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| Great White North |
| Canadian prosecutors decry 'quartermaster of terror' |
| 2008-08-28 |
| Momin Khawaja was ready to provide and "pull the trigger" of a deadly weapon for an Islamic extremist terror cell when he built a remote-control detonator device in 2004, said the Crown attorney in the terrorism trial of the Orleans man. Describing the software designer as "a zealot with deadly intentions," federal prosecutor David McKercher said yesterday the 29-year-old man acted as a "quartermaster of terror," eagerly supplying money and militia-like gear for a London-based jihad group that planned a fertilizer bomb plot targeting a U.K. nightclub, shopping complex and gas and electric facilities. In a blistering rebuttal to a defence motion asking the trial judge to quash all seven terrorism charges against Khawaja, McKercher said Justice Douglas Rutherford should take Khawaja's self-description as "the West's mortal enemy" in literal terms. "Momin Khawaja was prepared to provide and metaphorically pull the trigger of a very powerful weapon," McKercher said of the so-called "Hi-Fi Digimonster" the software developer allegedly built for a U.K.-based bomb plot. "Others in the group had provided the power of the blast, the ammunition," said McKercher, referring to 600 kg of ammonium nitrate fertilizer seized by British police at a depot in March 2004. Omar Khyam, the leader of the conspiracy who was convicted with four other plotters in 2007 by a British jury, "was pointing the weapon and the barrel of the weapon was still swinging when the plot was interrupted by authorities," said McKercher. If the plot had been carried out, "Momin Khawaja would be perfectly content with the brutally deadly results of his handiwork of which he, along with the rest of the world, would learn about in press reports the following day," said McKercher. The defence has argued Khawaja wanted to be a "front-line jihadi soldier" in Afghanistan and should be considered a combatant in an armed conflict, not a terrorist as defined by Canadian law. But McKercher compared the defence argument to a "three-card Monte" game or a shell game, where defence lawyer Lawrence Greenspon keeps shifting the walnut shells to conceal "the hard kernel of truth." "Terrorist activity is terrorist activity whether it's under the shell marked 'Canada', the one marked 'United Kingdom' or the one marked 'Afghanistan' or 'Pakistan,' " said McKercher. "They all have publics who can be intimidated," said the McKercher of the potential of terror attacks on airplanes, schools, subway stations or aide workers. Greenspon has said Khawaja was building the "Hi-Fi Digimonster" to use in Afghanistan but McKercher said Khawaja's own e-mails to Khyam discussed the logistics of getting the devices into the U.K., not Afghanistan. A British security service surveillance bug in February 2004 also picked up Khawaja telling his associates in a London flat the device's signal couldn't be blocked out in an urban area -- evidence, McKercher said, of Khawaja's thoughts of using it in a city, not a remote area such as the hills of Afghanistan. McKercher also noted an RCMP explosives expert told the court that unlike a traceable cellphone detonator signal, a remote-control detonator like the Hi-Fi Digimonster would leave "no identifiable markers" after an explosion. The Crown also said Khawaja's weapons training could have been used to launch rocket-propelled grenades at office buildings in the U.K. |
| Posted by:ryuge |
| #3 I'm afraid that this POS may be found "Not Guilty". The trial judge seems to have done all wobbly and is finding fault with the prosecution's case. This one may become actionable. |
| Posted by: Canuckistan sniper 2008-08-28 11:48 |
| #2 Guilty. Since they no longer have a death penalty, the best that may be hoped for is an "accident" after the trial concludes, on the way to the lockup. |
| Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2700 2008-08-28 11:44 |
| #1 This one belongs on page 2. Sorry. |
| Posted by: ryuge 2008-08-28 05:55 |