Canadian at centre of FBI terror probe has Kanata connection

The Canadian man under investigation for possible links to last year's Mumbai bombings spends Islamic holidays at a suburban Ottawa house backing onto the Kanata Lakes Golf and Country Club.

Although Tahawwur Hussain Rana lives in Chicago, the Kanata home he co-owns has been a gathering place for his far-flung family, including relatives spread across the United States and a brother who is a well-known journalist on Parliament Hill.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana, a 48-year-old immigration consultant and businessman, is at the centre of a flurry of international media attention since his arrest last month by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, but only now are details of his Canadian connections starting to emerge.

The FBI suspects he was involved in a plot to kill a Danish newspaper cartoonist whose images of the Islamic Prophet Mohammed sparked an international controversy. A series of news reports from the U.S. and India have also stated that Mr. Rana is under investigation for a possible link to the 2008 bombings in Mumbai.

The arrests of Mr. Rana and another Chicago resident, David Coleman Headley, has widened into a global terrorism inquiry that has led to arrests in Pakistan and implicated a former Pakistani military officer as a co-conspirator, The New York Times reported late Wednesday night, citing government officials.

Mr. Headley is believed to have co-operated with the authorities after his arrest on Oct. 3, and the Pakistan arrests stemmed from information he provided, the newspaper said. The U.S. suspects have been directly linked to the former Pakistani military officer, who authorities would not name, according to The Times. The report said intelligence officers believe that some members of the Pakistani military have encouraged terrorist attacks against Pakistan's enemies, especially India.

To date, Mr. Rana and his family have not spoken to the media. Mr. Rana, who was born and raised in Pakistan, immigrated to Canada in 1997 and obtained Canadian citizenship in June, 2001. He and his wife, Samraz Akhtar Rana, live in Chicago with their two daughters and a son.

Mr. Rana and his wife are two of five family members who co-own the house in Kanata. But only his father, his brother Abbas and Abbas's wife currently live there. When a Globe and Mail reporter rang the doorbell yesterday evening, a woman peered out the window of an unlit second-storey room but did not answer the door.

Abbas has worked for The Hill Times newspaper since 2002. He writes the popular "Hill Climbers" column chronicling the latest parliamentary staff changes. He could not be reached for comment WEdnesdayday, but Jim Creskey, the publisher of the newspaper, said Abbas and his family are devastated by the news.

"Abbas believes his brother is innocent, but he really has no idea," Mr. Creskey said. "We were notified by Abbas, and this is some weeks ago, that his brother had been arrested in Chicago by the FBI and Abbas had told us that he had no idea really why he was arrested."

Mr. Creskey said Abbas has been on leave for the past two weeks caring for his father, who is in hospital and gravely ill.

"For us, the only important point is that this has been a family calamity for Abbas, who for us, he's a great, experienced reporter. Just a lovely, gentle person, someone we've always been very proud to work with and someone who is right now dedicated to the care of his ailing father," Mr. Creskey said.

Tahawwur Hussain Rana's Chicago lawyer, Patrick Blegen, said he is working on a response to the allegations related to the Mumbai bombing.

"It may be that in the relatively near future, I will make a family member or someone available [to answer questions]" he said Wednesday. "I can't do it yet because of some court things that are going on."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper was asked about the Rana case by Indian reporters this week in New Delhi, where the story is receiving a high level of attention. Mr. Harper said Canada has been working very closely with the Americans on the case and vowed to exchange information with Indian officials as well.

A bail hearing originally scheduled for tomorrow in Chicago has been postponed until Dec. 2. American authorities have said they will oppose Mr. Rana's release.