...thought he could get away with his crimes. It feels good to read this kind of news:
EDMONTON - A “surprised” Edmonton man accused of helping a terrorist network kill five Americans in a 2009 suicide bombing in Iraq made his first court appearance Thursday.
Sayfildin Tahir-Sharif, 38, looked around the Court of Queen’s Bench courtroom prior to the brief appearance, but all he saw was a horde of reporters staring at him.
The alleged terrorist – a short dark-haired man with a moustache, goatee and soul patch – was ordered brought back to court next Thursday for a possible bail hearing.
Defence lawyer Bob Aloneissi said Tahir-Sharif lives and works in Edmonton and has a wife and children. He said his client was “surprised” by his arrest and charges, which Aloneissi described as “probably the most serious charges you can face” and rare for Edmonton.
“He definitely had some reaction there,” said Aloneissi, who didn’t want to reveal personal details about Tahir-Sharif.
The lawyer said he doesn’t expect the extradition process to start for at least six months and will look into applying for bail for Tahir-Sharif.
The Iraq-born man, who U.S. authorities say also goes by the name Faruq Khalil Muhammad Isa, was arrested around 9 a.m. Wednesday in downtown Edmonton, according to RCMP spokesman Sgt. Patrick Webb.
“It was without incident and conducted by RCMP members,” said Webb. “And they were arresting in support of the FBI investigation into a suicide bombing in Iraq in April 2009.”
As well as allegedly helping in the deadly terrorist attack, U.S. officials also allege Tahir-Sharif wanted to conduct a suicide bombing himself, and told his mother “his greatest wish was to die a martyr and be greeted by 70 virgins in paradise.”
The U.S. Department of Justice said Tahir-Sharif was charged with conspiring to kill Americans abroad and providing material support to a terrorist conspiracy.
Tahir-Sharif “is charged in connection with his support for a multinational terrorist network that conducted multiple suicide bombings in Iraq and that is responsible for the deaths of five American soldiers,” said the justice department in a press release.
The soldiers were killed April 10, 2009, when “a Tunisian jihadist ... drove a truck laden with explosives to the gate of the United States Military's Forward Operating Base Marez in Mosul, Iraq.”
14 comments :
"Sharif is Kurdish and was born in Iraq. He came to Canada in 1993, first living in Toronto for a short time before moving to Edmonton where he lives with his wife and children, Aloneissi said."
Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/edmonton/story/2011/01/20/edmonton-terror-suspect-sharif-court.html#ixzz1BbgtUCFo
what im wondering is where are all those trigger happy american soldiers who have killed innocent people?
You should see testimony of the American soldiers in Iraq, how they killed countless innocent Iraqis and admitted that this happens very often.
so how come they are not being arrested?
Sept 2010: "A US soldier already facing murder charges for allegedly killing Afghan civilians is also linked to the 2004 deaths of several unarmed Iraqi soldiers."
oh wow 1 soldier. I say try 150,000 of them, they all are war criminals who have no right to be in Iraq and to occupy Iraq
“Did he send money? Did he actually help to train someone? These are things we don’t know the answers to. He might have told his mother that he wanted to die a martyr and be greeted by virgins, but that’s not a crime. It’s a world view — maybe a despicable one, but expressing a view is not a crime in this country.”
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/shocked+there+extremists+Canada+Expert/4140479/story.html#ixzz1BcTF3cEd
I'm finding it difficult to understand because he's a Kurd. In general, Iraqi Kurds are more pro-American than Canadians.
Youre having a hard time understanding because you are brainwashed into thinking the occupation of Iraq is actually a "liberation". lol
Ethnicity (ex being Kurdish) does not have anything to do with reason. You don't have to support saddam to be against the occupation of Iraq
It was The Liberation.
It was a liberation for most Iraqi Shia and Kurds.
Jan 2007: 'Specialist Jotyar K. Tile, now in his mid-thirties, left northern Iraq with his family eighteen years ago after being subjected to the constant terror of the Saddam Hussein regime. Specialist Tile was quoted in a 25th Infantry Division public affairs article as saying, "If we had stayed one more day we would not have made it out alive; they were using chemicals against us and destroying our villages."
He went on to say that he and his family had suffered under Saddam's campaign against the Kurds for years: "My father was a hard-headed and proud Kurd and did not want to leave our home. We were the last family to leave Qumri."
Specialist Tile also recounted one of the methods used by Saddam to indoctrinate Iraqi youth. He is quoted as saying, "I remember every Friday we had to dress up and wear army clothes to school and march around and raise the flag and act like soldiers. Saddam demanded we do this from about age 5 and up." '
Naive? It was a liberation for most Shia and Kurds. I don't expect you to understand, because you are likely Sunni 3arab jarab. Clueless in Canada. LOL
Most Iraqi Shia and Kurds have a very different experience under Saddam. 2003 was a liberation for them. This is their perspective. Perhaps it is you and your fellow 3arab jarab who should grow up and understand that perspective.
