver’s license, renting cars online, putting bombs in them and taking them to various sites during rush hours, and then leaving the city for a “safe place.”
The affidavit says that in his journal, Mr. Aldawsari said he was inspired by the speeches of Osama Bin Laden and wrote that the terror attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, had produced a “big change” in his thinking. It also contends that he was the writer of a blog called FromFarAway90, published in a mix of English and Arabic.
The Arabic posts on that blog speak at times about war and distress in Palestine and other Muslim lands and about driving infidels out of the Islamic world, and they ask that Allah make the writer a martyr. It is not clear whether Mr. Aldawsari wrote the posts or copied material from elsewhere.
The affidavit also said Mr. Aldawsari, using several e-mail accounts, often sent research to himself about potential targets and explosives. The authorities retrieved several e-mails about manufacturing TNP and other explosives and about how to convert a cellphone into a remote detonator.
Other e-mails — with subject lines like “Nice targets” — contained the names and addresses of three Americans who had been stationed at Abu Ghraib during their military service in Iraq and the locations of 12 reservoirs and dams in Colorado and California. An e-mail entitled “Tyrant’s House” listed the address for Mr. Bush’s house in Dallas.
Mr. Aldawsari also made “numerous Internet searches” related to realistic-looking baby dolls and strollers and viewed photographs of altered dolls, which the F.B.I. said “could indicate” that he was considering concealing explosives in such a doll.
The search of his apartment, the affidavit said, also found flasks and chemical lab equipment, a gas mask, a protective suit and Christmas light wiring that it said was suitable for producing a bomb.
Link: http://www.tvinx.com/u_s_arrests_saudi_student_in_bomb_plot.news.3853.en