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Mohamed Harkat
This story
received wide play December 12-14, enough that authorities felt
compelled to answer to the charges of secret trials and denial
of due process. After claiming the right to arrest terrorist
suspects without explanation, CSIS released information which
was picked up by the Globe and Mail Dec. 18. Think carefully about what they claim:
that information from a U.S. Al-Quaida prisoner was their source.
Then look at the methods
used to get information from suspected Al-Quaida prisoners. Surely we know that
information obtained through torture is unreliable. Not partly
unreliable. Totally unreliable. On Dec. 19, while many of us
were preparing for the holiday festivities, demonstrators in
Los Angeles claimed that more than a thousand Muslims were being
detained in California "facilities" -- does the term "concentration
camp" ring a bell? Then there was the terrorist
hoax
in January --
Group protests security
certificates in Ottawa
CTV.ca News Staff, Oct.
31 2003 11:33 PM ET
Four people have been charged
following a demonstration outside CSIS headquarters in Ottawa.
The protesters were rallying against the security certificates
used to arrest five Muslim men currently being held behind bars.
Similar protests were held
in eight other cities across Canada by the so-called costume
crusaders. The security certificate system allows Canadian police
to arrest and imprison anyone deemed a threat to national security
-- without charge or bail.
Mohamed Harkat, is one of the
five being held. He's accused of being a sleeper agent for al
Qaeda, but his wife said he's innocent and wants him released.
"We're here to tell CSIS
that we don't agree with the process and we don't agree with
the security certificate. We want to make sure they don't issue
any more of those security certificates because that goes against
basic human rights, basic justice," Sophie Harkat said.
Sophie was in the news earlier
this week when she responded to reports that Maher Arar gave
information about her husband and three other Canadians when
he was being held in a Syrian jail.
Arar is the Canadian who was
returning home from a visit to Tunisia last fall, when he was
detained in New York. American authorities deported him to Syria,
where he was jailed for a year without charge.
Arar, a dual Canadian-Syrian
citizen, was released earlier this month and returned to Ottawa
where he lives with his wife and two children.
Last week, sources told CTV
News that Arar was released by the Syrians after providing information
about al Qaeda, and four Canadians currently being held in jail.
"I don't know if Mr. Arar
has made those comments. I wish that he came out publicly to
clear his own reputation and to do it also for the name of these
four other men who are suffering through these allegations,"
Sophie said on Monday.
Along with other protesters,
she marched to the Prime Minister's Office to press her demand
for the abolition of Canada's security certificate process back
in August. Under the system any evidence against the suspected
terrorist is withheld from family, friends and even lawyers.
© Copyright 2003
Bell Globemedia Inc.
Wife 'ashamed to be Canadian'
after husband's arrest
cbc 14 Dec 2002
OTTAWA - An Ottawa woman says
she feels like a widow now that her husband is in jail awaiting
a decision on whether he'll be deported.
Mohamed Harkat was arrested
outside his apartment on Tuesday and jailed on suspicion he's
connected to terrorist groups.
On Friday, his wife Sophie
said Mohamed, an Algerian refugee, is innocent.
"I'm almost ashamed to
be a Canadian right now, the way my husband was arrested with
five cops and guns," she said. "I'm somewhat like a
widow. You know, one day I have a husband and the next day I
don't."
She has had a husband for two
years, during which time she said they knew they were being watched.
But they believed the surveillance simply had to do with Mohamed's
application to become a permanent resident.
Harkat was arrested Tuesday
under a security certificate, a rarely-used section of Canadian
law allows any foreign national living in Canadian to be arrested
and deported if that person is deemed a threat to national security.
The information leading to
the certificate is kept secret, even from the accused, and a
federal judge decides what should be done, perhaps ordering the
person's deportation.
There is no appeal process.
Sophie Harkat vows to fight
the process, and the Harkat's lawyer wants to see some evidence
that Mohamed Harkat is involved with terrorism in any way.
"They're alleging that
he's either involved in terrorist activities or associated with
terrorist activities, in the past, present or future," said
Bruce Engel. "Right now we have not seen one shred, not
one iota, of evidence that proves that."
Neither Immigration Minister
Denis Coderre nor Solicitor General Wayne Easter, both of whom
authorized the certificate, has said much about the case, except
that they believe Harkat poses a national security concern.
Wife of Algerian husband
tells of phone taps
By DANIEL LEBLANC,
December 14, 2002 Print Edition, Page A18,
Globe and Mail
Canadian authorities tapped
the phone lines of Mohamed Harkat and staked out his house for
years before arresting the Algeria native this week, his wife
says.
At a news conference, Sophie
Harkat said she has still received no official word about the
allegations hanging over her husband. Federal Immigration Minister
Denis Coderre and Solicitor-General Wayne Easter have signed
a rare certificate calling for the deportation of Mr. Harkat
as a threat to national security.
