Ottawa terror informant in hiding
N.B.-born convert in witness protection
The terrorism charges against three suspected members of an ISIS network in Ottawa include one count alleging that Khadar Khalib had counselled a man named Abdullah Milton to “participate in or contribute to” the activities of a terrorist group.
But Mr. Milton is not among those charged in Project Servant, the two-year investigation by the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team that disrupted what police called “an organized network associated with ISIS.” So who is he? “Right now Abdullah is in witness protection,” his father, David Milton, said by phone Wednesday from New Brunswick, adding his son was upset his name had been revealed. Asked if Abdullah was a police informant he replied: “Yes, he was.”
At the press conference Tuesday announcing the charges against Mr. Khalib, John Maguire and accused ISIS facilitator and financier Awso Peshdary, police made no mention of an undercover informant.
The RCMP said only that “multiple investigative techniques” had been used and that the evidence included communications “between the accused and other unindicted associates.”
But it would not be surprising if police had used an informant.
The investigation into the Toronto 18 terror group, broken up in 2006, involved two informants, both members of the Muslim community who cooperated with CSIS and RCMP, and testified as witnesses.
While police tend to use undercover officers, intelligence agencies prefer recruiting insiders — what former CSIS counter-terrorism chief Ray Boisvert called the “Mubin Shaikh model,” after the outspoken informant in the Toronto 18 case.
In that instance, Mr. Shaikh started out as a CSIS informant but then later began working for the RCMP when the conspiracy developed and a criminal investigation was launched. Mr. Shaikh told his story in the recently released book Undercover Jihadi.
“In the intelligence world, especially MI5, CSIS, [Australia’s] ASIO, it’s a tradition of recruiting sources,” said Mr. Boisvert, who now heads the consulting firm I-Sec Integrated Strategies. “Our view is you’ll get a far better result.”
Still, several recent Canadian terrorism cases have relied on police officers posing as extremists. An FBI undercover officer who infiltrated an alleged plot to derail a passenger train in southern Ontario is testifying this week in a Toronto courtroom.
In 2010, an undercover officer posing as a wannabe terrorist helped bring charges against Toronto security guard Mohamed Hersi, who was sentenced to 10 years last July for attempting to join the Somali terror group Al Shabab.
From New Brunswick, Mr. Milton converted to Islam about a decade ago and was working at a paintball firm outside Ottawa when officials took an interest in him, possibly because of the way he looked, his uncle, Gary Gallant, said.
“He was an intent Wahhabi guy,” said one community member who knew him, referring to the strict Saudi brand of Islam. On Facebook, he would sometimes post on Bilal Philips, a Saudi-trained Canadian imam who has been deported from several countries over security concerns he denies.
He was also part of a social circle at Algonquin College, where Messrs. Peshdary, Khalib and Maguire could sometimes be found. “He was always very critical of terrorism, but he followed a very narrow-minded view of what Islam is.”
Then he dropped out sight.
In March, Mr. Khalib left for Syria, RCMP said. Since the counselling charge refers to crimes he allegedly committed between April 1 and Dec. 7, he may have stayed in touch with Mr. Milton over the Internet.
“The latest I heard was he was working for CSIS. That’s what I heard from his father when they came over for Christmas,” Mr. Gallant said. “If that’s the case, that’s why we didn’t know much about it,” he added. “To me, from my knowledge, he’s very, very harmless.”
The latest charges followed what the RCMP called an “extensive and complex” investigation. Mr. Peshdary appeared in court Wednesday and was ordered not to communicate with his co-accused and three other Ottawa men arrested last month following a “spinoff” investigation: twins Carlos and Ashton Larmond, both 24, and Suliman Mohamed, 21. He is to return to court on Feb. 9.
Meanwhile, Mr. Maguire left Canada in late 2012 and was reported to have died in Syria last month, after appearing in an incendiary video calling for terrorist attacks in Canada. Police said his death remains unconfirmed. Mr. Khalib’s whereabouts were also unknown. Both were to be placed on the Interpol wanted list.
“Our evidence shows that these individuals conspired to participate in or contribute to the activity of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria, also known as ISIS,” Assistant Commissioner James Malizia told reporters at RCMP headquarters in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Mr. Peshdary, 25, is an Iraqiborn Canadian investigated by CSIS in 2009 after he allegedly agreed to help a trained alQaida member recruit extremists to conduct attacks in the West. Although he was arrested in 2010 following an RCMP probe called Project Samosa, he was quickly released.
Since then he has become an outspoken activist, photographed last March speaking at Islam Awareness Week at Algonquin College and wearing an Algonquin College Muslim Students’ Association T-shirt. The group did not respond to interview requests.
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