Today, I bring you another very disturbing article, verbatim by Rosie Dimanno of the Toronto Star entitled, 'Terror suspect rejects our values'. My response is below with room for your comment below that, unless you prefer to send an email but please keep your comments smart and civil. Don't attack others personally, and keep your language decent.
In a democracy, the Criminal Code is sacrosanct. Upon that fat compendium rest all the criminal laws of the land, the entirety of statutory wisdom as it has evolved over centuries. It is our secular holy book.
It applies to
believers and non-believers, protecting each equally — as does, in
intertwined symbiosis, the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It applies no less to
accused terrorist Chiheb Esseghaier.
Seized by Islamist conviction though he may be, Esseghaier does not get to opt out because of adherence to a higher order of doctrine, with the same unyielding zealotry that provoked him to reportedly tear down posters of which he disapproved because they depicted ideas and images he considered offensive.
In that arena, a tiny courtroom at Old City Hall, the 30-year-old doctoral student from Tunisia threw down his ideological gauntlet on Wednesday. “I wish to have one comment,” Esseghaier began, after a heated whispered exchange with a duty counsel who’d drawn the assignment of representing the defendant, his advice ignored. Then Esseghaier declaimed.
“First of all my comment is the following because all those conclusions was taken out based on Criminal Code and all of us, we know that this Criminal Code is not holy book. “It’s just written by set of creations and the creations they’re not perfect because only the creator is perfect. So if we are basing our judgment . . we cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments.”
Quoting Esseghaier correctly is crucial. But that’s as close as journalists, comparing scrawled notes, could get to piecing together the defendant’s mini manifesto. The court stenographer, approached by media seeking to buy the official court transcript, said she was too busy to transcribe a proceeding that lasted about 10 minutes. This country’s courts may be open — except when lawyers and judges decide it isn’t and take matters in camera, what a colleague calls “super secret court” — but their annals and chronicles, the paper chase of record, are not necessarily accessible.
Which is entirely in keeping with the anti-disclosure nature of this week’s say-nothing big reveal: The arrest of two non-Canadian suspects, alleged to have been plotting a terrorist attack against a passenger train, reportedly the Maple Leaf that is jointly operated by VIA and Amtrak, running daily between Toronto and New York City.
Canada had opened its
arms to Esseghaier, by all outward indications a bright young man who
arrived in Sherbrooke, Que., five years ago as a promising PhD candidate
and, most recently, working in the area of biosensor research at the Institut national de la recherché scientifique at the University of Quebec in Montreal.
In return for the opportunity, Esseghaier was allegedly scheming to blow up trains and their passengers.
That will undoubtedly cause distress among the nearly one million Muslims who call Canada home, weary of defending their faith against the ideological mutation promoted by Islamic extremists. But the arrest of Esseghaier and co-accused Raed Jaser isn’t about the broad Muslim community or their religion or fretfulness about an anti-Muslim backlash — of which there has been no evidence this week.
None of that is germane, so there was no justification for law enforcement agencies meeting with Muslim leaders before they went public at their Monday press conference. The point is that investigators had recorded the accused scoping trains and railways in the GTA. The point is that trains are a favourite bull’s-eye for Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups because they’re soft targets.
The point is that Canada has 48,000 kilometres of commuter and cargo track; the U.S. has 34,000.
One published report suggested the target of the alleged conspiracy between Esseghaier and Jaser may have been the trestle bridge linking Ontario and New York at Niagara Falls, where the Maple Leaf crosses over. But former FBI agent Daniel Coleman dismissed that scenario as operationally absurd.
“That makes no sense to me,” he told the Star Wednesday. “Even the military has trouble bringing down bridges. They would have needed weeks to put those quantities in place and it would have required lots of drilling. “But setting off something inside a train — which is basically a metal box — would have killed a lot of people and the objective is to kill people. Blowing up trains is something that (Al Qaeda) has been doing since the mid-’90s.”
Coleman was in charge of the Osama bin Laden file for the FBI from 1995 to 2004. His familiarity with Al Qaeda leaves him skeptical that Esseghaier and Jaser, as the RCMP allege, received any significant tactical grooming from Al Qaeda in Iran. “For one thing, there is no ‘Al Qaeda in Iran,’ there’s just a bunch of guys, a bunch of guys who may have been Al Qaeda members at one time who are now living in Iran.”
The Iranian regime allows this, usually under strict house arrest, says Coleman, merely “to put a thumb in my government’s eye and your government’s eye because these people are enemies of the West.” If the suspects had been instructed by Al Qaeda to blow up infrastructure such as a train trestle, “then they were not directed by someone who knew what they were doing.”
Of course, clumsiness and stupidity are no hindrance for radicalized individuals — especially the lone-wolf or party-of-two variety — who embrace terrorist mayhem, as was evident in last week’s Boston Marathon attack. A couple of pressure cooker bombs, instructions pulled off the web, that’s all it takes.
Esseghaier is clearly not stupid. He was, however, reportedly monumentally disruptive in his workplace and as overt about his radical beliefs at his Montreal job as he was in a Toronto courtroom Wednesday.
Seized by Islamist conviction though he may be, Esseghaier does not get to opt out because of adherence to a higher order of doctrine, with the same unyielding zealotry that provoked him to reportedly tear down posters of which he disapproved because they depicted ideas and images he considered offensive.
Canadian courts allow for the offensive and the profane.
In that arena, a tiny courtroom at Old City Hall, the 30-year-old doctoral student from Tunisia threw down his ideological gauntlet on Wednesday. “I wish to have one comment,” Esseghaier began, after a heated whispered exchange with a duty counsel who’d drawn the assignment of representing the defendant, his advice ignored. Then Esseghaier declaimed.
“First of all my comment is the following because all those conclusions was taken out based on Criminal Code and all of us, we know that this Criminal Code is not holy book. “It’s just written by set of creations and the creations they’re not perfect because only the creator is perfect. So if we are basing our judgment . . we cannot rely on the conclusions taken out from these judgments.”
Quoting Esseghaier correctly is crucial. But that’s as close as journalists, comparing scrawled notes, could get to piecing together the defendant’s mini manifesto. The court stenographer, approached by media seeking to buy the official court transcript, said she was too busy to transcribe a proceeding that lasted about 10 minutes. This country’s courts may be open — except when lawyers and judges decide it isn’t and take matters in camera, what a colleague calls “super secret court” — but their annals and chronicles, the paper chase of record, are not necessarily accessible.
Which is entirely in keeping with the anti-disclosure nature of this week’s say-nothing big reveal: The arrest of two non-Canadian suspects, alleged to have been plotting a terrorist attack against a passenger train, reportedly the Maple Leaf that is jointly operated by VIA and Amtrak, running daily between Toronto and New York City.
In return for the opportunity, Esseghaier was allegedly scheming to blow up trains and their passengers.
While the terrorism
charges — five of them, including conspiracy to commit murder on behalf
of a terror group, identified by the RCMP as Al Qaeda in Iran — will be
tested in court far down the road, Esseghaier made it abundantly clear
Wednesday what he thinks about Canada’s judicial institutions and the
law’s moral jurisdiction: They do not apply to a righteous Muslim, which
he clearly believes himself to be.
That will undoubtedly cause distress among the nearly one million Muslims who call Canada home, weary of defending their faith against the ideological mutation promoted by Islamic extremists. But the arrest of Esseghaier and co-accused Raed Jaser isn’t about the broad Muslim community or their religion or fretfulness about an anti-Muslim backlash — of which there has been no evidence this week.
None of that is germane, so there was no justification for law enforcement agencies meeting with Muslim leaders before they went public at their Monday press conference. The point is that investigators had recorded the accused scoping trains and railways in the GTA. The point is that trains are a favourite bull’s-eye for Al Qaeda and affiliated terrorist groups because they’re soft targets.
The point is that Canada has 48,000 kilometres of commuter and cargo track; the U.S. has 34,000.
The point is that
Esseghaier has professional expertise in biosensor technology which,
among its many applications, is used to detect pathogens and explosives —
rapid on-site screening capacity of immense value in drug interdiction,
counter-terrorism security measures and military operations.
One published report suggested the target of the alleged conspiracy between Esseghaier and Jaser may have been the trestle bridge linking Ontario and New York at Niagara Falls, where the Maple Leaf crosses over. But former FBI agent Daniel Coleman dismissed that scenario as operationally absurd.
“That makes no sense to me,” he told the Star Wednesday. “Even the military has trouble bringing down bridges. They would have needed weeks to put those quantities in place and it would have required lots of drilling. “But setting off something inside a train — which is basically a metal box — would have killed a lot of people and the objective is to kill people. Blowing up trains is something that (Al Qaeda) has been doing since the mid-’90s.”
Coleman was in charge of the Osama bin Laden file for the FBI from 1995 to 2004. His familiarity with Al Qaeda leaves him skeptical that Esseghaier and Jaser, as the RCMP allege, received any significant tactical grooming from Al Qaeda in Iran. “For one thing, there is no ‘Al Qaeda in Iran,’ there’s just a bunch of guys, a bunch of guys who may have been Al Qaeda members at one time who are now living in Iran.”
The Iranian regime allows this, usually under strict house arrest, says Coleman, merely “to put a thumb in my government’s eye and your government’s eye because these people are enemies of the West.” If the suspects had been instructed by Al Qaeda to blow up infrastructure such as a train trestle, “then they were not directed by someone who knew what they were doing.”
Of course, clumsiness and stupidity are no hindrance for radicalized individuals — especially the lone-wolf or party-of-two variety — who embrace terrorist mayhem, as was evident in last week’s Boston Marathon attack. A couple of pressure cooker bombs, instructions pulled off the web, that’s all it takes.
Esseghaier is clearly not stupid. He was, however, reportedly monumentally disruptive in his workplace and as overt about his radical beliefs at his Montreal job as he was in a Toronto courtroom Wednesday.
