Crooked in Canada

He has lied to gain entry into Canada on more than one occasion, and to top it off, Canadian immigration officials under the Liberal government gave him refugee status based on at least one of those lies. Now Hassan Ahmed Almrei and his lawyer think that his “Canadian rights” have been violated.

F**k that they’ve been violated, he isn’t a Canadian citizen, and therefore as far as I’m concerned he has the rights to three square meals a day, a roof over his head, and limited healthcare. He’s getting that behind bars, and at the Canadian taxpayer’s expense. In fact who do you think is paying the majority of his legal feels?

Hassan Almrie should be put on a plane and sent back to whence he came from, Saudi Arabia where the rest of his family is, or Syria where authorities have about as much interest in him as they do siding with Israelis in the Palestinian-Israel conflict.

That said…

In January 2, 1999 Syrian Hassan Ahmed Almrei arrived at Toronto Pearson International Airport on a flight from Jordan. As is customary with all international travelers regardless of where they come from, Almrei had to pass through Customs. It was there that he told immigration officials that he was traveling on a forged passport from the United Arab Emirates and that he had destroyed it somewhere between UAE and Canada. Isn’t that convenient? He then claimed refugee status, which would have been his only way into Canada, otherwise he would have been put on the next available plane back to the UAE, Syria, or most likely Saudi Arabia where his family lived.

After he was cleared to enter Canada Almrei was picked up at the airport by his “good friend” Ahmed Al Kaysee, a friend he had met in Afghanistan.

Interesting point of fact: On April 19, 1998 tried to immigrate to Canada using his Syrian passport, stating that he wished to visit Hisham Al Taha in Richmond, BC but was refused. He would later claim that he had never spoken to Taha that he had put his name down on his visa application on the advice of friend who told him if he did that it would be easier for him to gain an entry visa. Three months later he would strike up a friendship with a Palestinian human smuggler named Ghaled who was quite adept at obtaining false passports.

Now I don’t about the rest of my fellow Canadians, but no passport and a suspicious story like the one Almrei was telling would have been enough for me to take him into custody and hold him until I knew exactly who he was and what he was about. I would not, I repeat would not, let this guy out of my sight until I was sure that he wasn’t a threat, and I certainly would not have allowed him to leave the airport for any other destination then an immigration detention centre until I knew more about a Syrian claiming refugee status.

Let’s be real here, we all know that Syrians are just as capable of acts of terrorism as the al-Qaeda and the Taliban are, and unless Almrei was physically or mentally incapable of pulling off of an act of terrorism, there is no way he would have been allowed to go anywhere but into some form of detention until I knew what this guy was all about.

If it is my duty as a border agent at the airport to ensure the safety of Canadians within Canada’s borders, Almrei would have been taken into custody. Common sense would have drawn me to that conclusion when trying to figure out what to do with Almrei.

Nine months after leaving Pearson Airport for the first time Almrei and five other men were caught in a restricted area of Pearson Airport and it appeared that they had access cards and codes to such restricted areas. It is at this point I think Almrei should have been detained and charged with trespassing, and I would have definitely would have restricted his movement until such time I was satisfied that he wasn’t a threat.

Red flags would have gone up all over the place, and I would have definitely taken him to the nearest immigration detention centre or an appropriate holding facility. He should not have bee released back into the community, at least not at this time, but he was.

What is known about Almrei life prior to his arrival in Canada

Almrei was born in Syria, but moved with his family to Saudi Arabia when he was seven after his father’s brother was sentenced to 10 years in prison for being part of the Muslim Brotherhood. Syrian authorities sentenced his father to death in absentia while his father worked as a teacher in Saudi Arabia. He has eight siblings living in Saudi Arabia, and one sister living in Lebanon.

Almrei says that after he finished high school he was self-employed and says that he spent several months doing office work for Muslim African Agency after he graduated.

