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A key architect of the spectacular Toronto 18 terrorism plot to detonate huge truck bombs in Toronto in 2006 was granted day parole, Tuesday. “I’m just so thankful,” Shareef Abdelhaleem said when told the decision by the Parole Board of Canada, “You will not be sorry. “I know that you’re taking a risk and this is going to be highly mediatized, but in front of all these people and in front of God — I know I said I was not a religious man, but I do believe in God — I will not disappoint you. “You will never hear...

'Toronto 18' member Ali Mohamed Dirie reportedly died in Syria Ali Mohamed Dirie died in Syria after 2011 prison release, informant tells CBC

Terror mastermind and senior Al-Qaeda leader Anwar al-Awlaki is dead a senior U.S. official confirms. Al-Awlaki, a U.S.-born Islamic militant cleric who became a prominent figure in Al-Qaeda's most active branch, using his fluent English and Internet savvy to draw recruits to carry out attacks in the United States, was killed Friday in the mountains of Yemen, American and Yemeni officials said. excerpt - Yemeni security officials and local tribal leaders said al-Awlaki was killed in an air strike on his convoy that they believed was carried out by the Americans. They said pilotless drones had been seen over the...

Terrorist sings new tuneBy MICHELE MANDEL, Toronto Sun Last Updated: November 26, 2010 6:59pm BRAMPTON - It’s a strange road from would-be terrorist to would-be rapper. But far better Steven Chand’s bad poetry than his last hobby of training terror recruits in the snow. After pledging to have nothing more to do with terrorism and performing a rather bizarre courtroom rap, Steven Chand was handed a stiff 10 year sentence by Justice Fletcher Dawson Friday for training and fundraising for the Toronto 18 terror group. But with credit for his nearly five years in custody, Chand will have only seven...

"Jihadist who plotted to attack Canadian Parliament, electrical grids, and nuclear stations gets 16 years of prison dawah" SNIPPET: "BRAMPTON, Ont. - The ringleader of the so-called Toronto 18, who admitted to leading a terrorist group with plans to attack Parliament, has been sentenced to 16 years in prison. Court heard weeks of evidence that Fahim Ahmad, 26, plotted to attack Parliament buildings, electrical grids and nuclear stations, and that he held training camps to assess recruits for his cause. At one point, police intercepted Ahmad suggesting going to Parliament to "cut off some heads" and "kill everybody.''..."

TORONTO -- SNIPPET: "The so-called Toronto 18 eventually split into two groups after the leaders had a falling out. One thing the groups still had in common was a misdirected paranoia. They worried they were being watched by the authorities, but little did they know two of their trusted confidants were police agents. At one meeting one of the plotters instructed a man who was actually an RCMP agent to take the battery out of his cellphone so their conversation couldn't be intercepted. Another plotter gave an agent a test to see if he was a spy. He passed." SNIPPET:...

SNIPPET - quote: HE HAD A BLOG... ...he said a lot. Then he went to Somalia to join the jihad, and now he's dead.

Pajamas Media | Friday, December 12, 2008 The funeral for Shirwa Ahmed last week in Burnsville, Minnesota, punctuated a growing national security threat metastasizing inside the U.S. — one Homeland Security and law enforcement authorities have quickly taken note of. Ahmed, who killed himself in a suicide bombing attack in Somalia in October, is just one of up to 40 men from the Twin Cities area who have disappeared and are feared to have returned to their homeland for training with the al-Shabaab terrorist group to wage jihad. The FBI is investigating similar disappearances in other major Somali communities in...

A member of a homegrown terrorist group pleaded guilty Friday to participating in a plot to set off truck bombs in front of Canada's main stock exchange and two government buildings.

SNIPPET: "Zakaria Amara, 24, the leader of the group - which planned to detonate truck bombs outside the Toronto offices of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, the Toronto Stock Exchange and an Ontario military base - was sentenced to life in prison on Monday. He will be eligible for parole in 2016 - 10 years from the day of his arrest." SNIPPET: "Another conspirator, Saad Gaya, 22, was sentenced on Monday to 12 years in prison." SNIPPET: "Amin Mohamed Durrani took part in a plot to establish an armed, Al-Qaeda-type terror cell in Toronto "and then to create some sort...

