turdrockfromthesun
Banned
Toronto award violates federal gag order
Security officials discover active high-speed data line at Egyptian terror suspect's closely watched home
COLIN FREEZE
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
December 4, 2007 at 3:56 AM EST
TORONTO — Mahmoud Jaballah has been banned from unsupervised communications with the outside world for nearly a decade, ever since he was accused of relaying messages for al-Qaeda before the deadly 1998 African embassy bombings.
But last month, in a breach of the Egyptian's bail conditions, a City of Toronto program for needy families installed a new high-speed Internet connection in his home.
Court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal different government officials working at cross-purposes.
Since the spring, Mr. Jaballah has been living under strict house arrest, his every move watched by federal agents. After eight years battling for his freedom, he was released from a special prison built for terrorism suspects, but he and his family now face scrutiny at home.
Enlarge Image
In late August, high-school student Afnan Essayyid, one of Mr. Jaballah's six children, qualified for the City of Toronto's Kids@Computers scholarship program, which gives free Internet connections to families on welfare. That same week, federal officials drew up an unprecedented proposal to install 14 closed-circuit video cameras in and around the family home to keep closer tabs on Mr. Jaballah.
A judge who is considering a scaled-down version of the video-camera proposal wants the suspect to meet strict conditions, including that he "not possess, have access to or use, directly or indirectly ... any communication equipment or equipment capable of connecting to the Internet."
Federal agents discovered a high-speed line was active in a phone jack last month after a government inspection of the home, its four computers and fax machine. Family members said they did not know the connection was already installed and that they have not used it.
The family has said it planned to have the connection in a locked computer room that Mr. Jaballah is banned from entering by judicial order. The Kids@Computers hookup was to be online in late November, but the connection showed up in the kitchen two weeks early.
Defence lawyer John Norris calls this a bit of a mystery. He said that since the house has no modem, the connection was useless.
A federal agent has written that he confronted the family and notified the court after the kitchen connection was found. "Mr. Jaballah explained he was unaware of any Internet connection before the site inspection on Nov. 16, 2007," the affidavit states. It adds that Mr. Jaballah said he called Bell about the Sympatico line and was told the account "was initiated by the Kids@Computers scholarship program."
City of Toronto promotional literature filed in the case notes that thousands of Toronto students have used the program: "Anyone who has seen a child use a computer can readily see just how powerful a tool it is - feeding a child's desire to learn, to explore, to become a part of a wide and fascinating world."
Mr. Jaballah visited Pakistan, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey and Germany before claiming refugee status in Canada in the mid-1990s. His travels aroused suspicion, as did dozens of calls to Yemen, Azerbaijan and an al-Qaeda front group in London, all before 224 people were killed in bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The case is highly circumstantial and partly based on secret intelligence under Canada's security-certificate law. Since 1999, Mr. Jaballah has been branded an al-Qaeda-affiliated threat by top federal politicians, even though he's never had a criminal trial. Attempts to deport him to Egypt have been stymied by fears he would be tortured there.
This spring, Madame Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson allowed Mr. Jaballah to go home - providing federal agents kept close tabs on him.
As Mr. Jaballah was nearing release, his wife and teenaged daughter got a letter from the City of Toronto. "Congratulations! Your child meets the criteria for the Kids@Computers Scholarship Project. We have added his/her name to our waiting list," read the letter, sent in February, according to court records.
In August, the teenager completed computer training, paving the way for the installation, scheduled for late November in the locked room.
A City of Toronto spokesman says that the relevant federal department, the Canada Border Services Agency, never told the municipal government about any Internet restrictions on any of the 10,000 families who have used the Kids@Computers program.
Toronto Social Services spokesman Darrin Vermeersch added he wasn't free to speak about specific cases, but added no family has ever mentioned such restrictions.
*****
-Last August, federal officials hired a security consultant to assess how it might install security cameras.
-The plan has been scaled back somewhat over privacy concerns, and female family members say they don't want government spies seeing them walking around without their hijabs and niqabs.
-A judge is now weighing whether the proposed monitoring -- unprecedented in Canada -- will take place for Mr. Jaballah, released to house arrest earlier this year.
Security officials discover active high-speed data line at Egyptian terror suspect's closely watched home
COLIN FREEZE
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
December 4, 2007 at 3:56 AM EST
TORONTO — Mahmoud Jaballah has been banned from unsupervised communications with the outside world for nearly a decade, ever since he was accused of relaying messages for al-Qaeda before the deadly 1998 African embassy bombings.
But last month, in a breach of the Egyptian's bail conditions, a City of Toronto program for needy families installed a new high-speed Internet connection in his home.
Court documents obtained by The Globe and Mail reveal different government officials working at cross-purposes.
Since the spring, Mr. Jaballah has been living under strict house arrest, his every move watched by federal agents. After eight years battling for his freedom, he was released from a special prison built for terrorism suspects, but he and his family now face scrutiny at home.
Enlarge Image
In late August, high-school student Afnan Essayyid, one of Mr. Jaballah's six children, qualified for the City of Toronto's Kids@Computers scholarship program, which gives free Internet connections to families on welfare. That same week, federal officials drew up an unprecedented proposal to install 14 closed-circuit video cameras in and around the family home to keep closer tabs on Mr. Jaballah.
A judge who is considering a scaled-down version of the video-camera proposal wants the suspect to meet strict conditions, including that he "not possess, have access to or use, directly or indirectly ... any communication equipment or equipment capable of connecting to the Internet."
Federal agents discovered a high-speed line was active in a phone jack last month after a government inspection of the home, its four computers and fax machine. Family members said they did not know the connection was already installed and that they have not used it.
The family has said it planned to have the connection in a locked computer room that Mr. Jaballah is banned from entering by judicial order. The Kids@Computers hookup was to be online in late November, but the connection showed up in the kitchen two weeks early.
Defence lawyer John Norris calls this a bit of a mystery. He said that since the house has no modem, the connection was useless.
A federal agent has written that he confronted the family and notified the court after the kitchen connection was found. "Mr. Jaballah explained he was unaware of any Internet connection before the site inspection on Nov. 16, 2007," the affidavit states. It adds that Mr. Jaballah said he called Bell about the Sympatico line and was told the account "was initiated by the Kids@Computers scholarship program."
City of Toronto promotional literature filed in the case notes that thousands of Toronto students have used the program: "Anyone who has seen a child use a computer can readily see just how powerful a tool it is - feeding a child's desire to learn, to explore, to become a part of a wide and fascinating world."
Mr. Jaballah visited Pakistan, Sudan, Azerbaijan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Turkey and Germany before claiming refugee status in Canada in the mid-1990s. His travels aroused suspicion, as did dozens of calls to Yemen, Azerbaijan and an al-Qaeda front group in London, all before 224 people were killed in bombings at U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The case is highly circumstantial and partly based on secret intelligence under Canada's security-certificate law. Since 1999, Mr. Jaballah has been branded an al-Qaeda-affiliated threat by top federal politicians, even though he's never had a criminal trial. Attempts to deport him to Egypt have been stymied by fears he would be tortured there.
This spring, Madame Justice Carolyn Layden-Stevenson allowed Mr. Jaballah to go home - providing federal agents kept close tabs on him.
As Mr. Jaballah was nearing release, his wife and teenaged daughter got a letter from the City of Toronto. "Congratulations! Your child meets the criteria for the Kids@Computers Scholarship Project. We have added his/her name to our waiting list," read the letter, sent in February, according to court records.
In August, the teenager completed computer training, paving the way for the installation, scheduled for late November in the locked room.
A City of Toronto spokesman says that the relevant federal department, the Canada Border Services Agency, never told the municipal government about any Internet restrictions on any of the 10,000 families who have used the Kids@Computers program.
Toronto Social Services spokesman Darrin Vermeersch added he wasn't free to speak about specific cases, but added no family has ever mentioned such restrictions.
*****
-Last August, federal officials hired a security consultant to assess how it might install security cameras.
-The plan has been scaled back somewhat over privacy concerns, and female family members say they don't want government spies seeing them walking around without their hijabs and niqabs.
-A judge is now weighing whether the proposed monitoring -- unprecedented in Canada -- will take place for Mr. Jaballah, released to house arrest earlier this year.