An alleged terror cell leader gave a fiery speech at a terrorist training camp north of Toronto urging attendees to band together and sacrifice whatever was needed to defeat the empire of Rome, meaning Western civilization, court heard Wednesday.The jury at the trial of three men charged with various terrorism offences was shown a video from December 2005, when the Crown alleges Fahim Ahmad led a training camp in Washago, Ont., to assess potential recruits for a plan to attack Parliament, electrical grids and nuclear stations. The video is dark except for Ahmad's face, which appears to be illuminated by a flashlight. The purported terrorist group leader is crouching under a white tarp in the snow, while a steady rainfall can be heard.
"(It) doesn't matter what trials you face, it doesn't matter what comes your way," Ahmad says. "Our mission's greater. Whether we get arrested, whether we (get) killed, we get tortured, our mission's greater than just individuals."
Police informant Mubin Shaikh, who attended the camp and even gave firearms training to the recruits, said all training camp participants were there to hear Ahmad's rousing speech. Many of the participants were quite young - one as young as 14, Shaikh said. Ahmad also told camp participants later that they share the beliefs of al-Qaida, Shaikh said. Though their group was not officially connected to al-Qaida, "we're down with them," Shaikh quoted Ahmad as saying.
On the video, Ahmad can be seen telling the off-camera group that "this has to get done."
"Rome has to be defeated and we have to be the ones that do it," Ahmad says. "No holding back. Whether it's one man that survives, you have to do it. This is what the covenant's all about. You have to do it. Inshallah we will do it. Inshallah we will get the victory."
Ahmad, 25, Asad Ansari, 25, and Steven Chand, 29, are charged with participating in a terrorist group. Ahmad is also charged with instructing people to carry out activities for a terrorist group and a weapons offence. Chand also faces a charge of counselling to commit fraud over $5,000 for the benefit of a terrorist group.
"You guys realize what you're messing with?" Ahmad asks on the video. "This is Rome. This is the one empire that's never been defeated."
During Ahmad's speech, the person filming it can be heard saying "shotgun on blondie," which Shaikh said was like calling shotgun for the front passenger seat in a car. "(It means) sexually assault one of the female infidels," Shaikh said. "He's calling the shotgun on her."
The video of Ahmad's speech was followed by video of Shaikh showing the other attendees how to use a 9-mm handgun. Several people in camouflage and masks can be seen standing around during Shaikh's handgun lecture and the whole scene is set to music, which Shaikh identified as jihad-themed music that says "kill the infidel."
On a day following Ahmad's speech, Shaikh was tasked with asking all the participants what they would do to further the cause when they got home, he said. One man said he would help recruit people, Ansari said he would offer his computer expertise and the 14-year-old participant said he would give his allowance money to the cause, Shaikh said.
The jury was also played several intercepts from February 2006, when Ahmad, Shaikh, Chand and a few others drove 13 hours north from the Toronto area in a van to Opasatika, Ont., where they were scouting locations for a safe house, court heard. "The point was to acquire some property so that we could conduct more training, we could store weapons there, possibly, it could be used as a safe house for not only us but other Islamists, who I guess were for the cause," Shaikh said.
They did not end up liking the location of the house, with some saying on the intercepts that neighbours were too close and their firearms training and other activities would rouse suspicion.
Also on the intercepts one man can be heard complaining about the cold and Ahmad admonishes him because it was only -2 C. Then, around the time they arrive in the northern Ontario area around Opasatika, Ahmad can be heard marvelling at the scenery. "Oh, the river is incredible," Ahmad says. "The view ... welcome to Canada."