Video evidence from terror trials posted online
Last Updated: Thursday, September 18, 2008 | 10:59 PM ET
CBC News
Portions of a purported terrorist training camp video presented as evidence in a British trial, as well as in the trial of one of 11 people accused of hatching a Toronto bomb plot, have surfaced on the internet.
The video — entitled " 'Terrorist Training Camp' in Canada - From the 'Toronto 18' Case" — shows men in camouflage undertaking exercises in a forested area blanketed in snow. At one point, they appear to be using a 9-mm pistol, which one man later appears to fire. Others appear to be firing paintball guns.
Several hours of tape featuring scenes from the 2½-minute video were shown earlier this year in a Brampton, Ont., court as part of the trial of a 20-year-old man accused of being part of a homegrown terror cell.
He is one of 11 people facing charges stemming from allegations they were involved in militia-style training north of Toronto, as well as plotting to blow up hydro installations and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Canadian Broadcasting Corporation buildings in downtown Toronto.
He was charged as a youth and cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. The identities of the other 10 men are protected by a publication ban.
The youth has plead not guilty to taking part in a terrorist conspiracy. A verdict in the trial, which began in March, is expected Sept. 25.
The video was posted online by an American website run by the Nine-Eleven Finding Answers Foundation. It is believed to be the first time the video has been made available to the general public.
The foundation, which says it is dedicated to exposing extremist threats, said it obtained the video from a British court where it was shown at the trial of a man convicted of being a terrorist propagandist. The man reportedly had contact with men from the Toronto case.
"If you've actually seen mujahedeen videos, real mujahedeen videos, it's remarkable how closely they pattern themselves off of that," Evan Kohlmann, a senior investigator with NEFA, said in a telephone interview from New York.
Footage from the video — which prosecutors say was produced for recruitment purposes — was allegedly shot in 2006 at a training camp north of Toronto.
A handgun shown in the video was the only weapon, apart from paint-ball guns, present at the camp, the court has heard.
Another scene in the video shows what appears to be a campfire burning at night. A portion of the video also shows a van driving in circles at night in a parking lot.
A caption on the NEFA Foundation's website describes the video as "crudely edited by its creators to include nasheed [Islamic] music" and alleges the men featured were receiving instruction on the use of handguns, sniper tactics and basic calisthenics.
Defence lawyer Mitchell Chernovsky has argued during the trial that the training camp was exceedingly amateur and that the alleged bomb plot was a "jihadi fantasy" concocted by alleged plot leaders unbeknownst to the youth on trial.
In total, 17 suspects were arrested in a series of police raids in and around Toronto in June 2006, with one additional man picked up in a police operation two months later.
Since the initial arrests, the Crown has dropped or stayed charges against seven of them.
With files from the Canadian Press
