Video shows suspects scoping out Via ‘target’
‘Boom, everything will fall’ if rail cut, court hears accused tell undercover FBI agent
As a Via Rail train passed dangerously close to three men plotting the best way to cause it to careen off the tracks, Raed Jaser allegedly said: “That’s the target.”
Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier are now on trial in a downtown Toronto court for plotting to commit a terrorist act and other terrorism-related offences.
The third man with them on the tracks is undercover FBI agent Tamer el-Noury, who befriended Esseghaier by posing as a wealthy, radical Muslim businessman offering to bankroll the plot. El-Noury is testifying as the Crown’s key witness and has identified Esseghaier and Jaser in secret audio recordings and an aerial surveillance video taken on Sept. 24, 2012.
The video, played for the jury Monday, shows the three men walking on train tracks in broad daylight to scope out the bridge they were allegedly planning to damage using some kind of “high-intensity” blowtorch or “military-grade” laser, court heard.
The alleged end goal: to derail a passenger train and kill more than 50 people in retaliation for Canadian military action in Afghanistan and other countries.
Their destination, the Highland Creek railway bridge in Scarborough, was their second choice of bridge, Crown prosecutor Croft Michaelson said in his opening address to the jury last week. The first was rejected for being too close to residential areas.
The first bridge was also even sturdier than this one, Jaser observed in the recording.
“It is a very solid structure . . . and the one we saw before is even more solid than this,” he said as they discussed which support beams to cut with a blowtorch or laser so the bridge would collapse when the train went over it.
El-Noury suggested also cutting the railway track, causing the train to derail.
“It will skid and when it gets here, there will be no foundation and with its weight, boom, everything will fall down.”
Esseghaier and Jaser would have about two-and-a-half hours to do all the work on the chosen night in December, Esseghaier said.
In an earlier conversation, Esseghaier told el-Noury they are aiming to execute the plan in December, both because it will be Christmastime and because the days will be short, letting them to work longer under cover of darkness.
Jaser, however, did not sound opti- mistic about the plan.
“There are big pieces of metal . . . it cannot be cut by hand,” he says.
He suggested using a military-grade laser but said it is doubtful they could get one.
After a Via Rail train rushed by them as they stood on the bridge, they clambered down a slope to look at the underbelly of the bridge.
Throughout the morning excursion the three men had made no attempt to hide their identities or conceal themselves as they walked on the tracks, coming precariously close to two trains and attracting the attention of pedestrians, joggers and cyclists using the nearby paths.
Aware of being watched, Jaser repeatedly warned Esseghaier to be careful, speak in Arabic and to stop gesturing.
“I will pretend to be the garbage man,” Jaser said, before noticing one man had returned to get a closer look at them.
“You know what, you are losing on this job. . . . The devil sees everything that we can’t see,” an increasingly upset Jaser told Esseghaier.
“If you make a mistake with something you don’t take seriously . . . it’s a sin,” he said. “And if the operation fails . . . just because a guy, me for example, or you or any person, took things lightly . . . that’s a sin.”
When the three men returned to the car, Esseghaier began to write out to-do lists.
Jasper was tasked with buying the equipment, including a video camera, a radar device to test the speed of the trains, and a flag and new clothes for the video they intended to film to take credit for the derailment.
As they worked on the lists, Jaser suddenly said: “There are police over there, brother, but they are just passing by.”
“Put it down,” El-Noury replied. “The police are coming to talk to us.”
The trial continues.