Canadian Jihad Update: “Canada terror suspect charges made public,” from AP:
BRAMPTON, Ontario – At least one member of a group of terror suspects plotted to storm Canada’s parliament and behead officials, including the prime minister, if Muslim prisoners in Canada and Afghanistan were not released, according to charges made public Tuesday.
Authorities also alleged that Steven Vikash Chand plotted to take over media outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
“There’s an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada,” attorney Gary Batasar said. “It’s a very serious allegation. My client has said nothing about that.”
Chand is a 25-year-old restaurant worker from Toronto. Charges were expected to be read against at least some of the other suspects Tuesday….
Chand is also known as Abdul Shakur.
Police expect more arrests and intelligence officers are probing possible ties between the Canadian suspects “” 12 men and five teenagers “” and Islamic terror cells in six nations, including the United States….
A Muslim leader who knew the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, told The Associated Press that his sermons at a local mosque were “filled with hate” against Canada….
But Faheem Bukhari, a director of the Mississauga Muslim Community Center, said Jamal, the oldest suspect, gave hateful, intolerant sermons to young Muslims at a storefront mosque in Mississauga, a city near Toronto where six of the suspects lived.
“These youth were very fun-loving guys, soccer-loving guys, and then all of sudden they were not associating with guys they used to,” Bukhari said, referring to the younger suspects.
“People around him knew he was very extreme,” Bukhari said, adding that Jamal once told “the audience that the Canadian Forces were going to Afghanistan to rape women.”…
Three of them “” Fahim Ahmad, 21, Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24 “” also are charged with importing weapons and ammunition for the purpose of terrorist activity.