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| Great White North |
| Amer Elmaati was in Toronto after 9/11 |
| 2004-07-10 |
| A Canadian who U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft warns may be planning a terrorist strike against the United States this summer was in Toronto two months after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, according to a confidential FBI document. The internal document listed as "not for public release," issued by Washington’s FBI Counterterrorism Division, says the current whereabouts of Amer Elmaati are unknown but he was "last known to have entered Toronto" on Nov. 9, 2001. Elmaati is "considered armed and dangerous," according to the document. His family has repeatedly said they have not heard from Elmaati, 41, since he left Toronto for Afghanistan and Pakistan in the late-1990s, and that they believe the U.S. government is using him as a political pawn. "I wish it were true and I could see him," Elmaati’s Egyptian-born father Badr said yesterday when told about the FBI document. "I pray he is still alive." The FBI document also lists the three passports that were issued to Elmaati (his name is also recorded as Amer El-Maati, Amro Badr Eldin Abou El-Maati and Amro Badr Abouelmaati). He obtained the last one in Islamabad in 1998, and the document says it lists his father’s Toronto apartment as his residence. It was issued before his previous passport had expired, presumably after he reported that passport lost or stolen. The most recent passport expired on Dec. 2, 2003, according to the FBI document, which means he could have been travelling legitimately with it until seven months ago. The FBI document for "law enforcement use only," was posted on the Internet site for the sheriff’s office in Jonesboro, Ga., and also included an unedited version of the FBI warning that was updated in 2002. It was first discovered by Sentinel Threat Management System, a Virginia database company with a comprehensive site that compiles public information on alleged terrorist threats and suspects. The respected site also listed Elmaati as "incarcerated," a detail then picked up by more than a dozen other Web sites as proof that Washington was scare-mongering for political gain by alleging terrorists were at large when in fact they were secretly already in custody. Yesterday, however, Web operators at Sentinel TMS said the "incarcerated" classification was an error and they had no information that Elmaati was in custody. By yesterday afternoon his "status" on the Web site was changed to "alive." The story of Elmaati, who was born in Kuwait, and his younger brother Ahmed is still scarce on detail and there are two distinct versions. In May, FBI Director Robert Mueller disclosed that Elmaati was a trained pilot and now suspected of planning a Sept. 11-style attack against the United States. Elmaati had "discussed hijacking a plane in Canada and flying it into a building in the United States," Mueller said. In response, Prime Minister Paul Martin and Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan said Elmaati had not been in Canada for some time. Some of the information relied upon by U.S. authorities concerning Elmaati may have come from another Canadian, Abdurahman Khadr, who was once held in U.S. detention at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. He has claimed he was hired to work as a spy for the CIA. Elmaati is believed to have lived near the Khadrs in Afghanistan and sources say both Canadian and U.S. authorities questioned Khadr about Elmaati. Although Elmaati’s brother had been investigated by Canadian security agents before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, it was the discovery in November, 2001, of a cache of papers in an abandoned Al Qaeda safehouse in Kabul that landed Amer Elmaati on the FBI’s wanted list. The documents included a 1996 letter from the Canadian government saying he had just received citizenship, and a Toronto General hospital card listing his name. According to the confidential report, this was when Elmaati was in Toronto. But the FBI report also said he was given his first Canadian passport in 1991. November, 2001, was also the same month his brother Ahmed Abou Elmaati became the first of four Canadians to be detained in Syria. The younger Elmaati, who had gone to Damascus to be with his fiancée, was arrested at the airport and held for three months in Syria before being transferred to Egypt. Upon his return to Toronto earlier this year, he said that under torture in Syria, he falsely confessed to a plot to blow up Ottawa’s Parliament buildings. He also uttered the name Maher Arar while in custody. Although Arar said he had only met Elmaati once, in a chance encounter in Montreal in 1999, it’s believed this mention of his name by Elmaati was one of the reasons the 34 year old was detained a year later in the United States and deported to Syria. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |