Terrorism in Canada

**American Patriot** · October 24th, 2014, 15:23

Ottawa shooter read posts by ISIS convert calling for ‘jihad in Canada’

Stewart Bell | October 23, 2014 | Last Updated: Oct 23 9:07 PM ET
More from Stewart Bell | @StewartBellNP

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau read jihadists Twitter posts

Before he shot a reservist at the national war memorial and stormed the Parliament Buildings, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau had been reading the online posts of a Canadian jihadist who recently urged his followers to “carry out attacks on Canada,” according to sources.
As investigators try to identify what motivated the 32-year-old gunman, his online profile has turned up a link to Abu Khalid Al Kanadi, a Muslim convert and Islamic State of Iraq and Al-Sham member who has been urging attacks in Canada.

The two were not necessarily communicating directly with one other, but Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was reading the repeated online incitement that Al-Kanadi posted on Twitter — until his account was suspended on Wednesday.
“Canada to send 10 aircraft and 600 soldiers joining the crusade against the Muslims,” Al Kanadi, who had worked in Alberta before departing for Syria, wrote on Oct. 7. “TRUE CDN MUSLIMS Fulfill your duty of jihad in Canada.”
RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson told reporters on Thursday that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau, whom he said may have been a dual Libyan-Canadian citizen, had lived in Montreal, Calgary and Vancouver before arriving in the capital three weeks ago.
“We have learned through the current investigation that this individual has been in Ottawa since at least Oct. 2nd, 2014, that he was in town to deal with a passport issue but that he was hoping to leave for Syria,” the commissioner said.
His passport application was held up after the RCMP was contacted to carry out background checks on the small time criminal, who had convictions for drugs and violence. “The RCMP did not possess information at that time that would reveal any national security-related criminality,” Comm. Paulson said.
Police had only “uncorroborated information” that he was associated with “an individual who is known to us.” Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau was not one of the 90 “high risk travelers” under RCMP investigation. “According to some accounts, he was an individual who may have held extremist beliefs.”
Using a car he bought Tuesday, Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau drove to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier the next morning and fatally shot Cpl. Nathan Cirillo. He then drove to the Parliament Buildings, where he was killed by security staff after running into Centre Block with a shotgun.

The commissioner said police had found no information linking Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau to Martin Rouleau, who on Monday ran down two Canadian Forces members with his car in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, Que., before he was shot dead by police.
Mr. Rouleau was a follower of ISIS and had been arrested while attempting to leave for Turkey, possibly to join the terrorist group. Both men were recent Muslim converts and followers of online ISIS propaganda. “The investigation is ongoing and will rapidly determine if Zehaf-Bibeau received any support in the planning of his attack,” said Comm. Paulson.
Meanwhile, citing U.S. law enforcement sources, CNN reported that Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau had ties to several Canadian jihadists, including Hasibullah Yusufzai, a Burnaby, B.C., man charged with terrorism for joining armed Islamists in Syria. Burnaby’s Masjid al-Salaam, the mosque attended by both Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau and Mr. Yusufzai, has called a press conference for Friday morning.
The link to Al-Kanadi may offer clues for investigators about Mr. Zehaf-Bibeau’s mindset. An ardent extremist, Al-Kanadi has claimed in online posts that he converted to Islam in 2010. He recently wrote that it would be acceptable to kill his own family members because they are not Muslims.
“God willing sharia [Islamic law] will eventually be applied in the West … in Canada,” he wrote. “Islam will dominate the world.” He has also defended ISIS beheadings, condemned democracy, and said ISIS will fly its flag over the White House.
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On the social media site Ask.FM, he described himself as a “Caucasian white” born in Canada. When he left for Syria, his parents “reacted mainly with confusion, not understanding why someone would leave Canada to go to a land of war,” he wrote.
He uses the website, which allows followers to ask anonymous questions, to give advice to would-be jihadists, warning them not to tell anyone their plans and to avoid watching jihadi videos. Despite being only a recent convert, he berates Muslims for not joining ISIS in Syria. “Terrorism is a commandment from Allah,” he wrote.
But after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that Canada would be sending military advisers and CF-18 fighters to combat ISIS, he ramped up his incitement campaign.
“Canadians choose their policy makers. They then send their armies to kill Muslims. Allah has made it permissible to retaliate in a like manner. If you don’t support your government, leave your country. Better yet, enter Islam and come to the Islamic State.”
National Post
• Email: sbell@nationalpost.com | Twitter: StewartBellNP

**American Patriot** · October 24th, 2014, 15:28

devil can have him. Looks like the devil caught up to him now

Canadian Parliament gunman: He said devil was after him

Matt Pearce and Raja Abdulrahim, Los Angeles Times (TNS) 10:54 a.m. EDT October 24, 2014

