http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040405/KHAWAJA... 5/National/Idx Wiretaps led to arrests of terror suspects By COLIN FREEZE AND ALAN FREEMAN Monday, April 5, 2004 - Page A8 OTTAWA and LONDON -- The tapping of e-mails and overseas phone calls by a host of Western spy agencies led to the arrests last week of terrorism suspects in Canada and Britain, including an Ottawa man who had been under scrutiny for at least four weeks. The RCMP and Scotland Yard launched separate operations after an alarming e-mail was picked up by a U.S. intelligence agency in February, sources said. The U.S. National Security Agency, which electronically monitors millions of conversations daily, reportedly picked through the chatter to find a message sent from Pakistan to England. According to the Sunday Times and The Guardian in Britain, several intercepted communications showed links between suspected senior al-Qaeda figures in Pakistan and an alleged bomb plot thwarted last week in Britain. Nine men of mostly Pakistani heritage were rounded up there along with a half-tonne of bomb-making chemicals, as hundreds of officers joined in simultaneous and urgent raids. The RCMP say the British raids are linked to the arrest of Mohammed Momin Khawaja in Ottawa 12 hours earlier. The 24-year-old software developer remains in prison, but is described locally as an exemplary young man -- a solitary figure from a good family, taking Arabic courses but keeping mostly to himself. He recently travelled to England and Pakistan. Family members say he went abroad to look for a wife. They further insist that global spy agencies somehow got their signals crossed. "How's it related to my brother, do you know what I mean? Somebody's making phone calls to maybe England or Pakistan or whatever, how is it related to my brother here in Canada?," said Qasim Khawaja, 26. After visiting him this weekend, he said his younger brother is "totally calm, smiling and just laughing" about the situation. "He thinks there's a misunderstanding and they are overblowing it." He said that during the raid, Mounties showed the family papers that said their e-mails and phone calls have been listened in on since Feb. 27, after his brother returned to Canada from his travels abroad. Qasim, also a computer programmer, questioned the value of such eavesdropping as an investigative technique. "Most of the people that are questioning us had a hard time using e-mails, you know what I mean? They are much older guys and they don't understand technology like we do. . . . nowadays viruses can even send e-mails, you know what I mean?" Investigators have continued to track down friends, family and nearly forgotten acquaintances across North America, he said. Mr. Khawaja said his father Mahboob, the 62-year-old head of the family, surfaced this weekend in Saudi Arabia, where he has been in police custody for several days. His family said police allowed him to call this week and confirm that he had been detained after the raid on his former home in Ottawa. He said he is being treated well, according to Qasim. Canadian agencies say they had no role to play in the arrest of the elder Mr. Khawaja, one of the founding members of Ottawa's 40,000-member Muslim community who left Pakistan 35 years ago and recently moved to Saudi Arabia to manage a polytechnic school. His Canadian family planned to visit next month, but the RCMP seized their passports and airline tickets in the raid.

From Saudi Arabia yesterday, a family friend said Mahboob Khawaja is "a normal guy." "I didn't see him as a fanatic or anything," said Mohamed Farhat Mehdi. He said that his friend often spoke of his family in Ottawa and "he talks with his Internet quite often."

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]