Al-Qaeda fighter 'arbitrarily detained' by CSIS: report

Again CSIS does whatever will achieve its aims regardless of violation of rights. SIRC at least has managed to reveal a bit about its shady operations. Jabarah seems to be a real piece of work: terrorist, snitch, stupid beyond belief. Al-Qaeda obviously has absolutely no quality control processes during recruitment!

Al-Qaeda fighter 'arbitrarily detained' by CSIS: report
Stewart Bell, National Post
Published: Tuesday, October 30, 2007
A government committee has concluded that Mohammed Mansour Jabarah was "arbitrarily detained" by CSIS when it helped the admitted al-Qaeda member surrender to FBI agents five years ago.

The Security Intelligence Review Committee also found his right to silence as protected under the Charter of Rights was violated as well as his right to counsel.

"Furthermore, his right to remain in Canada as protected by section 6 of the Charter [mobility rights] was violated," says a report from the committee.



CSIS strayed from its security intelligence mandate into the area of law enforcement," it adds.

The committee, chaired by former Manitoba premier Gary Filmon, made six recommendations, principal among them the need to obtain formal legal advice from the Department of Justice in operations where an individual is questioned in circumstances which may give rise to a detention and in all occasions when it is unclear whether the Service's activity falls within its statutory mandate.

The report's recommendations are not binding on the government, but the findings amount to an unflattering portrayal of the conduct of CSIS during one of its most important counterterrorism cases since 9/11.

There is also speculation the report could pressure the government to order an inquiry into the Jabarah case. If so, it would become just the latest probe into the conduct of Canadian officials during the war on terror.

In a highly unusual move, the committee, known by its acronym SIRC, brought in a retired Supreme Court justice to examine the Jabarah case and provide an opinion on whether CSIS may have violated the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

But Mr. Jabarah is unique among the others who have complained their rights were violated by Canadian counter-terrorism officials: The 25-year-old has admitted he is a trained al-Qaeda terrorist and that he oversaw the attempted bombing of the American embassy in Singapore in 2001.

He not only confessed in detail to both CSIS and the FBI, he also signed a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice in which he agreed to plead guilty and co-operate with FBI agents.

He is now being held at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in Manhattan, apparently angry that he is facing a sentence estimated at more than 20 years. SIRC's concerns revolve around the role CSIS officers played in his surrender.

The report is at odds with past assessments by senior Liberals, who were in power at the time. In a memo to then-prime minister Jean Chrétien in August, 2002, Alex Himelfarb, Clerk of the Pricy Council, wrote that CSIS had acted appropriately.

"Mr. Jabarah voluntarily agreed to return from Oman to Canada. While in Canada he was not under arrest or detention. Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has no powers of arrest. He freely consented to going to the U.S., where he is currently. CSIS helped with the arrangements."

Born in Kuwait, Mr. Jabarah immigrated to Canada with his family in 1994. After graduating from high school in St. Catharines, Ont., in June, 2000, he used his Canadian passport to travel to Afghanistan to train at Osama bin Laden's terror camps.

The chief planner of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheikh Mohamad, later trained Mr. Jabarah personally in Pakistan and sent him to Southeast Asia on Sept. 10, 2001, to bomb Western embassies.

When the embassy bomb plot was discovered by Singaporean security authorities, Mr. Jabarah fled but he was captured weeks later in Oman. CSIS officers accompanied him back to Toronto in April, 2002.

According to classified Canadian government documents, CSIS spent at least five days talking to Mr. Jabarah, who spoke candidly about his involvement in al-Qaeda.

Among his admissions, according to the classified intelligence documents obtained by the National Post, he: fought at the frontlines with the Taliban; formally joined al-Qaeda in 2001 by pledging allegiance to bin Laden in person; and oversaw an operation to bomb U.S. and Israeli embassies in Southeast Asia.

When the RCMP decided it lacked the evidence to lay criminal charges against Mr. Jabarah, CSIS helped arrange his surrender to the Americans, who wanted him for the attempted bombing of their embassy in Singapore.

Mr. Jabarah allegedly went along with the deal because he believed he possessed valuable information about al-Qaeda which he could barter in exchange for a light sentence.

On May 3, 2002, a small plane landed at Toronto's island airport. On board were several U.S. officials offering Mr. Jabarah leniency if he would co-operate. Without consulting a lawyer, he signed the papers and boarded the plane to New York.

U.S. officials say they learned valuable information from their interviews with Mr. Jabarah. Within months of his arrest, the U.S. captured his two bosses, Khalid Sheikh Mohamad, the planner of 9/11, and Hambali, planner of the 2002 Bali bombings.