Whether eventually found criminally guilty or not, he has already betrayed the privilege of being here.
my response.....
The latest report from the front lines of law enforcement and national security, officials said U.S. and Canadian agencies were investigating whether the suspects had accomplices in the United States or Canada.
In fact, one official said there was "another shoe to drop" in the case. Canada's National Post newspaper reported on Thursday that the FBI was holding a third man in New York.
The day when we can look in the rear-view mirror and say good riddance to these characters won't come soon enough. That said, just who in Immigration Canada is responsible for allowing these 'idiots' in our country? I use the word 'idiots' advisedly as that apparently is a direct quote from Muhammad Robert Heft, a local Muslim Cleric who has been railing against this scourge for many years.
Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and
Multiculturalism
Has the time come for Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to 'beef up' standards for allowing folks into our country? Well, I have an idea that Jason may want to consider!
If the newly arrived cannot agree to a declaration that acknowledges the supremacy of Canadian Common Law over any parochial belief, be it Shariah or other, or if they agree and then happen to change their mind once they are here, then turn them around and point them from 'whence they came'!
Of particular importance when they are here is if they exhibit dangerous signs, like threaten violence or threaten genital mutilation or honour killing, then turn them around and point them from 'whence they came'!
Justin Trudeau,Opposition leader
We would be doing them...and ourselves a favour! But the bigger questions are why are there not tighter controls on who gets in and who gets to receive permanent resident status? Just because someone is bright enough to make explosives does not mean that we want them here. Anthony Furey of the Toronto Sun tells us that opposition leader 'Justin Trudeau certainly made clear in an CBC interview that aired Tuesday when Peter Mansbridge asked him how he’d respond to the Boston bombings were he prime minister, to which Justin replied that,“there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded, completely at war with innocents, at war with a society. And our approach has to be, ‘OK, where do those tensions come from?’”
What planet is Justin living on? There has to be more to being a Canadian than blaming ourselves for world ills and accepting bad behaviour! Hasn't Justin heard of responsibility? Has he led that sheltered a life?
Although I am sure that Justin Trudeau and Liberal Party faithful who made Justin their leader are truly sorry for his asking us to consider the perpetrator's feelings, but if our Immigration decision-maker's don't start making better choices, then sadly, we are all in trouble!
-30-
my response.....
The latest report from the front lines of law enforcement and national security, officials said U.S. and Canadian agencies were investigating whether the suspects had accomplices in the United States or Canada.
In fact, one official said there was "another shoe to drop" in the case. Canada's National Post newspaper reported on Thursday that the FBI was holding a third man in New York.
The day when we can look in the rear-view mirror and say good riddance to these characters won't come soon enough. That said, just who in Immigration Canada is responsible for allowing these 'idiots' in our country? I use the word 'idiots' advisedly as that apparently is a direct quote from Muhammad Robert Heft, a local Muslim Cleric who has been railing against this scourge for many years.
Has the time come for Jason Kenney, Minister of Citizenship, Immigration and Multiculturalism to 'beef up' standards for allowing folks into our country? Well, I have an idea that Jason may want to consider!
If the newly arrived cannot agree to a declaration that acknowledges the supremacy of Canadian Common Law over any parochial belief, be it Shariah or other, or if they agree and then happen to change their mind once they are here, then turn them around and point them from 'whence they came'!
Of particular importance when they are here is if they exhibit dangerous signs, like threaten violence or threaten genital mutilation or honour killing, then turn them around and point them from 'whence they came'!
We would be doing them...and ourselves a favour! But the bigger questions are why are there not tighter controls on who gets in and who gets to receive permanent resident status? Just because someone is bright enough to make explosives does not mean that we want them here. Anthony Furey of the Toronto Sun tells us that opposition leader 'Justin Trudeau certainly made clear in an CBC interview that aired Tuesday when Peter Mansbridge asked him how he’d respond to the Boston bombings were he prime minister, to which Justin replied that,“there is no question that this happened because there is someone who feels completely excluded, completely at war with innocents, at war with a society. And our approach has to be, ‘OK, where do those tensions come from?’”
What planet is Justin living on? There has to be more to being a Canadian than blaming ourselves for world ills and accepting bad behaviour! Hasn't Justin heard of responsibility? Has he led that sheltered a life?
Although I am sure that Justin Trudeau and Liberal Party faithful who made Justin their leader are truly sorry for his asking us to consider the perpetrator's feelings, but if our Immigration decision-maker's don't start making better choices, then sadly, we are all in trouble!
-30-
@write_stuff_2 bio at http://about.me/brianweller write_stuff_2@hotmail.com twitter chatter....
There has to be more to being a Canadian than blam...
http://bigdaddyharley09.blogspot.com/2013/04/there-has-to-be-more-to-being-canadian.html?spref=tw …
or we're in a mess!
#yorkregion#toronto pic.twitter.com/WndUpnIg5O
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