Khawaja Lived for Jihad

In the first day of Canada's first case involving the anti-terrorism act, it was revealed that Khawaja, the defendant, lived for jihad. Khawaja, a computer contract worker for Foreign Affairs Canada, travelled to Pakistan where he trained at a terrorist camp.

Khawaja spoke of using his DFAIT credentials to send supplies to terrorists in Pakistan. Khawaja also used the computers at the department of Foreign Affairs to send emails about his detonator project to the London co-conspirators.

The court also heard how Khawaja hoped to kiss “the blessed hand” of Osama bin Laden. One more note, Khawaja spent a lot of time trawling Islamist chat rooms, and conversed with Londoners in “dead drop” e-mails. Just another example of the internet jihad. Globe and Mail

OTTAWA — Mohammad Momin Khawaja thought of little else but holy war, an Ottawa court heard yesterday.

As the trial of the first man charged under Canada's Anti-Terrorism Act got under way four years after police raided his home in the Ottawa suburb of Orleans, the Crown gave a two-hour summary of its case, in which it will present dozens – perhaps hundreds – of intercepted conversations to show that the accused admitted he had a one-track mind. Mr. Khawaja, the court was told, wrote that “that devotion to the effort of jihad is part of me” and said that not a day went by in which he didn't want to join the mujahedeen, or holy warriors.

He also allegedly said, “The kuffar [infidels] are treacherous and understand only death and destruction.”

[...]

Prosecutors said yesterday that Mr. Khawaja was so deep into the idea of holy war that even his attempts at marriage foundered after he told a prospective bride she had to understand he was “down with J” – or armed jihad, battles aimed at changing world governments or, at the very least, securing martyrdom for himself.

The Crown also said he was caught wiring funds to terrorist co-conspirators through a female friend selected because, as Mr. Khawaja wrote to her, “sisters don't get caught, brothers, if they send money, they get caught.”

[...]

But it is the accused's own writings that the Crown hopes will help remove any reasonable doubt from the case. The court heard that Mr. Khawaja spent time trawling Islamist chat rooms, and conversed with Londoners in “dead drop” e-mails – common Yahoo accounts where members who knew passwords saved draft e-mails, but never actually transmitted them to third parties, hoping to avoid detection.

It did not work. Spies seem to have noted every word Mr. Khawaja and his friends said, including how they referred to each other as “niggas” and “brothers” or simply “bros,” and ones where the suspect is said to have written that he hoped to kiss “the blessed hand” of Osama bin Laden, and even contemplated a quick trip to Pakistan to rescue Ayman al-Zawahiri after it was reported the al-Qaeda No.2 was on the verge of being captured.

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