Information he provided to the FBI is being used by the U.S. military against several detainees at Guantanamo Bay. He has given information to the FBI on at least five "high-value" detainees.

But after his best friend and brother, both trained terrorists, were killed in separate incidents in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, Mr. Jabarah stopped co-operating and at one point even stabbed a U.S. official in the face.

Critics in Canada have long raised questions about the role CSIS played in Mr. Jabarah's surrender, but Ottawa has consistently maintained he went to the U.S. voluntarily and that CSIS acted properly.

The solicitor-general at the time, Lawrence MacAulay, and his successor, Anne McLellan, both declined to launch a review, saying CSIS acted within its mandate in providing assistance to U.S. authorities.

But following repeated requests by the Canadian Civil Liberties Association for a "full and immediate" review of the case, and complaints from his father printed by news outlets, SIRC launched a probe on its own in 2005, and came to a much harsher conclusion.

The SIRC report also criticizes CSIS for the way it has characterized the Ottawa aid group Human Concern International, which once employed the late Toronto-based al-Qaeda kingpin Ahmed "The Canadian" Khadr.

Spy Agency went too far.

So the CSIS violated rights and sent him to certain jail etc. in the US even though he was a Canadian citizen and under Canadian law was liable to no criminal prosecution here. Instead of waiting for some US extradition order the CSIS managed to get him to "voluntarily" go to the US where he confessed to terrorist activity and is waiting to be sentenced. The CSIS could care less that they violated his rights and did not give him legal counsel. Those responsible will go scot free and no one will complain since Jabarah is an admitted terrorist--although who knows how the admission came about. SIRC seems to have a bark but no bite.

Spy agency went too far, watchdog says
CSIS exceeded mandate and violated the rights of Canadian `terrorist,' review panel reports

Oct 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Bronskill
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA–The Canadian Security Intelligence Service violated the constitutional rights of a citizen and strayed beyond its security mandate into the realm of law enforcement, says a federal watchdog.

In its annual report tabled late yesterday, the Security Intelligence Review Committee said Canada's spy agency "arbitrarily detained" Mohammed Mansour Jabarah in contravention of the Charter of Rights.

Jabarah, a Canadian citizen, is an admitted Al Qaeda member and leader of a terrorist cell that plotted to bomb the American and Israeli embassies in Singapore and Manila. He was apprehended in Oman in March 2002 after the plan was derailed.

"Jabarah is a terrorist but also a Canadian citizen, and no matter how despicable his actions, the Charter conferred on him certain fundamental rights," the review committee says in the report to Parliament.

CSIS officials travelled to Oman and arranged for Jabarah's return to Canada and subsequent transfer to the United States on a government-owned aircraft, since he apparently could not be charged with a crime under Canadian law.

He pleaded guilty in the U.S. to a number of terrorism-related offences. Jabarah has not been sentenced and remains behind bars.

The review committee, which reports to Parliament, examined CSIS's investigation against service operational policy and procedures, ministerial direction and applicable Canadian law, including the CSIS Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The committee also obtained legal advice from Gerard LaForest, a former Supreme Court justice and Charter expert.

The report found Jabarah's decisions, made without the benefit of any independent legal advice, resulted in his self-incrimination and surrender to U.S. authorities.

"SIRC's review raised questions regarding CSIS's contention that Jabarah's decisions were made freely and voluntarily."

The committee said a court would also have considered various factors, including: Jabarah's age, his emotional state, whether his fear of the alternatives influenced his return to Canada from Oman, the length of time he spent in the company of CSIS officials while in Canada, and the circumstances surrounding his decision to surrender himself to a foreign jurisdiction.

A CSIS official told the committee Jabarah was not "read his rights" because CSIS isn't a police service. "This response, subsequently confirmed in writing by the service, demonstrates a misunderstanding of the application of the Charter to government representatives carrying out their official duties."

The committee found Jabarah could not be prosecuted for any crime in Canada, since his terrorist activities pre-dated Canada's Anti-terrorism Act. Therefore neither CSIS nor the police had any right to detain him. Based on these and other circumstances, the committee concluded Jabarah was "arbitrarily detained" by CSIS in violation of the Charter.

In addition, his rights to silence, to legal counsel and to remain in Canada were breached, the report says.

The review committee also concluded CSIS "strayed from its security intelligence mandate into the area of law enforcement."

CSIS did not immediately respond to the report.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government fully accepts the review committee's findings.