He has also claimed that using his father’s contacts in the Muslim Brotherhood he traveled towards Afghanistan to buy a forged Syrian passport so that he could attend a Jalalabad camp run by Abdul Rasul Sayyaf, a commander in the Northern Alliance. However, he apparently contracted malaria and it would be another year before he arrived at Sayyaf’s camp where he was taught to use an AK-47 with a group named Ittihad-i-Islami. He made three more trips into Afghanistan to stay at camps under Sayyaf’s leadership. While he was recovering from malaria he stayed at a guest house in Peshawar.

In 1994 he left Sayyaf’s camp and traveled to Kunduz to join up with Ibn al-Khattab, a Chechen extremist whom Almrei admired. There is no evidence that Almrei’s relationship al-Khattab went beyond anything but admiration, though evidence from Almrei’s computers shows that he visited Chechen extremist websites.

In 1990-1994 Almrei fought Communist-back troops and rival forces in Afghanistan while Osama bin Laden was still living in the Sudan, but it is alleged CSIS that Almrei was devoted by to bin Laden and his ideals. Almrei counters that by saying just because he fought the Soviets in Afghanistan, doesn’t mean he supports bin Laden.

That very well maybe, but remember Almrei admired Khattab, a Chechen extremist, not to mention he visited Chechen extremist websites, and lets not mention that he scouted positions of Soviet troops for Khattab in Tajikistan. I’m surprised he hasn’t said to CSIS that just because he scouted for Khattab in Tajikistan, it doesn’t mean he supports Khattab?

He also claims that he believes al-Qaeda is a terrorist organization which participates in unjustified violence. Earth to Almrei, “and Chechen extremists don’t?”

Hmm, he sounds pretty complicated this Almrei and I can understand why the Canadian federal government is refusing to release him on bail.

Quite frankly I think the feds should be deporting him to Saudi Arabia, after all he has a lot of family there, in fact ties to Saudi Arabia that go back some twenty-four, twenty-five years.

If the feds can’t determine whether he is a terrorist or whether he had intentions of supplying material support to terrorism, the fact that he arrived into Canada under false pretences and claimed refugee status under false pretences (he wasn’t a Syrian refugee, he had a home in Saudi Arabia, how could he claim refugee status?) is enough to put him on plane and send him back to Saudi Arabia. If he isn’t a terrorist he has nothing to fear in Saudi Arabia. He shouldn’t have been allowed into Canada in the first place, and he certainly shouldn’t have been granted refugee status in June 2000. Immigration as usual screwed up under the Liberal government again. What else is new?

On October 19, 2001 Almrei was summoned to his lawyer’s office for an interview with CSIS where he denied having ever been to Sudan, Afghanistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Dagestan or Chechnya. Had he not destroyed his false passport before arriving in Canada in 1999, I bet that the stamps in his passport book would have said otherwise. I think he destroyed the passport to cover-up the fact that he traveled to those places because he knew that had he produced that passport in Canada upon his arrival red flags would have went up all over the place.

At that same meeting CSIS confronted Almrei with the fact that they find photographs of bin Laden, Khatab, and 9/11 hijacker Mohammad Atta on his computer. Almrei claimed that the photos came from online stories he read on websites like BBC and that they were saved in his cache. Convenient, and not much anybody can say to refute that, but he was arrested on a security certificate. A month later Judge Daniele Tremblay-Lamer found the certificate to be reasonable, and he has been detained ever since, and rightfully so when you consider that what you have read so far provides justifies his detention. He has lied to Canadian authorities since 1998, played games and scammed his way into the country. Why wouldn’t he be considered a threat to national security based on what you have read so far?

Thirteen months after Almrei was arrested in his lawyer’s office he retracted part of the statement he gave CSIS on that day, stating he worked as an Imam in Afghanistan, and that he was worried that in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center the truth would have been incriminating. He was also claimed that he was asked to teach at a girl’s school in Tajikistan.

Since his arrested he has applied to be released on bail three times and has been denied three times. He is currently being detained in a facility at Millhaven that was specifically designed to house those being held on security certificates.

Currently Almrei is trying to win his release by claiming his constitutional rights are being violated, which in my opinion is absurd when one considers that Canada’s constitution protects Canadian citizens, something Almrei is not.

Alleged Syrian Terrorist Challenges Canadian Detention

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