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Terror suspect ran immigration service. Who did he help get into the country?
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A Canadian citizen, originally from Pakistan, now sits in an Illinois jail and faces accusations that he was involved in two Islamist plots on opposite sides of the world. The case of Tahawwur Hussain Rana spans five countries, three continents and may also involve him helping get fellow travellers through the American and Canadian immigration systems.
When reports first surfaced that Chicago prosecutors were linking Rana to a terror plot to attack and kill the people behind the original publication of the Mohammed cartoons, Rana was played as a patsy. His lawyer, Patrick Blegen, is cited this way in an Associated Press story:
Blegen suggested his client was duped by Headley, his friend since they both attended military school in Pakistan, and had no idea that he was involved in plotting the attack, which Headley had allegedly dubbed "The Mickey Mouse Project."
"There is no proof that allegations of murder or blowing up a building would ever be tied to Mr. Rana," Blegen said during the detention hearing.
Rana, along with David Headley, who changed his name from Daood Gilani in 2006, stands accused of scouting out Denmark’s Jyllands-Posten newspaper and plotting to kill a cartoonist and the editor responsible for running editorial cartoons that depicted the Muslim prophet Mohammed. Headley did the traveling to Denmark; Blegen told the court that his client Rana was not a flight risk and should be let go. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan obviously disagrees, because Rana remains behind bars and likely will be there for some time.
New information emerged during Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s visit to India. It seems Rana may not have been the patsy after all. Rana, a Canadian citizen who has lived in Chicago for the last number of years, is wanted by Indian officials who say he may have helped plan the Mumbai attacks of one year ago. Rana visited Mumbai and Karachi, Pakistan in the weeks before the attacks that killed nearly 200 people. Court documents claim he scouted locations for possible attacks.
But while Indian officials may want to question Rana about his visit to Mumbai, the question here in Ottawa, and one that should be asked in Washington, is who did Rana help get into Canada and the United States? The man, who until recently was not well known outside of the Pakistani community of Chicago, ran First World Immigration Services, an immigration consultancy business with offices in Chicago, New York and Toronto, the city he lived in and obtained Canadian citizenship in before heading to the Windy City.
David Harris, a former officer with the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and currently a security and anti-terrorism consultant with INSIGNIS Strategic Research, says law enforcement and government officials would be wise to look into Rana’s business and former clients. “It would seem prudent,” says Harris, “that when one has a suspected terrorist, especially of a major sort, running some kind of immigration service, that that service, that everything that it has been doing, come under some kind of scrutiny.”
Harris says it is possible that the immigration service was a legitimate business for Rana, but also possible that it was simply a front for the terrorist activities prosecutors allege he was involved with, and more worrying, that the service may have been used to help get extremists into the country.
Questions put to Canadian government officials regarding who Rana may have helped get into the country and whether those cases are being examined, shed little light. Immigration Minister Jason Kenney says he cannot comment on the case as it is part of an ongoing investigation. Public Safety Minister Peter Van Loan's office issued a statement saying, “We don't comment on ongoing investigations. As we are vigilant in combating terrorism, Canada's security officials will take all appropriate actions in the interest of the safety and security of Canadians.”
While Van Loan’s statement especially might appear to mean the government is reviewing files, it is ambiguous enough to leave the matter wide open, leaving Canadians wondering about their safety and the security of the immigration system.
Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. Follow Brian on Twitter to get the latest as it happens.
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