Officials have alleged that
he has ties to Algerian extremists, the Armed Islamic Group.
Ms. Harkat said her husband
worked 20 hours a day pumping gasoline and delivering pizzas.
"I knew myself we were" under surveillance, she said.
"There were strange cars around my apartment, I could hear
a ticking sound on my phone line, and you could just feel it."
CSIS report puts Algerian
behind bars
By ALLISON LAWLOR, Globe
and Mail Update, December 12
An Ottawa lawyer is hoping
to get some answers from Ottawa after his client was arrested
as a security threat to Canada.
Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian-born
man who has made Canada his home for several years was arrested
on Tuesday in Ottawa under a rarely used section of the Immigration
and Refugee Protection Act.
The federal government alleges
that Mr. Harkat is a security threat to Canada based on security
reports it has received from the Canadian Security Intelligence
Service which alleges that he is either a terrorist himself or
associating with terrorists, his lawyer Bruce Engel, told globeandmail.com
on Thursday.
Mr. Engel received the certificate
co-signed by Solicitor-General Wayne Easter and Immigration Minister
Denis Coderre on Monday.
Outside the House of Commons
on Thursday, Mr. Easter told reporters he signed the certificate
based on security reports he received.
"We were concerned over
security matters for the nation," Mr. Easter told reporters
outside the House of Commons on Thursday, responding to questions
as to why he signed the certificate.
He would not give any details
about the case saying it was now before the Federal court.
The federal government will
attempt to prove that Mr. Harkat, who is not a Canadian citizen,
is inadmissible on the grounds of public security because he
is alleged to be either engaged in terrorism or associated with
people who engage in terrorism, Mr. Engel said, adding that he
has been given no details on the allegations.
The certificate contains no
details about the allegations for security reasons, a spokeswoman
for Citizenship and Immigration Canada told globeandmail.com.
Mr. Engel said a Federal Court
judge will review material received from the federal ministers
and decide what information can be released to Mr. Engel, possibly
as early as Friday.
According to the Immigration
Act, an in-camera hearing must be held within seven days of the
certificate being handed over to the Federal Court. At the hearing
the judge will have to decide based on the evidence received
whether the certificate is valid.
If the judge determines that
the certificate is reasonable than it becomes "an enforceable
order," which means automatic removal of the individual
from Canada, the Immigration spokeswoman said.
The Federal court decision
cannot be appealed, she said.
Mr. Harkat, who has lived in
Canada since the mid-1990s, was given refugee status but was
not a permanent resident. He first went to Mr. Engel with immigration
problems.
Mr. Harkat, who is both employed
and married, is confused by his arrest, Mr. Engel said.
"He categorically denies
any involvement any association with any terrorist group or individuals
or organizations," Mr. Engel said.
"He denies being a terrorist.
He is not a terrorist. He has no idea why he has been singled
out in this fashion."
Refugee held after CSIS
probe Algerian tied to al-Qaeda
Stewart Bell, National Post,
December 13, 2002
An Algerian refugee with suspected
ties to the al-Qaeda terrorist network of Osama bin Laden has
been arrested in Ottawa as a threat to Canada's national security,
government sources said yesterday.
Mohamed Harkat was taken into
custody at his apartment by Ottawa police and federal immigration
officers. The arrest followed an investigation by CSIS, but no
details have been released.
The arrest was carried out
after Wayne Easter, the Solicitor-General, and Denis Coderre,
the Minister of Immigration, signed a certificate declaring Mr.
Harkat a threat to Canadian security due to his terrorist ties.
Mr. Harkat came to Canada a
decade ago and was accepted as a convention refugee in 1997.
He was applying to become a permanent resident when authorities
became concerned he might be linked to al-Qaeda.
He "categorically and
unequivocally denies any involvement, association -- direct or
indirect --with any terrorist organization," Bruce Engel,
his lawyer, said yesterday after visiting Mr. Harkat in detention.
"He denies anything....
He's not a terrorist, he's not involved and he's eager to see
how this error could have happened," Mr. Engel said. "He
hasn't been given any information or asked any questions that
he can even begin to think how this could have happened. He's
completely in the dark."
The government intends to present
its evidence against Mr. Harkat before a Federal Court of Canada
judge, who must decide whether the case is reasonable. If the
government succeeds, he faces deportation.
Several Algerians have been
arrested for involvement in Islamic terrorism over the past three
years, notably Ahmed Ressam, who trained at al-Qaeda camps in
Afghanistan before returning to Canada and building a bomb.
He intended to detonate the
explosives at Los Angeles airport but was stopped by a U.S. Customs
officer at the B.C.-Washington border on Dec. 14, 1999. The case
exposed gaping holes in Canada's security that the government
has since tried to plug.
