Toronto 18 ringleader confesses to 9/11-style bomb plot
Only one man knew all the details of a deadly explosives plot designed to cripple the economy and unleash mass carnage, terror and destruction in downtown Toronto.
That was Zakaria Amara.
On Thursday, the 24-year-old Mississauga man, regarded as one of the linchpins of the so-called Toronto 18, pleaded guilty in a Brampton court.
It was Amara who built the remote-controlled detonators by hand and made numerous treks to a local library to research ways to procure ammonium nitrate.
And he mustered $4,000 in cash to pay for three tonnes of the fertilizer, earmarked for truck bombs.
Members of the Toronto 18 planned to use three U-Haul vans filled with fertilizer bombs. One parked outside the Toronto Stock Exchange would carry at least two tonnes, enough to bring down the building and three surrounding blocks. Another truck would be parked near the Front St. offices of Canada's spy agency. Glass would shatter into the streets, cars would flip and roads would be torn apart.
And the third bomb would go off at a military base somewhere along Highway 401, between Toronto and Ottawa. To maximize the destruction, Amara wanted to place metal chips inside the bombs.
Amara bragged that just one of the three bombs would be comparable with the 2003 bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which killed 35 people and wounded more than 200.
And he was emphatic that the attack, which his right-hand man dubbed the Battle of Toronto, would be bigger than the London subway bombing of 2005, which killed 56 people and injured 700.
If they got their act together, maybe they could launch their attack on Sept. 11, 2006.
"It's gonna start kicking ass," Amara told his second in command, three weeks before his June 2006 arrest during a massive police sweep that netted 14 men and four youths. "It's gonna be kicking ass like never before."
Amara's confession in the landmark case is a major coup for prosecutors at the helm of one of Canada's largest terror trials.
With his mother and wife looking on, Amara pleaded guilty to participating in the activity of a terrorist group and intending to cause an explosion that was likely to cause serious bodily harm, death or damage to property.
According to an agreed statement of facts, Amara recruited people to join the group, helped organize and lead a terrorist training camp, created a few remote-controlled detonators and purchased three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer destined for truck bombs.
To understand the blast effects, prosecutors told Superior Court Justice Bruce Durno, the RCMP Explosives Disposal Unit conducted a test with a single tonne of the fertilizer in September 2008. A 2,230 kilogram steel shipping container about 20 metres from the bomb site tumbled 360 degrees and was extensively damaged.
Investigators began homing in on Amara in 2005 and built up an extensive case against him that included surveillance video, electronic intercepts and a surreptitious search of his home. Also key to the case was evidence from two police agents who infiltrated the group.
In December 2005, Amara helped organize a jihadi training camp in Washago, Ont., which was attended by police agent Mubin Shaikh.
Potential recruits, from Scarborough and Mississauga, played paintball games, ran obstacle courses and underwent firearms training.
Amara videotaped a co-accused delivering a speech urging attendees to wage war on the West.
By February 2006, a car probe captured Amara saying he had built the "first radio frequency remote-control detonator."
Weeks later, he was observed by police using a library computer to research ammonium nitrate, nitric acid and rocket fuel.
By the end of March, there was a rift between Amara and the other alleged ringleader, whose name is protected by a publication ban because he is awaiting trial.
Amara continued with the bomb plot. A second police agent, Shaher Elsohemy, infiltrated the group in April 2006, saying he could help Amara obtain chemicals.
After months of fine-tuning his "devices," Amara showed the agent a wired circuit board and explained it could be called from anywhere to set off an explosion.
In May, police conducted a surreptitious search of Amara's home and found two circuit boards attached to battery packs and a bomb manual, which included handwritten lists of chemicals and supplies.
On June 2, Amara paid the agent for the fertilizer and assured him two of his men awaited delivery at a Newmarket warehouse.
After his arrest, police searched Amara's home and car. Among other things, they found jihadi documents, satellite photographs of the Parliament buildings and maps of roads around Parliament Hill, and a video of roadside bombings and the execution of western soldiers.
They also found a memory stick with a message by Amara for his co-accused.
"It seems like everything is going to happen near the end of September," Amara says in the message, which was played in court. "I don't think I have anything else to say except `God willing.'"
Lawyers return to court Oct 20 to set a date for a sentencing hearing.
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/article ... -bomb-plot
