News today in British Columbia...
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Arrests in terror plot targeting BC Legislature in Victoria
Arrests in terror plot targeting BC Legislature in Victoria
Comments
Submitted by derrick on July 2, 2013 - 2:25pm.
Postmedia reports:
RCMP said at a news conference in Surrey that a former Victoria man and woman charged with terrorism after a suspicious package was left at the provincial legislature on Canada Day were inspired by "Al-Qaeda ideology."
RCMP assistant commissioner Wayne Rideout, showing a picture of pressure-cooker-style devices, said the goal was to cause injury and death at the legislature during a national holiday.
He said the two, who now live in Surrey, were under surveillance for four months, the devices were inert and at no time was the public in danger.
John Stewart Nuttall, 41, and his wife, Amanda Marie Korody, 30, are charged with knowingly facilitating a terrorist activity, possession of an explosive substance and conspiring to commit an indictable offence. They were to appear in Surrey provincial court this morning.
Read full story here:
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 2, 2013 - 7:47pm.
A newspeak fancy description of agent provocateurs. I wonder if they will be charged with possession of weapons of mass destruction.
Quote:
Rideout said the RCMP used a variety of techniques to "monitor and control" the accused throughout their conspiracy, though he said he couldn't provide specifics now that the case is before the courts.
"The suspects were committed to acts of violence and discussed a wide variety of targets and techniques.
In order to ensure public safety, we employed a variety of complex investigative and covert techniques to control any opportunity the suspects had to commit harm," Rideout said.
Submitted by ikosmos on July 2, 2013 - 10:15pm.
Not to be suspicious or anything ... but is there a piece of legislation or funding approval relating to the RCMP, CSIS, or any other branch of the so-called "intelligence" agencies in Canada coming up in the near future?
Submitted by bekayne on July 3, 2013 - 9:25am.
Nuttall has a 2010 conviction for possessing a weapon for a dangerous purpose. He has also been convicted of assaults, mischief and breaches.
Nuttall made the news in 2003 when he received an 18-month conditional sentence for robbery, after hitting a businessman on the head with a rock and running off with the man’s briefcase.
At the time, Morino told the court that Nuttall’s life of crime centred around his addictions to drugs. After the robbery, he said, Nuttall stopped taking drugs and weaned himself off methadone.
Nuttall also made the news in 1996 when he was sentenced to 18 months for his part in several vicious beatings over a drug debt. Nuttall kicked one victim so severely, he had to have a kidney removed.
http://www.sleazeroxx.com/news/02067.shtml
Thrust recalls one night of drinking with Nuttall where the musician "stepped outside for a smoke and suddenly jumped into traffic. He stood in front of a moving car until it stopped and then started to hit the hood of the car with his fists. The couple inside the car were too shocked to move until I tackled him off the road."
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 3, 2013 - 10:07am.
The RCMP catches another idiot with a big mouth. The BC Leg seems like a strange target but then this guy is apparently not a rocket scientist.
Quote:
Lawyer Tom Morino said Nuttall is a convert to Islam, but Thrust doesn't remember his former bandmate being very religious. "He was more into politics... well, least what he understood of them. He's not the sharpest tool in the shed."
Submitted by Geoff on July 3, 2013 - 8:14pm.
Two questions I have pondered since the 'incident'. 1) What exactly is "Al Qaeda ideology", and 2) What evidence is there that links the suspects to this ideology?
Submitted by Aristotleded24 on July 3, 2013 - 8:51pm.
Geoff wrote:
Two questions I have pondered since the 'incident'. 1) What exactly is "Al Qaeda ideology", and 2) What evidence is there that links the suspects to this ideology?
Questions I have about Randall Garrison's statement include:
Why is this arrest noteworthy enough to comment on, considering that it happened during a long weekend in which the public is in far more danger from increased motor vehicle traffic on the road?
Why is Garrison commenting as if the matter is concluded, when the plot is just alleged at this point and all the facts surrounding this case have yet to be presented?
While we're at it, why not comment on all cases where the police have apprehended people charged with offenses like drunk driving or creating a public disturbance and praising them for keeping the public safe? A bit ridiculous, but I'm going to guess that these arrests would have had more impact in terms of preserving public safety than some alleged terrorist plot.
Submitted by Unionist on July 3, 2013 - 9:31pm.
You cynics. The Mounties got their man and woman, we're all safe, just have a drink and go for a nice drive and thank God you're Canadian and not some other awful thing!
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 4, 2013 - 10:30am.