I wrote The Liberation in Jan 2008: "Last weekend I visited my relatives in Virginia. Their large family spent four miserable years in one of Saddam's jails because one of their older sons, who was forced to fight against Iran, decided to defect. I wrote about their story in my first post. Their son Rasool fled Iraq in 1991 and moved to Germany. His brother Haider joined him a few years later. The parents left Iraq in 1992 and moved to the Washington, DC, area to live with their oldest son, who left Iraq in the 70s. Their two remaining sons left Iraq in 2003 and moved to Virginia. They worked hard, saved money and now own a small restaurant. Rasool and Haider spent the Christmas break in the US, so I decided to visit them for a weekend. I had not seen Haider since 1980, before he was imprisoned. I was 11 years old, and he was 10. When I saw him last weekend, we didn't recognize each other. We talked a lot about Iraq and the war. Rasool and Haider spent a month in Iraq in 2004 - they helped rebuild their relatives' home, which was damaged by US bombing in 2003 (nobody was injured during the bombing). Rasool saw some US soldiers mistreating Iraqis - he described an incident in which an American soldier threw an Iraqi on the ground and and stepped on his head - it was not clear what the Iraqi had done wrong. This incident and reports of rude behavior and theft during the searches of homes left Rasool with a negative image of the US military, but they all agree that the US invasion and occupation was necessary and ultimately good for Iraq. In fact they do not call it an invasion - they call it a liberation."
For most Sunni Arabs and Christians in Iraq it was not a liberation, sadly.
When they do process their own troops for war crimes, they give them weak sentences so it's more of an insult than anything else. Some of the Abu Ghrayb crowd were sentenced to 0.5 years detention.
'Edmonton's small and tight-knit Kurdish community is reacting with shock and anger to the suggestion that Sayfildin Tahir-Sharif, the Iraqi-Canadian man arrested by RCMP Wednesday on suspicion of involvement in a terrorist cell, is of Kurdish descent.
Edmonton poet and author Jalal Barzanji is the president of the Kurdish Canadian Friendship Association and a community outreach worker.
"I've contacted every individual in the community. Nobody knows him at all," said Barzanji. "Nobody even knows his name. If any Kurd moves to Edmonton, we know about it, because we're contacted to help them, and no one knows him. Nobody has any information about him."
Barzanji said he's also talked to Edmontonians who come from all over Iraq, who are equally puzzled.
"We have 1,500 Iraqis here, and nobody knows him."
Tahir-Sharif — who U.S. authorities allege is also known by several other names, including Faruq Khalil Muhammad 'Isa — is accused of conspiracy to murder U.S. nationals and providing material support to terrorists, including Tunisian suicide bombers who killed American soldiers in Iraq.
Barzanji said his own Kurdish community is upset and angry to be associated in any way with allegations of terrorism, especially because so many local Kurds opposed Saddam Hussein and suffered under his regime.'
Read more: http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Edmonton+based+Iraqi+terror+suspect+local+Kurds/4147522/story.html#ixzz1BjzujFEM
'If there was one terrorist plying his trade in Edmonton, there are likely more where he came from, said a local criminologist.
"Terrorist cells typically have four to seven people in them," said Bill Pitt, a former Mountie who now teaches at Grant MacEwan University.
Pitt said CSIS suspects every major city in Canada likely has a couple of cells working for a variety of terrorist causes around the world.
After the RCMP arrested Sayfildin Tahir-Sharif earlier this week on suspicion of orchestrating deadly suicide bombings in Iraq in 2009, they were quick to say the accused posed no threat to anyone in Edmonton.
The FBI alleges that Tahir-Sharif, a Kurd who came to Canada from Iraq in 1993, did most of his work online, coordinating from his north Edmonton apartment an operation involving a group of Tunisian suicide bombers and accomplices in Iraq.
They accuse him of quarterbacking an attack in the northern Iraqi city of Marez that claimed the lives of five U.S. soldiers and left dozens more injured.
Tahir-Sharif was quietly arrested Wednesday morning at his home.
Pitt said most terrorist activity uncovered in Canada involves raising money here for operations overseas. For example, a small number of Sikhs in the Vancouver area are suspected of financing much of the Khalistan separatist movement in northwestern India. Radicals within Toronto's Tamil community allegedly did the same for the Tamil Tigers in Sri Lanka.
He said in some cases, extremists will infiltrate legitimate charitable groups and skim money from them, then launder the cash through shady overseas banks in places like Cyprus or Russia.
A former senior CSIS official calls Canada's immigration system a "disaster" that allows radicals and extremists from around the world to set up shop here.'
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