Media: Canadians reportedly training in Waziristan for attacks here

[The Bread Guy]

This from Asia Times Online:

With the Afghan war entering its 10th year, completely undeterred by the American drone strikes in the Pakistani tribal region, al-Qaeda is putting the final touches to plans to recruit, train and launch Western Caucasians in their countries; the aim is to spread the flames of the South Asian war theater to the West.

(....)

Canadians head to North Waziristan
Well-placed Taliban sources say that a group of Canadian militants is receiving jihadi training in al-Qaeda camps in North Waziristan for terror attacks in Canada, whose troops are a part of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan.

Arif Wazir, a local militant of Darpakhel in North Waziristan told Asia Times Online, "In the first stage of their journey, the Canadians went to Afghanistan in February 2010; there were 12 of them. After nine months, al-Qaeda's leaders decided to send them to North Waziristan and they reached Darpakhel in November last year.

"In Afghanistan they received basic jihadi training, while currently they are busy doing some special courses. Their main learning is how to use sophisticated weapons, and how to connect with local smuggling networks in North America. They are also learning how to use ordinary material like sugar and basic chemicals to make powerful explosives. These militants will then return to their country to execute al-Qaeda's plan of targeting big cities in Canada," the militant said.

According to available information, the Canadians joined the Egyptian militant organization Jihad al-Islami (JAI), which then helped them reach Afghanistan. The head of the group goes by the alias of Abu Shahid. The 30-year-old, who sports a golden beard, converted to Islam in 2007 and joined the JAI, with which he works to collect funds for the organization. Shahid is responsible for all of the activities of the Canadians in North Waziristan. According to Taliban sources, the 12 will remain in the tribal belt until it is felt that they are sufficiently trained to successfully carry out terror activities in Canada. Shahid apparently is confident he can recruit more Canadians.

The sources gave the names of some of the Canadians undergoing training. These could not be independently verified and include: Jeam Paull (local name Sadiq Ullah), Leman Langlois (Sana Ullah), James Richard (Abdur Rehman), Otto Paul (Abu Usman), Thomas (Abdullah) and Paul Gall (Hafiz Ullah).

Various militants of other nationalities are also being trained in North Waziristan, probably the most lawless part of Pakistan. Apart from Arab and Central Asian militants, one can find jihadis from the United States, Britain and Germany ....

 

[57Chevy]

Canadians taking al-Qaida training in Pakistan: Report

OTTAWA — The RCMP is investigating a claim that a dozen Canadians in al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan are preparing to mount terror missions in Canada.

"Any information that we receive, we look at assessing its credibility and then taking proper actions to ensure that Canadians and our allies are kept safe," Assistant Commissioner Gilles Michaud, in charge of the Mountie's national-security program, said in an interview Friday.

The Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online reported Friday that "well-placed" Taliban sources say a group of Canadian militants is receiving jihadi training in al-Qaida camps in North Waziristan for terror attacks in Canada.

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[The Bread Guy]

This from the Canadian Press....

The RCMP is probing an online news report that says a group of Canadian militants is training for jihad in Pakistani al-Qaida camps.  Hong Kong-based Asia Times Online cites "well-placed Taliban sources" saying the terrorist group is training a number of Western Caucasians — Canadians in particular— for attacks in Canada.  Assistant RCMP commissioner Gilles Michaud told the Canadian Press Friday that the Mounties and their security and intelligence partners were assessing the information in the report for its "credibility and reliability."  Michaud said the RCMP would take "appropriate action" according to the results of that assessment, which he added was being carried out as quickly as possible ....

.... and Postmedia News:

The RCMP is investigating a claim that a dozen Canadians in al-Qaida training camps in Pakistan are preparing to mount terror missions in Canada.

"Any information that we receive, we look at assessing its credibility and then taking proper actions to ensure that Canadians and our allies are kept safe," said assistant commissioner Gilles Michaud, in charge of the Mounties' national-security program, on Friday.

The Hong Kong-based Asia Times reported on its website Friday that "well-placed" Taliban sources say a group of Canadian militants is receiving jihadi training in al-Qaida camps in North Waziristan for terror attacks in Canada.

The story was written by Syed Saleem Shahzad, the paper's Pakistan bureau chief. He has extensive experience reporting on the Taliban and wrote the upcoming book Inside al-Qaeda and the Taliban 9/11 and Beyond.

While Shahzad's credibility appears firm, that of so-called Taliban sources is routinely questioned by western authorities on guard against al-Qaida's increasingly slick propaganda operations directed at western audiences.

Typically, in such cases, police and security intelligence investigators will first try to determine if any of the details can be matched to information in their files ....

 

[Chilme]

This is perfect justification for maintaining if not increasing the budgets, hiring, and training for all Canadian Security Agencies (CF, RCMP, CBSA, CSIS, CCG) cause we know these people can't be produced overnight.  Hopefully it doesn't take an attack for Canadians to realize this.

 

[ModlrMike]

Hopefully it doesn't take an attack for Canadians to realize this.

Unfortunately, that's more likely than not.

 

[OldSolduer]

Unfortunately, that's more likely than not.

I agree.

 

[Chilme]

I guess we all better drum up some support

 

[GAP]

On the National tonight there was a piece about this.....apparently this is largely disinformation by the Taliban and AQ....the people identified were anti-terrorism experts who wrote books on terrorism.....

 

[daftandbarmy]

Ahhhh... now I see the reason behind the Conservatives pushing for the stand up of the TDBGs  :

 

[The Bread Guy]

On the National tonight there was a piece about this.....apparently this is largely disinformation by the Taliban and AQ....the people identified were anti-terrorism experts who wrote books on terrorism.....

Thanks for that - I haven't seen anything on CBC.ca on that yet, so much appreciated.

More on that in an interesting response via blog post from "the only person in the world with the name “Leman-Langlois”:

.... I’m the only person in the world with the name “Leman-Langlois”. It is NOT a common name. Interestingly, I’m a terrorism EXPERT not a terrorist (google it).

Given the context, I surmise that the « Jeam Paull » mentioned is Jean-Paul Brodeur, my mentor and long time collaborator. He died last April. Right here in Quebec.

The other names are fanciful as well. Jean-Paul and I wrote many papers, book chapters, and a book about terrorism. In one we mention former ministers Otto Jelinek and Paul Martin, likely the Otto Paul of the report. « James Richard » sounds like James Richard Cross, former British diplomat kidnapped by the FLQ in 1970, also one of our topics (thanx to Dr Dawg’s readers). Paul Gill (not Gall) is an expert in suicide bombing at University College Dublin ....

More along the same lines here.

 

[Scott]

No. I deleted it. He called me a MOLE.

 

[Journeyman]

And I deleted my bitching about it -- making us sound almost as incomprehensible as him. 

 

[The Bread Guy]

And I deleted my bitching about it -- making us sound almost as incomprehensible as him. 

Not.  Even.  Close.