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| Great White North |
| The case against Harkat |
| 2005-12-31 |
| The following account is based on documents released to the public by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. Who is Mohamed Harkat? Harkat is a 34-year-old Algerian refugee living in Ottawa who delivers pizza. Born in a small town in Algeria, Harkat's story—up to a certain point—is similar to that of many other Algerian men his age. Harkat got involved in Islamist politics in the late '80s when the Islamic Salvation Front, or FIS, was becoming a popular mass movement in the country. His family allowed the FIS to use one of its properties as a regional party office in their town. In 1992, the FIS was allowed to stand in an election and won. The generals who run Algeria, and who despise the Islamist movement, immediately cancelled the result and started rounding up FIS members and supporters. Harkat says it was at this point that he decided to flee the country. Up to here, his story is not unlike that of a lot of legitimate Algerian refugees in Canada. However, Harkat set off on a course that seems to follow the profile of an al-Qaeda member. What about him attracted the attention of CSIS? When he left Algeria he went to Saudi Arabia on a pilgrim visa, and says that while there, he was offered a job by the Muslim World League to dispense aid to Afghan refugees in Pakistan, near the city of Peshawar. This drew the attention of CSIS. Saudi-affiliated Islamic relief organizations in Pakistan were a front for a very successful operation to get foreign Muslims into Afghanistan so that they could wage holy war against the Soviets. These movements remained in the Peshawar area after the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan, and they continued to attract young, jihad-minded Muslims from all over the world. Harkat arrived in Peshawar in 1990, after the Soviets had left. By then, these young Muslims would often go into Afghanistan for training in mujahedeen camps, where their new targets were not Russian, but western. One Saudi relief organization in Peshawar was Maktab al-Khidamat, run by Osama bin Laden. That ultimately became al-Qaeda. CSIS says Harkat ended up in an Afghan training camp run by the bin Laden network. How did he come to be in Canada? In 1995, Algeria asked Pakistan to cancel the visas and work permits of all Algerians in the country. This was because the so-called "Afghans"—actually Algerians who had served and trained in Afghanistan—were the core of the more militant and violent Islamist groups that emerged after the annulment of the 1992 election. Harkat says he was caught up in this sweep and had to leave the country. He told CSIS that it was then he started thinking about coming to Canada. Instead he went to Malaysia, which is another place of considerable interest to groups like CSIS because there is evidence that al-Qaeda has penetrated Malaysia. Harkat says he went to Malaysia because he thought he could get a direct flight to Canada from there. In fact he couldn't. He says he met a man at the mosque who invited him to stay with him for the duration of his stay in Kuala Lumpur, but he doesn't recall who the man was. The man is the first in a long line of people in Harkat's life who help him in various ways, but whose names he cannot recall. He finally did come to Canada on a fake Saudi Arabian passport in 1995. Refugees often use forged travel documents to get where they're going; the practice is not usually held against them. However, CSIS points out that fake Saudi Arabian passports were the travel document of choice for al-Qaeda members. There's also a number of other things in Harkat's story that CSIS says are untrue. They say he lied: * about not using aliases during his time in Pakistan * when he said he never went to Afghanistan * when he said he knew no one in Canada prior to coming here * when he claimed not to have been a supporter of the GIA, the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria What exactly is CSIS alleging against him? CSIS wants Mohamed Harkat listed as a threat to national security under Section 78 of the Immigration Act. They say he's a "sleeper"—someone sent here to lie low and wait for instructions. Solicitor General Wayne Easter says Canada wants to deport him back to Algeria. CSIS says it considers Harkat's behaviour in Canada suspicious for a number of reasons. He's admitted to going to Toronto to meet Ahmed Said Khadr, who's been linked to Egyptian Islamic Jihad and to the bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad. Khadr's son, also from Ottawa, is now in Guantanamo Bay after being captured with Taliban forces. Another well-known Islamist whom Harkat contacted in Canada is Fahad al-Shehri, who was himself deported from Canada as a threat to national security. Harkat also received visits from Pakistan, including a Libyan called Wael (Harkat could not recall his last name). Harkat said he had never met Wael, but he says he gave him $18,000 because he liked him. Wael worked as a honey merchant; honey is a business that's very strongly associated with the bin Laden network. The Algerian connection Algeria has exported dangerous people along with legitimate refugees and emigrants. The problem in Algeria was that a peaceful and popular Islamist movement was radicalized by first being allowed to participate in an election, and then having the results annulled when they won. |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |