Politic?

This is a blog dedicated to a personal interpretation of political news of the day. I attempt to be as knowledgeable as possible before commenting and committing my thoughts to a day's communication.

Saturday, July 12, 2014

Justice Prevails, Tragedy is the Family's

Guilty verdict in Misbahuddin Ahmed terror trial (with video)
Misbahuddin Ahmed exits the Elgin St. courthouse after the completion of jury selection in Ottawa, Monday, May 12, 2014.  Mike Carroccetto / Ottawa Citizen


Justice Prevails, Tragedy is the Family's

"I think everyone who was present during the trial knows what kind of man this guy is. He doesn't pose any danger to anyone. He's a good family man."
"But the jury obviously found that for a short period in his life he was misguided. The acquittal on the third (explosives) count proves that they realized that if there was any danger to Canadians, or anyone, he put an abrupt end to it when he seized all the materials that were in the other fellow's possession."
Defence Lawyer Mark Ertel

"Mr. Ahmed is a convicted terrorist. I never enjoy sending people to prison but it is appropriate in this case."
Ontario Superior Court Justice Colin McKinnon
Guilty verdict in Misbahuddin Ahmed terror trial (with video)
 

Misbahuddin Ahmed (right) exits the Elgin St. courthouse with lawyer Mark Ertel after the completion of jury selection in Ottawa, Monday, May 12, 2014. Ahmed was arrested in August 2010 on terrorism charges. His trial starts Wednesday at 10am in courtroom 34. Twelve jurors and two alternates were selected. Mike Carroccetto / Ottawa Citizen NEG# 117049

Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto , Ottawa Citizen

- See more at: http://www.theprovince.com.3s3s.org/News/ottawa/Guilty+verdict+Misbahuddin+Ahmed+terror+trial/10021747/story.html#sthash.VvM2wqxj.dpuf

Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto , Ottawa Citizen

- See more at: http://www.theprovince.com.3s3s.org/News/ottawa/Guilty+verdict+Misbahuddin+Ahmed+terror+trial/10021747/story.html#sthash.SbhIZ7tG.dpuf
Misbahuddin Ahmed, 30 years of age, a former hospital imaging technician, on bail since his arrest in August of 2010, spent 30 minutes with his wife Alya, and their three young daughters. Briefly bidding them adieu. The children were excited and happy to be with their father. Their mother was no doubt distraught because it would be a very long time before she and their father would be together again as an intact family.

That was the trade-off that Misbahudden Ahmed arranged when he decided to ally himself with two other Muslim men in a terrorist conspiracy. All it took was a 'short period in his life' when he exercised free will to align himself with jihad. Mr. Ahmed was judged by a jury of his peers based on the evidence presented at his trial. An earlier trial of another co-conspirator, a doctor from London, Khurram Sher, will reach a judgement by judge alone.

Although Mr. Ahmed pleaded not guilty to three offences, he was found guilty on two counts; conspiring to facilitate a terrorist activity and participating in the activities of a terrorist group. He now faces a federal penitentiary term of a maximum sentence of 10 and 14 years on each count, to be served consecutively. The good news for this man is the most serious charge for which life imprisonment could have resulted; possession of an explosive device, was dismissed.

Mr. Ahmed had forwarded $700 for the purpose of providing weapons and grenades for jihadists, though he claimed the money was meant to charitably support Kurdish orphans. The RCMP's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) discovered a shopping bag containing over 50 circuit boards, foreign-produced instructional videos clarifying bomb-making techniques, analysis of various gun and grenade types and their lethal capacity.

The bag contained as well a radio frequency transmitter, electrical equipment and jihadist literature, inclusive of "40 Quotations Concerning the Merits of Jihad and the Mujahidin." Also contained in the bag were videos of IEDs destroying military vehicles clearly Western in origin, taking place in Iraq or Afghanistan. The bag was originally in possession of a conspirator as yet not taken to trial, but whose trial is now to follow.

That bag ended up in the possession of Mr. Ahmed who claims it was his intention to destroy it. That he had never, despite all clear and cogent evidence that his co-conspirator was a serious jihadist, alerted authorities is a question that his lawyer posited to Mr. Ahmed when he was testifying on his own behalf: "Looking back, I should have", he had responded. Goodness gracious, yes.

Charges had been laid by the RCMP against Mr. Ahmed and his two co-conspirators as a result of a security operation called Project Samosa when the three young men under suspicion related to their activities, were placed under close surveillance. An INSET team of about one hundred officers gathered 70,000 intercepts from the accuseds' homes, car, telephones and computer communications.

The decision to move to arrest the trio was made after the INSET team overheard one of the suspects' plans to remove to Saudi Arabia, where his wife had a job offered to her. Mr. Ahmed was born in Pakistan, raised in Montreal, and as a devout Muslim testified he had publicly opposed the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. But, he said, he opposes violence, abhors terrorist acts, and would never dream of harming Canada or Canadians.

Now he can dream, throughout his tedious period of incarceration, of what life might have been like for him and his family had he never succumbed to the temptation to involve himself in activities which Canadian authorities took to be terrorist in nature and which a jury, hearing the testimony during the period of the trial and assessing the evidence after instruction from Judge McKinnon felt justified in finding him guilty of two charges of terrorist activities.

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