They are supposedly facing three charges. Two of them are for conspiracy and the date of the incidents is March 2 not July 1. From the news reports it doesn't even sound like these "terrorists" were in Victoria on July 1 since the main offense they were charged with took place on June 25th. The news reports say they were arrested in Abbottsford for conspiring to set off a bomb. The local press has been interviewing people who knew the couple and they all say that these two were not very bright and they couldn't see them planning anything on their own.
What has not been made clear is who the couple thought was actually going to set off the bomb. Since they were supposedly acting alone and there was never any danger to the public then it seems obvious that the RCMP talked them into buying the same ingredients as used in the FBI's "weapons of mass destruction" event in Boston and then arrested them for conspiracy and possession of explosives.
The message seems very clear, be afraid enough to accept a police state but don't worry the RCMP will protect you.
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 4, 2013 - 12:37pm.
This article is very much my view of this sting operation.
Quote:
Trevor Aaronson coordinated a 2011 database project for Mother Jones called "Terrorists for the FBI: Inside the bureau's secret network that surveils and entraps Americans." Stings are a key part of the $3 billion spent annually by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on counterterrorism, exceeding the $2.6 billion for fighting organized crime.
"It sounds a lot like the pattern we see here where you find these people who want to commit some sort of act of violence, they just have a general, vague idea of what they want to do, and then the FBI -- through the sting operation -- provides everything including the explosives," said Aaronson.
Submitted by Catchfire on July 8, 2013 - 4:07pm.
The July 1 arrests of B.C. residents Amanda Korody and John Nuttall -- charged with planning to blow up a pressure cooker cluster bomb at the B.C. legislature -- raise many disturbing questions about the nature of the Canadian government's "counter-terrorism" operations. Equally troubling has been media coverage playing up hot-button themes that trigger fears of marginalized people, whether they be drug addiction and reliance on social assistance, to heavy metal music and the popular catch-all description for anyone who doesn't quite fit into a sick society: mental illness.
As anyone can gather from news reports, the two suspects have not trod the easiest of paths, and the pair's friends doubt they would be capable of planning, much less executing, the alleged acts. Their right to privacy has also been invaded, with media thumbing through their personal effects in an apartment that, remarkably, was not taped off as a potential crime scene by the police.
Interestingly, following a month of revelations about massive spying on the global citizenry, the attempt by the Mounties to scare up a little self-serving attention by trumpeting themselves as The Heroes Who Saved Canada Day appears to have fallen flat, as many are questioning what role undercover operatives may have played in facilitating the apparent attack. RCMP Assistant Commissioner Wayne Rideout noted at the press conference announcing the arrests, "We employed a variety of complex investigative and covert techniques to control any opportunity the suspects had to commit harm. These devices were completely under our control, they were inert, and at no time represented a threat to public safety."
In other words, they appear to have had someone on the inside with a great deal of influence over events, either a Mountie or someone from CSIS, the spy agency that allegedly spoke to the Mounties about the case in February. As the Vancouver Provincenoted in an editorial, "On April 2, police had enough evidence leading to charges of facilitating a terrorist activity and conspiracy to commit an indictable offence, but the couple was not arrested. On June 25, there was enough evidence for Nuttall to be charged with making or possessing an explosive substance, but again there were no arrests." Did the RCMP stage-manage things so that the connection to Canada Day would provide them with a blast of patriotic coverage?
Great rabble.ca article by Matthew Behrens
Submitted by Aristotleded24 on July 8, 2013 - 4:38pm.
So taking the Mounties at their word that this was a real public safety threat. Please explain to me how public safety is enhanced by not arresting these people once they had enough evidence to do so?
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 8, 2013 - 5:19pm.
Aristotleded24 wrote:
So taking the Mounties at their word that this was a real public safety threat.
That is the problem. The Mounties can not be taken at their word in this matter. Its like saying we should take Harper at his word. Sorry I for one don't see any point in going there.
Submitted by Aristotleded24 on July 8, 2013 - 5:59pm.
kropotkin1951 wrote:
Aristotleded24 wrote:So taking the Mounties at their word that this was a real public safety threat.
That is the problem. The Mounties can not be taken at their word in this matter. Its like saying we should take Harper at his word. Sorry I for one don't see any point in going there.
The point that I was trying to argue was this: if these people were indeed a threat to national security, why not arrest them once you have evidence to do so? Doesn't not acting create the risk that they will carry out the terrorist attacks?
I'm not saying that I agree with the Mountie's version of events, what I'm doing is questioning this operation based on the Mountie's own logic.
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on February 3, 2016 - 1:58pm.
