Singapore says Canadian linked to al-Qaeda
Last Updated: Friday, January 10, 2003 | 10:12 PM ET
CBC News
Mohammed Mansour Jabarah, 20, has been identified as an al-Qaeda operative by the Singapore government.
The document, released in October 2002, says Jabarah was sent to Singapore a year earlier to co-ordinate attacks. "In Oct. 2001, al-Qaeda operative Mohamed Mansour Jabarah (a.k.a. "Sammy") (a Canadian citizen) and JI (Jemaah Islamiyah - terrorist network led by Abu Bakar Bashir) bomb-maker Fathur Rohman Al-Ghozi (a.k.a. "Mike") (an Indonesian JI member based at the Moro Islamic Liberation Front's training camp called Camp Abu Bakar in Mindanao, Philippines) arrived in Singapore to plan and prepare for this terrorist operation."
The report says Jabarah was "the liaison between al-Qaeda and the southeast Asian operatives."
Mohamed Mansour Jabarah
Singapore says Jabarah drew up a list of possible targets, including U.S. naval bases and various American companies.
According to the report the plan was to "rig up six truck bombs, each with three tons of ammonium nitrate," the same chemical used to destroy the Murtaugh Federal Building in the Oklahoma City bombing.
Jabarah's father, speaking from Kuwait City, says the whole thing is a "big, big lie from the government of Singapore and the United States."
"I think 100 per cent Mohamed has been tricked. They used him as a Canadian citizen as he can speak English fluently, he's carrying a Canadian passport."
The Singapore report also says he plotted attacks with the man believed to be behind the October bombing in Bali, Indonesia.
Jabarah is being held by U.S. authorities at an undisclosed location in New York. Ten months after his arrest he has not been formally charged with any crime.
