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April 29, 2006

Canada: US Claims It Is A "Safe Haven" For Muslim Terrorists

News from the Globe & Mail, from the National Post and the Vancouver Sun reports that the United States State Department has claimed that Canada is now a "safe haven" for Muslim terrorists, who have exploited its loose immigration controls and poor counterterrorism enforcement.

In a 247 page report entitled Country Report on Terrorism concerns are expressed on the presence of "numerous" terror plotters in the country. The report highlights the problems between the two nations which developed following the case of Maher Arar, an Ottawa engineer. It states "The principal threat to the close U.S.-Canadian co-operative relationship remains the fallout from the Arar case. The Arar case underscores a greater concern for the United States: the presence in Canada of numerous suspected terrorists and terror supporters."

Judeoscope relates this case, when Maher Arar, who held joint Canadian/Syrian nationality, was arrested in New York in September, 2002 on suspicion of terrorism. Maher was on a stop-over, between travelling from Tunisia to Canada. The US authorities deported him to Syria under a policy called "extraordinary rendition", where he claimed he was tortured, setting the scene for a public outcry in Canada, and restrictions upon information-sharing between the two nations.

The current US report bemoans the fact that only one person has been arrested on terrorism charges since the attacks upon the US on 9/11, 2001.

In the report, the State Department praises Canada for performing "an important counterterrorism leadership role worldwide", due to its assistance in Afghanistan. However, its statement that Canada is a "safe haven" for terrorism, whereas in its report on Iraq it said that that country is "not currently a terrorist safe haven" has not been commented upon by Canadian officials.

A spokeswoman from the office of Stockwell Day, Canada's Public Safety Minister, said: "What I can tell you is that Canada's new government believes in maintaining a vigorous counterintelligence program to safeguard our nation's security." She said that officials were still reviewing the contents of the report and would not discuss its details at present.

The report describes five "terrorists and terror supporters". These are Mohamed Harkat, Mohamed Mahjoub, Mahmoud Jaballah and Hassan Almrei and Adil Charkaoui.

We described in October how four of these men were already in custody. Egyptians Mohammad Mahjoub and Mahmoud Jaballah and Syrian Hassan Almrei and a third, Mohammed Harkat (pictured) from Algeria were then being transferred to a federal penitentiary. Now they are being held at Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, the "Guantanamo of the north" on security certificates. Adil Charkaoui is free on bail.

We reported on October 26 that plans were afoot to deport Mohammed Harkat to his native Algeria, following promises from their government that he would not receive torture, but this obviously has not happened.

The report also noted that: "Canada is also home to the Khadr terrorist family." We described this family in December.

The report states that there were 11,000 separate terror attacks around the world in 2005, killing 14,600 people, compared to 2003, when there were 208 terrorist attacks, killing 625. In 2004, there were 3,168 terror attacks, killing 1,907 and injuring 6,704 people.

In 2005, 30% of all terror attacks happened in Iraq, and caused 55% of fatalities (8,300 people). 56 Americans were killed in terror attacks, with 47 of these in Iraq.

3,000 deaths were caused by 360 suicide bombings. And during 2005, an average of 30 terror attacks took place globally per day.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at April 29, 2006 6:13 PM

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