Police swapped circuit boards ahead of terror arrests

Share

Police snuck into an Ottawa apartment and replaced dozens of detonation devices with harmless replicas before one of Canada's biggest-ever terrorism busts.

The swap was made as officers spied on a crucial meeting at which three people are alleged to have voted to plot terrorist violence together.

The Globe and Mail has obtained these insights from people close to RCMP Project Samossa, an investigation involving hundreds of federal agents pursuing alleged "homegrown" terrorists.

This continuing probe, which culminated in charges against three Canadians last week, began at least three years ago. Not all of the individuals who came to the attention of the federal agents have been arrested or publicly identified at this point.

The security operation started in Winnipeg when federal police and spies were investigating suspected religious extremists. Eventually, investigators found people they deemed to be potential terrorists in Canada and overseas working on schemes with three- to five-year timelines.

Agents on Project Samossa (all RCMP terrorism probes of national scope start with the letter "S") kept taps on suspected conspirators operating in Winnipeg, Ottawa and several other Canadian cities.

For example, police monitored the suspects' use of public-access computers in colleges and libraries, and at least one payphone outside a grocery store.

Some suspected terrorist-cell members allegedly ventured to Afghanistan and Pakistan, and Canadian agents tried to track them by listening in on their satellite-phone conversations.

Some of the suspects who left Canada for overseas terrorist havens are believed by investigators to have not returned. Sources say one suspect who left - whom the Mounties considered a co-conspirator - is presumed to have been killed.

Members of the group, including three Canadians arrested last week on terrorism charges, are alleged to have been facilitating terrorist conspiracies abroad and in Canada.

Foremost among the three arrested in Canada is a gangly 30-year-old Iranian Canadian, Hiva Alizadeh, who is accused of having direct ties to terrorists in Afghanistan and Pakistan. (His brother - an alleged co-conspirator - denied all allegations in an interview with The Globe and Mail from Iran.)

Mr. Alizadeh moved to Canada when he was about 20 years old. He worked in a halal grocery store in Winnipeg before taking electronics courses at Red River College. He recently moved to Ottawa, where he went on welfare. He was arrested in the seventh-floor apartment that he shares with his family.

He is accused of raising funds for foreign terrorists and plotting bombings. Police say they've amassed considerable evidence against him - principally 59 homemade circuit boards that could have been used to set off bombs from a remote location.

The devices were allegedly seized from a bedroom closet. Police say they infiltrated Mr. Alizadeh's residence over time, spotting the circuitry and working quickly to recreate harmless versions of them to swap for the originals.

The discovery of the circuit boards was especially shocking, one source said, because police found more of them with each surreptitious visit, but feared that the supply would eventually diminish - indicating boards were being handed to others.

It remains unclear whether the circuitry was to be used in Canada or overseas, or what the targets might have been.

One source said that Parliament Hill was discussed in the initial "chatter" first overheard by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and that CSIS relayed this to the Mounties.

Yet this allegation does not appear to be repeated in a secret Crown brief circulated to lawyers last week. The Mounties are understood to be conducting a relatively narrow probe, while CSIS continues a wider-ranging, parallel investigation.

Also arrested are two alleged co-conspirators: Khurram Syed Sher of London, Ont., and Misbahuddin Ahmed, a radiation technologist at an Ottawa hospital.

The two men are charged with facilitating the conspiracy, but are not alleged to have travelled to Afghanistan, built bombs or sought to finance terrorism.

Dr. Sher apparently came to the Mounties' attention after he spent a weekend at Mr. Ahmed's residence. This led to a crucial meeting, sources say, where the three men allegedly chose Mr. Ahmed as their nominal leader as they developed a plot.

Mr. Alizadeh remains the primary suspect.

Police believe he was about to head to Afghanistan at the time of his arrest, possibly to lead an insurgent or al-Qaeda cell whose leadership had been killed by NATO forces.

A fourth man who was arrested in Ottawa on Friday is considered a minor figure, someone who knows the others but is unlikely to be charged with terrorism. Awso Peshdary remains jailed on an unrelated assault charge pending his bail hearing Tuesday.