Oct 11 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — From the road, Roj Camp looks like the other tent cities that have sprung up in Syria — a grid of white tents and children flying kites made from sticks and plastic bags. But the armed Kurdish fighters guarding the front gate are a sign it’s not just another refugee camp: It’s a detention centre […]
Oct 10 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Muhammed Ali sat on the couch in the prison commander’s office, still wearing the T-shirt and sweatpants he had on four months ago when he was captured by Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria. Four years ago, the Canadian was a defiant voice of the so-called Islamic State, using his social media accounts to spread beheading […]
Oct 8 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — A high-profile Canadian member of the so-called Islamic State has been caught while attempting to return to Canada, Global News has confirmed. Muhammad Ali, 28, who left Toronto in 2014 to join ISIS, was captured by Kurdish forces as he tried to flee from Syria to Turkey. Global News interviewed Ali at a makeshift prison […]
Jul 19 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — On June 12, Abdulmuti Mohamed Elmi was charged with shoplifting from an Ottawa LCBO store and assaulting a man with a liquor bottle, but the RCMP had more serious concerns about the 24-year-old.
May 14 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Telling his parents he was flying to Turkey for two weeks, Mohamed Ali left Canada in April 2014 to join the so-called Islamic State. “I traded the snow for the desert sand,” he wrote on social media after his arrival in Syria.
May 7 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — Government documents obtained by Global News reveal disagreements between police, intelligence and public safety officials over how to describe the Canadian far right. Internal debate over right wing extremism arose when Public Safety Canada consulted with federal agencies on the 2017 Public Report on the Terrorist Threat to Canada.
Apr 20 2018 — Stewart Bell — Global News — ISIS members who return to Canada from Syria and Iraq could have knowledge of chemical weapons and put it to use in a terrorist attack, according to internal government documents obtained by Global News. The documents said the so-called Islamic State had repeatedly used chlorine and mustard gas in Syria and Iraq, raising the prospect […]
May 25 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — The bomber suspected of attacking a Manchester pop concert has been linked to an extremist imam from Ottawa whom Canadian intelligence officials had warned was “promoting violent jihad” in Libya. Quoting a senior American official who spoke on the condition of anonymity, the New York Times reported Wednesday that Salman Abedi “had links to a […]
Apr 25 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — A photo of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau posing with Veluppillai Thangavelu, the former vice-president of a group on Canada’s list of outlawed terrorist organizations, has underscored the pitfalls of selfie politics. Thangavelu, who was a senior official in the World Tamil Movement when it was the target of an RCMP investigation, posted a photo on […]
Mar 29 2017 — Stewart Bell — National Post — Video showing Conservative leadership candidate Kellie Leitch at a meeting with members of a group that protested outside a Toronto mosque last month was called “deeply troubling” on Wednesday. Leitch can be seen shaking hands with a Rise Canada senior adviser and later responding to his questions at the gathering in Brampton, Ont., on Sunday. […]
Feb 3 2017 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — A Liberal MP said he had no idea he had posed at an event Friday beside a man the Canadian government is deporting for being a former member of a terrorist organization. Photos posted on the Facebook and Twitter pages of Michael Levitt, the Member of Parliament for York Centre, showed the politician outside the […]
Nov 6 2016 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — An alleged ISIL supporter has been arrested in Ottawa for the second time in less than two weeks for violating the conditions of his release, raising new questions about terrorism peace bonds. Police picked up Tevis Gonyou-McLean, 24, on Saturday morning — just five days after a judge had freed him from custody following his […]
Aug 20 2016 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — The bomb that ISIL supporter Aaron Driver tried to trigger inside his taxi when he was confronted by police on Aug. 10 never fully detonated, RCMP Deputy Commissioner Mike Cabana said in an interview Saturday. Police now believe the blast in the cab was caused by the detonators and that the more powerful explosives never […]
Jun 17 2016 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — An ISIL propagandist with a Canadian-sounding voice has resurfaced in the terrorist group’s official audio statement praising the attack in Orlando, according to experts. The day after a gunman claiming allegiance to ISIL murdered 49 people at an Orlando gay nightclub, the group’s propaganda arm released an English audio recording glorifying the killer. Associated Press […]
Jun 14 2016 — Stewart Bell — Postmedia — Security for next month’s Toronto Pride Parade was being “evaluated on an ongoing basis,” a Toronto Police spokesman said Tuesday after a threat to the event was posted on a pro-ISIL propaganda channel. The U.S.-based Middle East Media Research Institute said in a report on Tuesday that a post on a Telegram channel that promotes […]