Bin Laden lieutenant
identified suspect in Canada
By PETER CHENEY, Globe and
Mail, December 18, 2002
The "galvanizing"
piece of information that led to the arrest of 34-year-old Mohamed
Harkat in Ottawa last week was supplied by one of Osama bin Laden's
top lieutenants, intelligence sources say.
They say that the name of Mr.
Harkat, who worked as a gas-station attendant and pizza-delivery
driver in Ottawa, came up during an interrogation by the U.S.
Federal Bureau of Investigation of Abu Zubaydah, a key member
of Mr. bin Laden's inner circle. Mr. Zubaydah's information,
which was passed on to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service,
is considered a crucial element in the investigation of Mr. Harkat.
According to a classified intelligence
file, CSIS investigators believe Mr. Harkat is a member of an
al-Qaeda sleeper cell and has spent the past several years preparing
for an unspecified terrorist mission in North America. Although
few details about his activities have been released, intelligence
sources have confirmed that Mr. Harkat worked at a Petro-Canada
gas bar directly across the street from a CSIS office.
CSIS spokesman Phil Gibson
refused to comment on whether Mr. Harkat may have used this vantage
point to learn the identities of CSIS operatives. But an intelligence-community
source said Mr. Harkat is suspected of carrying out surveillance
operations at a number of locations, including Parliament Hill,
where he was reportedly spotted taking pictures from a vehicle.
The source said Mr. Harkat
is considered a "high-level player" in the North American
terrorist network.
"There have only been
a few cases of this magnitude," the source said. "We
don't proceed this way against people on the periphery."
Mr. Harkat, who was arrested
last week after taking out the garbage at his Ottawa apartment,
is at the centre of a closed federal hearing that will determine
whether he can be deported to his native Algeria as a threat
to national security.
Solicitor-General Wayne Easter
said Tuesday that he was confident the investigation into Mr.
Harkat had yielded a solid case. "I believe the intelligence
information that we had will stand up to the test of the court."
Mr. Harkat's supporters say
he is a victim of mistaken identity.
"He is not involved in
any terror plots, and he doesn't know any terrorists," said
Bruce Engel, an Ottawa lawyer who is representing Mr. Harkat
at his federal court hearing. "As far as he's concerned,
it's all a big mistake."
According to documents obtained
Tuesday, Mr. Harkat came to Canada in 1995 using a forged Saudi
passport that he bought in Pakistan for $1,200 (U.S.). According
to the CSIS investigative file, this was one of many deceptions
Mr. Harkat used to get into Canada and pursue a secret terrorist
agenda.
"The Service believes
that Mohamed Harkat is an Islamic extremist," the file says.
"[He] was and is a member of the bin Laden Network, and
that Harkat's role in this terrorist network is exemplified by
his actions and intentions.
"The Service believes
that Harkat attempted to mask his relationships with individuals
in Canada, in part, to dissociate himself from individuals or
groups who support terrorism."
Although Mr. Harkat lived a
life of near-poverty in Canada, the CSIS file says that was a
cover for his true activities. According to the file, Mr. Harkat
was a highly connected member of the al-Qaeda network. His best-known
associate was Mr. Zubaydah, whom he had known "since the
early 1990s."
Mr. Zubaydah, who was arrested
last March in Pakistan, has provided key information on al-Qaeda
operatives to the FBI. Sources said the naming of Mr. Harkat
by Mr. Zubaydah was the "galvanizing factor" behind
Mr. Harkat's arrest last week.
In an interview with CSIS agents
in 1997, Mr. Harkat denied that he had visited Afghanistan or
trained with the mujahedeen. He told the agents that one of his
legs was partly paralyzed. "As far as mujahedeen are concerned,
Mohamed commented that he cannot walk a kilometre," one
of the agents noted.
When Mr. Harkat was confronted
about his use of aliases, he replied that he had used them only
in Pakistan. "Mohamed commented that aliases are very common
in Pakistan and everyone used them," the agent said. "When
he met people that he did not trust, he would give them another
name."
Mr. Harkat told the agents
he owned two cars. One of them was a five-year-old Honda Accord
that he was trying to sell for $8,500. The other was a 13-year-old
Accord that he used to deliver pizzas. He said the older car
was worth about $500. Mr. Harkat told the agents he was on social
assistance, but acknowledged that he received money from Yemen.
When he was asked whether he
knew Ahmed Said Khadr, a Canadian aid worker who was implicated
in the bombing of the Egyptian Embassy in Pakistan, Mr. Harkat
initially said no. But when pressed by the agents, Mr. Harkat
said he he had met him during a visit to Toronto with a friend.
The interview ended on a note
of sharp skepticism.
"We know you are not being
truthful with us," the agents told Mr. Harkat. "Is
there nothing you wish to add or change?"
"No," Mr. Harkat
replied.
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell
