Sunday, Aug 24, 2003
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By Sridhar Krishnaswami
According to The Toronto Star, the men have been arrested after a "pattern of suspicious behaviour'' including one man taking flight lessons on a path that took him directly over an Ontario Nuclear power plant. The arrested are being investigated for links to various terror outfits. Most of the arrested were students or refugee claimants and all born in Pakistan, it is said. According to a summary obtained by the paper on "the reasons of detention'' as outlined by the Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit (PSAT), it was a pattern of behaviour of a "larger group'' that was suspicious. "PSAT officers determined that based on the structure of this group, their associations and connected events, there is a reasonable suspicion that these persons pose a threat to national security,'' the detention document has stated. An RCMP spokesperson has confirmed the arrests but has passed it off as an "assist to Immigration''. According to the paper, an Immigration official has confirmed the arrests but had no further comment. A defence lawyer for two of the detenus has been quoted as saying that the "reasonable suspicion'' explanation provided in court is nothing more than an innuendo and that his clients are being held on `flimsy' charges. The arrests are said to be part of an operation called Project Thread and follows a seven-month investigation. According to the document provided in court, one person raised suspicion as he was taking commercial pilot lessons to qualify as a multi-engine commercial pilot. "He often brings with him an unknown male as a passenger. His instructors have described him as an unmotivated student. The average timeframe for qualification is approximately one year. The target has been training in Canada for almost three years,'' says the document quoted in the paper. Two persons in the group have been deemed suspicious as they were seen near the Pickering Nuclear plant last year and had a request that they be allowed to enter the gates "to go for a walk on the beach''; and a confirmed associate of the group provided an offer of employment from the Global Relief Foundation which has been deemed by the United Nations as a fund raising group for several terror outfits including the Al-Qaeda.
`Loads of evidence'
It is said that authorities are still reviewing and cataloguing the "three van loads of evidence'' that have been collected by the RCMP and the Canadian Immigration; and the document apparently notes that the RCMP had received several tips in the aftermath of 9/11 that cited "strange behaviour'' at one of the addresses of the detained group. It is said that the full-fledged investigation started this February when a Canadian Citizenship and Immigration Visa official became suspicious of a student application for a permanent residency status. The officer who was unable to verify the applicant at the Ottawa Business College contacted the anti-terrorism unit. The student also supposedly had a bank balance of $40,000 without an identifiable source of income. Police investigated the Ottawa school and found 31 persons — referred to as the "larger group''— who had fraudulently received documents to enter or remain in Canada. And most of the group members, aged between 18 and 33, had given false documents to Immigration officials, it is said. "The investigation proved that the Ottawa Business College was not a legitimate school. Foreign students and others could purchase acceptance letters, transcripts and diplomas for a fee without ever attending classes,'' the document presented in court says, according to newspaper report.
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