The Judge in the trial to determine if there was entrapment has ordered CSIS to disclose documents. Part of the defenses theory is not only did the RCMP subject them to a Mister Big Terrorist sting but prior to that CSIS had already used an agent provocateur to radicalize them. CSIS has so far refused to give up the documents.
The amount of tax dollars spent to go after these two people is in direct proportion to how badly the Cons wanted a terror plot as cover for Bill C51.
Quote:
The judge has previously ordered that CSIS produce documents related to a possible human source who had contact with accused John Nuttall prior to RCMP launching an undercover operation against him. The defence is suggesting such a source might have played a role in radicalizing Nuttall.
Nuttall and his wife, Amanda Korody, were convicted last year of conspiring to commit murder in relation to a plot to detonate bombs on the lawns of the B.C. legislature on Canada Day 2013.
The convictions were not entered pending the outcome of a defence application to have the charges stayed on grounds the police engaged in an abuse of process.
Submitted by monty1 on February 3, 2016 - 2:11pm.
kropotkin wrote:
Quote:
The amount of tax dollars spent to go after these two people is in direct proportion to how badly the Cons wanted a terror plot as cover for Bill C51.
I have to comment positively on that because I couldn't agree more. And of course the danger exists even more because of the Liberals showing opposition to Canada's participation in the US led wars.
That is, to be qualified as in the view of the Conservatives which isn't debatable in my opinion. And of course I also hold the view that the Liberals are showing noticable opposition in the fact that their mission is/was to bring home those damn 6 bombers because they are so important to the US for their visual effect.
Submitted by Paladin1 on February 3, 2016 - 3:27pm.
If CSIS or the RCMP pushed these two to become radicalized then everyone of them involved should be charged with treason themselves.
Submitted by NorthReport on July 29, 2016 - 1:21pm.
Stay of proceedings - they are free to go
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 29, 2016 - 3:50pm.
The Judge has ruled exactly as she should have in this pathetic sting operation. If only the commanding officers in charge could somehow be held responsible for the misery they caused and the waste of the public's money.
Quote:
In her ruling, Justice Catherine Bruce said police went too far and used trickery and subterfuge to manipulate the pair. She also said the two did not have the mental capacity to have planned and carried out the plot themselves.
Bruce described Nuttall and Korody as "frightened" and "marginalized," and said the RCMP used that to their advantage, aiding and abetting the pair, and going to "enormous effort" to get them to carry out the plan, including providing inducements like an elaborate escape plan and offers of jobs.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/nuttall-and-korody-to-be-...
Submitted by Mr. Magoo on July 29, 2016 - 4:01pm.
Ya, I suppose. Still...
Quote:
Bruce described Nuttall and Korody as "frightened" and "marginalized," and said the RCMP used that to their advantage, aiding and abetting the pair, and going to "enormous effort" to get them to carry out the plan, including providing inducements like an elaborate escape plan and offers of jobs.
If you're going to imitate ISIS, you have to imitate ISIS.
Submitted by Unionist on July 29, 2016 - 5:13pm.
Reminds me of the Toronto 18. Sorry to disagree with the judge in that case, but I have never changed my mind that it was entrapment plain and simple:
Unionist, on May 10, 2008 wrote:
One of the main things that stank about the case from the start is this creepy police informer and possible agent provocateur.
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 29, 2016 - 5:29pm.
The difference it would seem is that in this case the RCMP entrapped people who were obviously mentally incompetent. In the Toronto case they entrapped vunerable youth who were naive and unsophisticated. I agree that both cases should have had the same result of being thrown out of court.
Submitted by kropotkin1951 on July 29, 2016 - 9:55pm.
It appears that these people are going to suffer even more. Our totalitarian state only pays lip service to the rule of law. I guess it was just to embarrassing to have had 240 RCMP officers involved in a sting that was thrown out of court because it should never have taken place. So these dupes get to go back to jail and then get to live under a police microscope because the Crown thinks that the RCMP might try to entrap them again. But unfortunately since they have addiction issues you can bet they will be arrested for something else in no time at all.
Quote:
Crown lawyers in B.C. are seeking a peace bond to place restrictions on John Nuttall and Amanda Korody under the "fear of terrorism" section of the Criminal Code. The pair had been convicted of terrorism charges. But they were released Friday morning, after a B.C. Supreme Court judge entered a stay of proceedings in their terror plot case. Friday afternoon, Nuttall and Korody were re-arrested and taken into custody. Crown lawyer Peter Eccles said prosecutors were seeking a peace bond under the fear of terrorism section of the code. The bond would allow them to place restrictions on Nuttall and Korody for up to a year. "I understand bail is being addressed now," said Eccles. "I have no further detail.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/crown-seeks-peace-bond-fo...
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