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July 20, 2006

UK: Islamist Terror Trial Hears Of Canadian's Involvement

We have been covering the trial of seven British nationals, who first appeared in the Old Bailey on March 22. The accused were arrested on 30 March 2004, after being under surveillance for some time. They are said to have purchased 600 kilograms (1,320) of ammonium nitrate, an explosive, which they had kept in a storage depot. It was recently noted during the trial that police had replaced the dangerous chemical with a non-explosive substance and secretly filmed at least one member of the group visiting the vat of chemicals to check it.

The individuals who are on trial are: Jawad Akbar, aged 22, Omar Khyam, aged 24, Shujah Mahmood, aged 18, and Waheed Mahmood, aged 34, all from Crawley, West Sussex, and Anthony Garcia, aged 27, from Ilford, Salahuddin Amin, aged 31, from Luton, and Nabeel Hussain, aged 20, from Horley, Surrey.

At the same time as the suspects were brought in for questioning, a man from Orleans in Ottowa was arrested on 29 March 2004. This individual is Mohammad Momin Khawaja (pictured top left). He was accused by Canadian authorities of engaging in terrorist activities between November 2003 and March 29, 2004. Khawaja's older brother Qasim maintains that his trips to London and Pakistan were to find a wife.

Khawaja is a computer programmer, and was born in Canada on April 14, 1979, after his Pakistani parents migrated in 1967. Educated at Algonquin College he worked on a contract for Canada's Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade in the summer of 2002.

He has made several trips to Pakistan. He went there in January 2002, nine months after graduating from Algonquin College, and stayed in the country for three months. He returned to Pakistan in October 2003, where he associated with Mohammed Junaid Babar (pictured below right) in Islamabad.

In February 2004, according to CBC Khawaja went to London, where he met Omar Khyam and is tracked by UK authorities. A phone call between Khawaja and the suspects currently on trial in Britain was intercepted by UK intelligence. Earlier in the month, the NSA (US National Security Center) at Fort Meade, Maryland, had intercepted an email between Pakistan and Britain, and security services in the US, Britain and Canada were on alert.

Following his detention and the subsequent arrest of nine Britons (two have not been charged), Junaid Babar was arrested in the United States (where he was a naturalised citizen) on his return from a stay in Pakistan. Babar pleaded guilty conspiring to provide material support to terrorists, as well as providing the support to a terrorist operation on June 2, 2004. He agreed to cooperate with the authorities.

As we reported earlier, Junaid Babar was flown into Britain under tight security, and gave evidence at the Old Bailey trial from March 24.

In Canada, Momin Khawaja beame the first person to be indicted under Canada's new terrorism laws. He still awaits trial, charged on two counts under Section 83.18 and Section 83:19 of the Criminal Code. These clauses refer to participation in the activity of a terrorist group, and facilitation of terrorist activity. He will stand trial in January in Ottowa.

The Old Bailey trial of the seven suspected terror plotters has heard some damning evidence, most particularly from Junaid Babar, of the group attending training camps in Pakistan, where they learned how to deploy explosives. The jury has heard of plots to sell poisoned burgers, to blow up the electricity supply (Waheed Mahmood, one the accused, worked for National Grid Transco). They have heard secretly recorded conversations between Omar Khyam, said to be the leader of the terror cell and Jawad Akbar, where the pair discussed hijacking planes to commit a 9/11 style atrocity, blowing up the Ministry of Sound nightclub and blowing up the Bluewater shopping center in Kent.

On Monday, the jury heard that a list of synogogues was found in the home of Omar Khyam and his younger brother Shujah Mahmood, according to the Sussex Argus.

Now, the jury is hearing of the involvement of Momin Khawaja, who has been detained in Ottawa's Regional Detention Centre since his arrest in 2004. The news is carried by Canada's National Post and Ottowa Citizen.

On Tuesday, the jury was told that when Canadian police raided Momin Khawaja's home, they discovered guns, ammunition, electrical components and books on terrorism and jihad. Crown prosecutor Mark Heywood said that RCMP officers found three rifles under Khawaja's bed, with dozens of rounds of ammunition.