SNIPPET: "U.S. intelligence officials believe there are dozens -- perhaps hundreds - of Americans who have been in e-mail contact with the radical Yemeni cleric who is believed to have inspired and directed both the Fort Hood shooter and the failed Christmas Day airline bomber, the Investigative Project on Terrorism has learned. Efforts to learn the details of that communication, or even to target Anwar Al-Awlaki militarily, may be hindered by his status as an American citizen."

t's alleged he was the money man, a behind-the-scenes operator who drove a convertible BMW around town while his much younger accomplices bummed rides and took buses as they plotted detonating truck bombs in downtown Toronto. When the trial of Shareef Abdelhaleem begins in a Brampton, Ont., courtroom Monday morning, the Canadian public will be introduced to a new kind of terrorism suspect: An educated and affluent thirtysomething entrepreneur – born in the Middle East but raised in Canada – who allegedly saw an opportunity to profit from the chaos he would cause. Until now, a publication ban has shielded...

United States Army Major Nidal Hasan told a radical cleric considered by authorities to be an al-Qaeda recruiter, "I can't wait to join you" in the afterlife, according to an American official with top secret access to 18 e-mails exchanged between Hasan and the cleric, Anwar al Awlaki, over a six month period between Dec. 2008 and June 2009.

BRAMPTON -- The two scrawny terrorists are unloading bags labeled ammonium nitrate from the back of a delivery truck when one of them looks up and recoils in shock, while his partner backs into a wall and raises his hands in surrender. A four-member police tactical team dressed all in black descends, laying them spread-eagled on the floor of the warehouse and cuffing their hands behind their backs before one of the officers raises his thumb to say mission accomplished. The dramatic arrests of Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya, members of the "Toronto 18" terrorist group that was planning to...

BRAMPTON -- The two scrawny terrorists are unloading bags labeled ammonium nitrate from the back of a delivery truck when one of them looks up and recoils in shock, while his partner backs into a wall and raises his hands in surrender. A four-member police tactical team dressed all in black descends, laying them spread-eagled on the floor of the warehouse and cuffing their hands behind their backs before one of the officers raises his thumb to say mission accomplished. The dramatic arrests of Saad Khalid and Saad Gaya, members of the "Toronto 18" terrorist group that was planning to...

"The powerful online voice of jihad Shadowy cleric revered by disenchanted Muslim youths throughout West cited in Toronto 18 case" CAPTION: "A Facebook page for Anwar al Awlaki has 4,800 fans. He has been cited as an inspiration for extremist plots." FACEBOOK SNIPPET: "In a snowy field near Barrie, a group of young Muslim men listened intently to the eloquent voice emanating from the laptop. Anwar al Awlaki preached in perfect Arabic and flawless English about the need to fight in the name of religion, because the "world is united in fighting Islam." The time for jihad is now, no...

SNIPPET: “Mr. Amara’s paycheques were small. His day job was drudgery. But his schemes were big – very big.”

Hateful chatter behind the veil Key suspects' wives held radical views, Web postings revealMISSISSAUGA — When it came time to write up the premarital agreement between Zakaria Amara and Nada Farooq, Ms. Farooq briefly considered adding a clause that would allow her to ask for a divorce. She said that Mr. Amara (now accused of being a leader of the alleged terror plot that led to the arrests of 17 Muslim men early this month) had to aspire to take part in jihad. "[And] if he ever refuses a clear opportunity to leave for jihad, then i want the choice...

SNIPPET: "Saad Gaya, a 21-year old, admitted Monday that he was part of an al-Qaeda-inspired plot to build fertilizer-based truck bombs and explode them in downtown Toronto." SNIPPET: "With Mr. Gaya, Mr. Khalid, and Mr. Dirie having pleaded guilty in recent weeks, only seven adult accused are headed to trial at this point. More pleas are possible."