Wiretaps led to arrests of terror suspects

[Eugen Leitl]

http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPStory/LAC/20040405/KHAWAJA0
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."

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