The release of an alleged terrorist training camp video that's tied to a group accused of plotting attacks on Canadian soil is "very concerning'' given the timing of its appearance on the internet, a lawyer for one of the accused said yesterday.
A verdict is expected next Thursday in the case of the first person to go to trial following the arrest of the so-called "Toronto 18'' two years ago, and lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky said the public is seeing "provocative'' images connected to the case without the proper context.
The video shows, among other things, men in camouflage carrying out alleged terrorist training exercises in a rural area during winter, and is featured on an American website. The Nine-Eleven Finding Answers Foundation, which posted the clip, reportedly obtained the video from a British court where it was an exhibit at the trial of Aabid Khan, who was convicted last month of being a terrorist propagandist.
The BBC, in its coverage of the trial, reported that Khan was friends with the alleged ringleader of the Toronto group and that Khan's former wife was Canadian.
"Why, however, it's being released right now, just prior to the decision . . . which is scheduled for next week, is very suspect,'' Chernovsky said. "But I have no idea why it's being released now.
"It just is very concerning that it is being released at this time and without any context.''
The video wasn't submitted as evidence at the trial in Brampton, Ont., nor is there any reason to believe Canadian prosecutors had it in their possession, said Chernovsky, who added he saw the video online for the first time on Thursday.
"This video was never in the hands of the Crown, as far as I know,'' he said.
"If they did, they would have shared it in court. It's informative. They showed other videos that were far less helpful to them.''
The 2 1/2-minute video -- posted at http://www.nefafoundation.org/ -- jumps from daytime scenes in the woods to a nighttime campfire and a van skidding around a darkened Canadian Tire parking lot. Islamic music runs throughout.
Description from the site that leaked the video: "NEFA Exclusive: Video of "Terror Training Camp" in Canada. The NEFA Foundation has obtained exclusive footage of a would-be "terrorist training camp" that took place in a rural section of Canada in 2006. The camp, directed by CSIS confidential informant Mubin Shaikh, included members of the alleged Toronto 18 terror cell, who are accused of conspiring to carry out a large-scale terrorist attack in southern Ontario, including plans for truck bombings and storming local buildings such as the Canadian Parliament and the headquarters of the CSIS. The video features footage of the men receiving instruction on the use of handguns, sniper tactics, and basic calisthenics. Crudely edited by its creators to include nasheed music, the video also shows the men practicing evasive driving maneuvers at night in an abandoned parking lot."
------------------------------------- The prosecution in the trial of some of the young men purportedly pictured in the video has claimed it was shot as a recruiting tool.
But the video's release just days before a decision is handed down in the trial is "concerning", according to Mitchell Chernovsky, a lawyer for one of the accused.
"'I have no idea why it's being released now... It just is very concerning that it is being released at this time and without any context'. The video wasn't submitted as evidence at the trial in Brampton, Ont., nor is there any reason to believe Canadian prosecutors had it in their possession, said Chernovsky, who added he saw the video online for the first time Thursday. "
(Interestingly, AP and other media outlets have claimed the video WAS presented in court as evidence earlier this year - but the defense lawyer's never seen it. Interesting.
----------------------------------- From Toronto's Globe and Mail: "Defence lawyers have argued the camp was so amateurish an exercise that it never rose to the level of terrorist training, and that many of the peripheral attendees were unaware they were being groomed as terrorists by more senior suspects." (Nawwww, ya think?) http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ ... ional/home
---------------------------------- The NEFA site lists as one of it's "Senior Investigators" one EVAN F. KOHLMANN Some background here: "Evan Kohlmann; the Doogie Howser of terrorism? " http://www.spinwatch.org/content/view/4850/8/
The article mentions Kohlmann's ties to freelance "terrorist hunter" and rabid zionist Rita Katz. Her S.I.T.E. Institute claimed to have "discovered" several of the Bin Laden tapes that later turned out to be fake. Katz even had the balls to host her S.I.T.E. website out of the same IP address as MEMRI - the Middle East Media Research Institute - a known Mossad front.
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