Though Zehaf-Bibeau’s motives remain unclear, some details are beginning to emerge about the man involved in the assault that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled a terrorist attack

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Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the 32-year-old gunman believed to have killed a Canadian soldier and then stormed the country’s Parliament on Wednesday, reportedly had a lengthy criminal record and drug problems.
Police investigators were told that he may have held extremist Islamist beliefs and wanted to go to Syria.
He frequently spoke of devils and demons, according to a friend, who said he sometimes behaved erratically.
Though Zehaf-Bibeau’s motives remain unclear, some details are beginning to emerge about the man involved in the assault that Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper labeled a terrorist attack — the second this week.
Police officials said Thursday that Zehaf-Bibeau was born in Montreal, had lived in Calgary and Vancouver, and may also have held Libyan citizenship. He had been in Ottawa since at least Oct. 2, hoping to get a passport to travel to Syria, they said.
Investigators have found no link between Zehaf-Bibeau and the man described as a radicalized Muslim who ran down two Canadian soldiers with his car Monday in Quebec, killing one of them, before being shot to death by police. But they did find one connection that raised questions.
“This individual’s e-mail was found in the hard drive of someone who we’ve charged with a terrorist-related offense,” Bob Paulson, commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), said at a Thursday news conference. “But what does that mean? We need to understand what that means.”
Here is what we know so far.
‘He must have been mentally ill’
Dave Bathurst told the Globe and Mail newspaper that he met Zehaf-Bibeau at a Burnaby, British Columbia, mosque about three years ago and learned that he had grown up in eastern Canada and also spent time in Libya.
Bathurst said Zehaf-Bibeau did not appear to have extremist views, but he thought he might have had mental health issues.
“We were having a conversation in a kitchen, and I don’t know how he worded it: He said the devil is after him,” Bathurst was quoted as saying, adding that such talk of devils and demons was common with Zehaf-Bibeau. “I think he must have been mentally ill.”
Bathurst said Zehaf-Bibeau had been asked not to attend prayers at the mosque because of his “erratic” behavior.
When Bathurst last saw Zehaf-Bibeau six weeks ago, the latter spoke of wanting to go to Libya to study, Bathurst told the paper.
He added that Zehaf-Bibeau knew Hasibullah Yusufzai, a British Columbia man who was charged in July with traveling to Syria with the intent to join a terrorist group.
More recently, Zehaf-Bibeau had been staying at a homeless shelter in Ottawa, where a volunteer said he was battling a drug addiction with prayer and constantly carried a Koran.
“I knew him for two weeks,” Abdel Kareem Abubakir told the the Globe and Mail. “I noticed some problems with him, some issues with faith. He was very pious. I tried to discuss with him these issues. But he seemed very extreme.”
A shelter resident, Lloyd Maxwell, told the Associated Press that Zehaf-Bibeau had come to Ottawa to get a passport.
“He didn’t get it, and that made him very agitated,” Maxwell told the AP, adding that when he suggested that Zehaf-Bibeau might be on a no-fly list, “he kind of looked at me funny, and he walked away.”
Paulson said Thursday that he thought the passport was “central to what was driving him.” When Zehaf-Bibeau applied for the document, officials thought he wanted to go to Libya. But after Wednesday’s shooting, investigators learned from his mother that he wanted to go to Syria.
A Canadian bureaucrat and a Libyan rebel?
Zehaf-Bibeau’s mother, Susan Bibeau, is a senior official at the Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada. She offered a tearful apology for her son’s actions in a phone interview with the AP.
“Can you ever explain something like this?” she said. “We are sorry.”
The news agency also received an e-mail from Bibeau and her husband in which she said she had little insight to offer about her son’s actions.
“I, his mother, spoke with him last week over lunch, I had not seen him for over five years before that,” the e-mail said.
Canadian media reported that Zehaf-Bibeau’s father is a businessman, Bulgasem Zehaf, who may have fought in Libya’s 2011 civil war against the country’s longtime dictator, Moammar Kadafi.
An August 2011 report from Libya by the Washington Times quoted a “Bulgasem Zahaf” who recently returned to Montreal from Libya after spending more than a month in detention.
The man told the Times that he had been arrested in his native city of Zawiya.
“Mr. Zahaf said the main prison in the city was overflowing with inmates who were forced to live in subhuman conditions and routinely tortured by their captors,” the paper reported.
Lengthy arrest record
Zehaf-Bibeau had faced at least 11 criminal charges in various cities, according to court records dating to 2001 obtained by the Toronto Star.
The charges included credit card fraud, drunk driving, assault, theft, possession of a dangerous weapon, escaping custody (twice) and possession of marijuana and PCP, according to the Star.
Zehaf-Bibeau was charged in a Dec. 16, 2011, robbery in Vancouver but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge of uttering threats, according to the Vancouver Sun.
Court records uploaded by the Sun did not include details of the robbery but showed that Zehaf-Bibeau was ordered to undergo a psychiatric assessment after his arrest. That assessment found him “fit” for court but did not provide further details.
After Zehaf-Bibeau pleaded guilty to making threats, he was credited with time served for spending 66 days in custody and was sentenced to one additional day in jail in February 2012.
Paulson said Thursday that despite media reports, Zehaf-Bibeau was not one of the 93 “high-risk travelers” that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is investigating as part of efforts to prevent Canadians from traveling abroad to join extremist groups such as Islamic State, which has seized large parts of Iraq and Syria.
Little impression made at mosque
The chairman of the Masjid Al Salaam mosque in Burnaby, Daud Ismail, remembered Zehaf-Bibeau as someone who offered to help around the mosque and not as someone who raised any alarms.
“During Ramadan, he would volunteer to help during the iftar,” or breaking of the fast, Ismail told the Los Angeles Times. “And we said, ‘Thank you, brother, but we have our team who does this.’ We appreciated his help.
“But other than that he was like any other worshiper. He would come and pray and leave,” Ismail said. “He never shared his views on anything.”
When reports first came out linking Zehaf-Bibeau to the mosque, Ismail didn’t know who he was.
“Thousands of people come to the mosques — you can’t identify each one,” he said. “We have done some investigation in our community and masjid, and now we know which person we are talking about.”
Congregants in the mosque often don’t use full names, he said, mostly referring to each other as “brother” or “sister.”
Ismail said the mosque didn’t foster an environment conducive to expressing political views, radical or otherwise. Private meetings are prohibited, even small gatherings of two or three people for the purpose of scripture reading.
“That’s how vigilant we are — we mean serious business,” Ismail said. “If anyone shares radical views, we report it. We work closely with the RCMP.”
LA Times staff writers W.J. Hennigan in Ottawa and Alexandra Zavis in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

