Abousfian Abdelrazik arrives to Federal Court in Ottawa on Oct. 21.Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press
A Canadian intelligence agent says Ahmed Ressam, known as the Millennium bomber for a thwarted attack on Los Angeles International Airport, told him that Abousfian Abdelrazik advised him about a terrorist training camp to attend in Afghanistan.
The agent with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, testifying in Federal Court on Tuesday, said that Mr. Ressam made the disclosure during a 2002 interview with the service after he was in custody.
Testifying under the pseudonym “C”, the agent had gone to the United States for two days of interviews in January, 2002, when the subject of Mr. Abdelrazik, an acquaintance of Mr. Ressam’s when both were living in Montreal, came up.
“Generally speaking, Mr. Ressam mentioned that Abdelrazik recommended him the camp where he could obtain, he could get his training,” said the agent, speaking from a site outside the downtown courtroom.
Mr. Ressam said that Mr. Abdelrazik recommended Khalden, which has been described as a paramilitary camp in eastern Afghanistan, according to the witness.
Mr. Ressam, an Algerian-born Montrealer, was found guilty of planning to blow up the Los Angeles airport during the millennium celebrations after his December, 1999, arrest in Seattle in a car filled with explosives. He is now serving a 37-year sentence.
Mr. Abdelrazik, 62, has launched a $27-million lawsuit against the federal government and former foreign affairs minister Lawrence Cannon, linked to events that began in 2003. A Canadian citizen since 1995, he had returned to his native Sudan in 2003 to see his ailing mother, and was taken into custody by officials of Sudan’s intelligence agency.
Now, he is accusing the defendants of abandoning him in Sudan for six years – from 2003 to 2009 – which he says included detention and torture by the Sudanese agency.
Tuesday’s witness, who joined CSIS in 1990 and is still with the service, was among the agents who began monitoring Mr. Abdelrazik in 1996 based on suspicions that he was involved in Islamic extremism, monitoring him with electronic surveillance, including of his internet searches, and interviewing him in person.
Much of Tuesday saw federal lawyer Andrew Gibbs seeking the testimony of the witness on reports presented for his examination. Paul Champ, Mr. Abdelrazik’s lawyer, raised concerns in court about some of the assertions being presented to the witness.
The CSIS agent recalled an occasion in February, 2003, when he and a colleague went to see Mr. Abdelrazik at his home in Montreal to question him – the fourth in a series of interviews that CSIS agents had conducted with Mr. Abdelrazik.
“He was always very hesitant to meet with us and speak with us. He was nervous. He appeared nervous,” said the agent.
Mr. Abdelrazik called the Montreal police after the two agents arrived. Two officers showed up, and asked everyone present, including Mr. Abdelrazik, to identify themselves. Once identifications had been presented, the police officers left.
“Subsequently, we continued the interview with Mr. Abdelrazik,” said the agent, testifying they were interested in finding out if he had any travel plans. He said he did not.
As Mr. Abdelrazik was continuing to deny his plans for travel, the agent said Tuesday that he told Mr. Abdelrazik he should not leave Canada.
“We were aware that he had a desire, a potential to travel, and knowing that he was also known abroad as a Mujahideen, somebody who had been identified by Ressam and so on, it might be problematic for him if he were to travel because, for example, he might be detained,” said the agent.
But he noted that CSIS had no power to preclude Mr. Abdelrazik travelling or to share information with him about the possibility of him encountering problems. Another CSIS agent testified earlier in the trial that the service had no intelligence indicating Mr. Abdelrazik would be detained in Sudan.