[AicapAifap] Canadian Terrorism Plot

Sun Mar 4 14:02:34 PST 2018

Canadian Terrorism Plot
March 2, 2018 8:45 pm
RCMP knew Canadian was treated at mental-health facility before
entering U.S., terrorism arrest, conviction: documents
By Brian Hill Associate Producer  Global News 
In this July 2016 photo, crowds of visitors linger in New York's Times
Square — one of El-Bahnasawy's intended targets.
AP Photo/William Mathis
Documents obtained by Global News show the RCMP was aware an
18-year-old Canadian being investigated by the FBI for terrorism and
links to the Islamic State was treated at Toronto’s Centre for
Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) prior to crossing into the United
States where he was arrested and eventually pleaded guilty to seven
terrorism-related charges.
The documents include a series of faxes sent between the RCMP’s
National Security Enforcement Team and a representative from CAMH.
On May 16, 2016 – five days before Abdulrahman El-Bahnasawy, 20, was
arrested by the FBI while travelling in New Jersey with his family –
RCMP Const. Peter Simmons sent an urgent memo to the health records
department at CAMH requesting they confirm the existence of any
medical records pertaining to El-Bahnasawy.
READ MORE: Canadian teen who plotted ISIS attack in U.S. says
‘frustration’ turned him to violence
The hospital responded, confirming the records existed, and that
El-Bahansawy was treated at the facility over a four-month period
between June and October 2014, when he was 16 years old.
“The [RCMP] are conducting a high priority national security
investigation involving a threat to public safety,” Simmons wrote in
the May 2016 memo. “If CAMH can confirm such records exist, it [is]
the RCMP’s intention to seek these records by way of a Judicial
Authorization through the criminal courts.”
The documents do not indicate whether the RCMP received the medical
records before El-Bahnasawy crossed into the U.S.
Lawyers claim El-Bahnasawy ‘vulnerable’ because of age, isolation,
mental health
El-Bahnasawy’s arrest in May 2016 came after an FBI investigation
that involved the use of an undercover agent posing as an ISIS
supporter.
The attacks were to occur in June 2016 and target New York City’s
Times Square during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan. El-Bahnasawy
purchased bomb-making materials – including 18 kilograms of hydrogen
peroxide – which he later sent to the FBI undercover agent in the
U.S.
READ MORE: Canadian’s involvement in New York terror plot highlights
Islamic State’s global reach: experts 
El-Bahnasawy pleaded guilty to seven terrorism-related charges in
October 2016, but his lawyers now argue he was vulnerable because of
social isolation, prolonged stays in psychiatric facilities and youth.
“When [he] was arrested upon exiting a car driven by his father …
he was not a newly-trained fighter from a terrorist camp, an
entrenched enemy of western culture, or a longstanding acolyte of a
jihadist,” wrote his lawyers in a sentencing submission presented to
the New York court on Friday. “[He] was a personable though
socially-isolated 18-year-old struggling with his self-esteem.”
READ MORE: Sentencing delayed for Canadian who plotted ISIS attack as
defence prepares medical reports
El-Bahnasawy is scheduled to be sentenced April 9. He faces a maximum
sentence of life in prison.
But his lawyers said in their submission that his parents’ decision
to move back and forth between Canada, Egypt and Kuwait during his
adolescence had a profound effect on him and should be considered
during sentencing. They say he became isolated, addicted to drugs and
was in and out of rehabilitation centres and psychiatric facilities
for years.
In 2014, for example, El-Bahnasawy received out-patient treatment at
CAMH for drug addiction and related mental-health issues. According to
the submission, he was then “forced” into an in-patient treatment
program at CAMH after revealing multiple suicide attempts.
“I felt like there was no reason to live, and being asleep (dead)
would be much better than living the life I was living,” wrote
El-Bahnasawy in a 24-page letter also submitted to the court on
Friday. “I had no purpose and the only thing I lived for were
drugs.”
Following this he returned to Egypt where his lawyers allege his
parents forced him to spend eight months in a detoxification and drug
rehabilitation centre.
READ MORE: ‘I agreed to support ISIS’: transcript of Canadian’s
confession about New York terror plot 
The lawyers say this near constant hospitalization, moving from one
country to the next and the sense of disillusionment he felt with his
parents’ treatment, drove El-Bahnasawy into the dark underbelly of
internet chatrooms – where he was exposed to Islamic extremism and
eventually connected with an FBI undercover agent.
“[He] was vulnerable because of his age and status as an ethnic
outsider, but was even more vulnerable because he indisputably
immersed himself in an online reality,” wrote the lawyers.
Lawyers request short sentence, return to Canada
El-Bahnasawy’s lawyers say the actions that led to his arrest and
conviction occurred at a time when he was drug-free. They say he
committed these acts – including speaking with the FBI agent and
sending bomb-making materials across the U.S. border – while in a
“pause in treatment and prescribed medication.”
Ironically, their submission alleges he was scheduled to meet with a
psychologist in Toronto to discuss continued treatment options only
three days after his arrest in May 2016.
This never happened, of course. And now, El-Bahnasawy’s lawyers say
he cannot receive the treatment he needs while imprisoned in the U.S.
They provided numerous expert opinions indicating the type of care he
needs is best obtained outside of prison, while at home with his
family.
They’ve asked the judge for a short sentence – something in the
range of five years – until his “cognitive development will be
complete.”
The lawyers also requested that El-Bahnasawy be returned to Canada
“as soon as is reasonable” so that he can receive the “proper
treatment” not available to him in U.S. detention.
© 2018 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
https://globalnews.ca/news/4060004/rcmp-canadain-terrorist-knew-meantal-health-treatment/
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