**American Patriot** · October 24th, 2014, 19:38

Canadian terrorist acted alone. I just heard this. I was wondering what happened and had heard nothing else about the other alleged shooters.

Because, there weren't any.

**American Patriot** · October 24th, 2014, 19:43

Updated Ottawa shooting: Michael Zehaf-Bibeau wanted Libyan passport

Killer of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo applied for Libyan passport Oct. 2

CBC News Posted: Oct 24, 2014 11:44 AM ET Last Updated: Oct 24, 2014 1:19 PM ET

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau appears in a yearbook photo for L'École Secondaire Saint-Maxime in Laval, Que. (CBC)

Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, the gunman behind Wednesday's shooting in Ottawa, had applied to renew his Libyan passport but was denied, CBC News has learned.

Zehaf-Bibeau shot and killed Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in Ottawa Wednesday before attacking Parliament Hill.

Zehaf-Bibeau, whose father is Libyan, applied for the passport renewal on Oct. 2 and was refused the same day, the CBC's Evan Dyer reported. The chargé d'affaires at the Libyan Embassy in Ottawa told CBC News he presented a B.C. driver's licence with a Vancouver address. He did not present a Canadian passport.

Zehaf-Bibeau had received a Libyan passport in 2000 and then travelled to the country in 2007. That document had expired, and Zehaf-Bibeau told officials that he wanted a new passport so he could visit family and friends in Libya.

The Libyan official said Zehaf-Bibeau was polite but that his demeanour seemed off. They were also concerned that his photos didn't seem to match his appearance, or the photos of him in his Libyan documents.

Officials also questioned why Zehaf-Bibeau's old Libyan passport gave his first name as Abdul but his driver's licence listed him as Michael.

Zehaf-Bibeau provided his mother's contact information, but there was no answer when officials called the number, and officials weren't satisfied with his answers when they questioned him about his parents' relationship.

The embassy was also puzzled as to why Zehaf-Bibeau had travelled across the country to apply in person.

"Most Libyans who live outside Ottawa apply online," said chargé d'affaires Yousef Furgani,

Zehaf-Bibeau was warned the embassy would have to look into his background and that it would take at least three weeks to a month. At that point, Zehaf-Bibeau cancelled the application.

RCMP Commissioner Bob Paulson said Thursday that Zehaf-Bibeau was in the process of applying for a Canadian passport when he shot Cirillo.