Kassem Daher, linked by CSIS to al-Qaeda, is a Lebanese native who came to Canada in the 1980s as a business immigrant. Daher, who once ran movie theatres in Leduc and Ponoka, left Canada in 1998.
In 2000, he was arrested in Lebanon after a shootout between police and alleged terrorists. After his arrest, Daher’s relatives denied he was ever involved in terrorism and urged the Canadian government to intervene on his behalf. He was never formally charged with a crime in Lebanon or Canada and has been free on bail for the past year, Barbara Campion, a spokeswoman for CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service) told CanWest News Service on Tuesday.
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In one February 1995 conversation, Jayyousi, Daher and Zaky allegedly discussed how the network was moving jihadist soldiers between Algeria, Egypt, Somalia, and Eritrea. Daher said “we are in charge of it in Canada,” according to the affidavit, and added that “we have brothers in Lebanon who are ready to go to Chechnya but there’s no money.”
“Daher and Jayyousi also discussed setting up a for-profit business in order to fund jihad,” the affidavit states. “Daher then mentioned his organization, the Canadian Islamic Association, which he described as a ‘cover, I mean it’s very good.’ ”
In January 2000, several Lebanese soldiers were killed in clashes with suspected members of a terrorist group called Takfir wal-Hijra.
On Feb. 2, Lebanese troops descended on suspects in the city of Karaoun and a shootout ensued, described by local media as a “spectacular gunfight.”
Government authorities arrested Daher and eight other suspected Takfir wal-Hijra members, and seized a stockpile of weapons that included rocket launchers and mortars.
Campion said Tuesday that CSIS believes Daher is still in Lebanon.
Yup…..Only a matter of time before we have our own 911. What I find the most frustrating about this is how the muslim community never says a word.
There turning these guys in, in Iraq, but do you think they would do that anywhere else.
Don’t even want to go near the justice system….blood evaporates at that temperature..
There was a good cover story in the Western Standard last year about this very issue of terrorists in Alberta.