FENCING THE WRONG BORDER:

Canadian a suspect in plot to kill Israeli PM (Stewart Bell, 4/05/03, National Post)

Intelligence officials suspect a Canadian man arrested here last year was involved in a plot by the Lebanese terrorist group Hezbollah to assassinate the prime minister of Israel, the National Post has learned.

Fauzi Mohammed Mustafa Ayub, a 38-year-old father of three from Toronto who used the alias Abu Abbas, was arrested in the West Bank city of Hebron last June after allegedly trying to purchase components for a bomb.

Israeli security officials believe he is one of three Hezbollah agents sent here to influence Israeli politics by killing the Prime Minister.

A senior Israeli official told the Post that Mr. Ayub is a known member of Hezbollah's elite international operations squad, called the Islamic Jihad, headed by Imad Mugniyah, one of the world's most wanted terrorists. [...]

Hearings to justify Mr. Ayub's indefinite detention under Israel's Imprisonment of Enemy Combatants Law are being held mostly in secret. Canadian embassy officials in Tel Aviv are monitoring the case and said Mr. Ayub was in good spirits. His most recent court appearance was on Feb. 25.

Canadian officials have met with Mr. Ayub about seven times since his arrest, the last meeting being in February. Consular officials transferred some money from his family in Canada to him for the purchase of some "luxury items" for personal use during his detention, including deodorant, other toiletries and a back brace. The transfer was done at Mr. Ayub's request and with the approval of the Israeli authorities, said Reynald Doiron, a spokesman for the Department of Foreign Affairs.

Mr. Ayub's family in Toronto declined to be interviewed. "They decided not to say anything about this thing. They will not take your phone number. They do not want to talk to anybody," a spokeswoman for the family said.

Hisham Abou Shehadeh, the lawyer, said a court publicity ban prevented him from discussing the case.

For more than decade, Hezbollah has used Canada as a safe haven for hiding agents before and after attacks, and as a source of money and military equipment such as night-vision goggles.

Bill Graham, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, initially resisted putting Hezbollah on Canada's list of banned terrorist groups, saying to do so would brand "teachers, doctors and farmers" as terrorists.

The federal Cabinet outlawed Hezbollah last December.

An Israeli security official said the Canadian ban was having an effect.

"That was a huge, huge thing that you have done. Hezbollah is under lots of pressure because of that," he said. "It's a problem for them. It was a great move from our perspective."

Canada has not yet charged any Hezbollah members under its new anti-terrorism law. Several Canadian-based members have been charged by U.S.
authorities, however.

It's at least interesting, if not necessarily indicative of something sinister, that while the anti-immigrationists portray the war on terror as just one more reason to worry about the Mexican border, it is Canada that seems to have far greater communities of Arab and Asian with ties to terrorism. Posted by Orrin Judd at April 5, 2003 12:41 PM