TorontoSun

Thursday, November 1, 2001

Terrorist e-trail

Clues to impending danger intercepted from T.O. libraries

By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN

A cellphone call from Toronto to Afghanistan and threatening e-mails sent from local public libraries prompted the FBI's latest terror alert, say Canadian security officials.

Police sources told The Toronto Sun yesterday that the Toronto-to-Afghanistan phone call was intercepted by the RCMP and Canadian Security Establishment as late as last Saturday.

FBI WARNS OF ATTACK

The Canadian intercepts, in addition to those obtained in the U.S., forced the FBI to warn Americans of another imminent terror attack, the sources said.

The threatening call was short and the callers used the same coded messages as ones intercepted by the U.S. National Security Agency.

The Mounties and CSIS said at least two e-mails were intercepted last weekend in which the operatives wrote about a "big event down South."

Police said the e-mails were sent from computers at Toronto public libraries, where Nabil Al-Marabh and suspected al-Qaida terrorist members met regularly during his six years in Canada.

The police sources spoke on condition of anonymity.

The phone call and e-mails were allegedly made by associates of Al-Marabh, a refugee claimant accused of being a lieutenant of Osama bin Laden.

The names of Al-Marabh's associates were uncovered as a result of raids on a downtown copy shop and apartments on Jameson and Woolner Aves. and Agnes St., in Mississauga on Sept. 26.

Officers seized a "motherlode" of evidence from daytimers and telephone and financial logs seized, sources said.

The RCMP placed Al-Marabh's associates under physical and electronic surveillance.

Officers have since obtained Internet accounts from the libraries and examined the hard drives of the computers to find the identity of the e-mail senders.

RCMP Const. Michele Paradis refused to comment on the investigation.

U.S. police said a "handful" of satellite calls were intercepted around the same time as the Canadian ones from bin Laden operatives in Malaysia, Jakarta, Indonesia and Afghanistan.

All the callers used the same coded phrases and talked about a "big event," police said.

The Mounties said a big break in their probe came after the arrest of Al-Marabh, 35, in Chicago for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks. A second man, Hassan Almrei is also detained as a threat to national security.

Meanwhile, a Canadian border alert has been issued for six men arrested in the U.S. last weekend and released by immigration authorities.

U.S. police said the men had photos and descriptions of a nuclear power plant in Florida and the Trans-Alaska pipeline.

U.S. police said the men were in groups of three and suspect they're headed to the Canadian border.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001

Answers

Also, keep an eye on any mainframe computers in your path and question anyone you see messing with them or appearing to do routine maintenance on anything electrical. Repair people, especially those in nondescript uniforms, have become "invisible" to a great many of us, and we can't afford to let that happen right now.

-- Anonymous, November 01, 2001