The books found included Terrorism and Self Sufficiency, Defence of The Muslim Lands, The Religion And Doctrine of Jihad, CIA Special Operations and Equipment, The Art of War, On Guerrilla Warfare and a military manual.

The book "Defence of the Muslim Lands" has been recently banned in Australia. It carries an endorsement from Osama bin Laden, and advocates that a person should be "wiring up one's body" with explosives, for the purpose of "martyrdom or self-sacrifice operations".

A combat knife, and several boxes of electronic equipment was also seized. A hobby rocket launcher was also discovered. David Waters, a prosecutor, had earlier told the court that a cellphone blocker had been found in his possession, a device which jams cellphones within a given radius. Waters had said: "Khawaja had it no doubt as part of his development of a more sophisticated and portable jamming device which could be carried by the bomber." The device could have prevented a cellphone triggering a bomb, stated Waters.

Waters claimed that when Khawaja was in London in February 2004, he informed them of his progress in making remote-controlled detonators.

In emails, Khawaja had spoken of his worries about smuggling these detonators on his flight. When he arrived in London, he had been taken to an internet cafe in Crawley, Sussex, where several of the ploters lived. In the internet cafe, Khawaja showed an image of one of his detonators, which could detonate explosives from a two kilometer (one and a quarter miles) distance.

The UK authorities informed their counterparts in Canada, after monitoring the internet cafe activity, and when Khawaja returned to Toronto on February 22, 2004, Canadian security monitored him.

On Tuesday, Lawrence Greenspoon, Khawaja's Canadian lawyer said: "Momin Khawaja is not charged in England. Although his name may be mentioned during the course of the trial, British authorities do not see fit to charge him, although this was open to them."

Momin Khawaja was apparently a boyhood friend of Mubin Shaikh, the sharia supporting Muslim activist who recently revealed that he had acted as an undercover agent for the Canadian authorities, in activities which led to the arrests of 17 people on June 2.

Shaikh had set up a "jihadist training camp" in a field in the village of Washago, Ontario, where young Muslims dressed up in camouflage, used guns in target practice and made a video to recruit others for jihad.

Shaikh (pictured left, with his Polish born wife) told CBC News that he offered to help in tracing activists after Khawaja's arrest. He said: "We grew up together. We have a good connection with the family. I contacted CSIS, I phoned them and I said, 'I know the family, I know this guy Momin.Is there some way I can help, give some information in that I've grown up with him? I don't know him to be like this or his brother, definitely not his family, they're not extremists."

Yesterday, the Old Bailey jury was told that Khawaja referred to Osama bin Laden as "the most beloved person" in an email read out in court. In another email read out, Khawaja had referred to the potential of blasts in crowded places as "fireworks!"

When Khawaja had been arrested, he was still working, via a contractor for the Department of Foreign Affairs. The contractor was a computer firm in Albert Street, Ottowa. esterday, Mark Heywood described an email retrieved from the firm he worked for, which "states that engaging in jihad requires the best preparation, not only spiritually but in warfare and weaponry."

Heywood said: "Khawaja speaks about having spent time in a mujahedeen training camp where he built a spiritual link with Allah. He states they are guaranteed either of the two best things, victory or martyrdom."

The prosecutor also read out several other emails in court. These described his admiration of Bin Laden, and detailed the progress he was making in the manufacture of detonators, which were to be used to cause the ammonium nitrate fertiliser to blast.

One email written to a woman he met on the internet (Zeba Khan from Pakistan) stated: 'When the Kuffur (non-believer) Americans invaded Afghanistan that was the most painful time in my whole life cause I loved the Mujahideen and our brothers in Afghanistan so much that I couldn't stand it."

"It would tear my heart out knowing these filthy kaafir dog Americans were bombing our Muslim brothers and sisters. Beside that, Osama bin Laden is like the most beloved person to me in the whole world. I wish I could even kiss his blessed hand."

"So I hooked up with some bro's from the UK and else(where) and we all went over to Pakistan to support Jihad in Afghanistan in 2002. We got there and stayed about three months. It was amazing. Best experience in my whole life."

The trial continues.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 20, 2006 9:27 AM

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