In His Own Words

"He can like kill possibly a hundred or two hundred soldiers directly. It could be something very beautiful."
"[Better the plot to poison Canadian military personnel in a mess hall than a shooting because if] you grab a pistol and start shooting, they'll shoot you back and you die."
"We're working on the other idea. I can probably tell you in case you can help us somehow."
"This operation, it's just the beginning. If you [kuffar] don't get out from our land we will do more and more and it will be, God willing, very good for us."
"I warned our brother from Palestine. I told him to be very careful. The bridge should not be over water ... because if it [the train] falls in the water, they'll all survive."
"[They are] killing Muslims in our homeland. Why we don't kill them in their homeland?"
"We cannot say that they are are civilian. No, they are participating in the war against our brothers."
Chiheb Esseghaier, Tunisian, former PhD student, Montreal

Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two men accused of plotting a terror attack on a Via Rail train, is led off a plane by an RCMP officer at Buttonville Airport just north of Toronto in April 2013. Chris Young / THE CANADIAN PRESS

The goal of Raed Jaser who arrived in Canada in 1993 in his teen years was to assassinate Canadian leaders, prominent Jews or "Zionists"; not necessarily to attack a train that would result merely in the deaths of "a few sheep". His idea was to hire a sniper, or alternately himself learn to shoot a sniper rifle and to assassinate Canadian leaders; accessible "because they feel safe". So Raed Jaser and his partner in terror, Chiheb Esseghaier, didn't exactly see eye-to-eye, other than they both were committed to jihad.

"We don't want the sheep" Mr. Jaser informed an undercover agent, "We want the wolf. We can get the wolf, brother. We can get the wolf." As for the plot, not so exciting, according to Mr. Jaser for in his opinion "it was a lot of work to kill only 50 or 60 people". His idea of success was to "create a bigger impact, by killing other targets, like Jews, with a sniper rifle." What is this fixation with slaughtering Jews, among Islamists? Well, taking their cue from the Prophet Mohammad.

Accused of planning a foreign-directed plot to derail a Via passenger train en route between Toronto and New York, the two unlikely allies plotted to succeed in performing a terrorist act that would extract maximum pain in the numbers of people killed, should all go according to plan: "God willing". God, it would appear, was unwilling. Their little cell had been infiltrated by an undercover agent from a similar ethnic and religious background who like them spoke Arabic, but who, unlike them, was no psychopath.

On one occasion when the two men were busy examining tracks and the Highland Creek rail bridge in Scarborough, they were approached by police curious about what they were doing, and who asked for IDs. That's when Mr. Jaser felt their plan had been compromised and informed Mr. Esseghaier he preferred to ditch the train plot. "It would make more sense and be easier to do, to kill the expensive Jews, the Zionist". He spoke of how easy it could be to approach "powerful and wealthy members" of the Canadian Jewish community.

A hours-long shared drive when an undercover FBI agent drove with Chiheb Esseghaier to Toronto was when the jihadist relieved himself of many statements fully trusting his companion, hoping he could provide help. He spoke of his overseas mujahedeen training and the leader he knew there as "The Responsible One" operating a "sleeper cell" in the U.S. "He gave me many ideas", confided Mr. Esseghaier; one involving a Muslim cook to kill Canadian soldiers by infiltrating a military base and poisoning food.

When he came across hotel chef at a local mosque he described the plot, but the chef was unresponsive and would not take his further calls. Another plot involved "the Palestinian Brother" and he described how they planned to cut a hole in a southern Ontario rail bridge to send a commuter train crashing below. When dark fell they would climb the bridge and use pneumatic drills to hack through the tracks leaving a gap sufficiently large for the speeding train to fall through.

The trial proceeds.