Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses for selfies with a crowd in Montreal in Dec 2015.  The man in question is seen very close to him in this image

Newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau poses for selfies with a crowd in Montreal in Dec 2015. The man in question is seen very close to him in this image.
Photo Credit: CBC

Worrisome photo as terror suspect poses beside Prime Minister

Many very serious questions are being raised about a mobile phone”selfie” in which a Canadian man suspected of involvement with middle-eastern terrorists, took a photo standing beside Prime Minister Trudeau.

The incident took place in 2015 at a Montreal public transit station following a media interview. The Canadian leader was walking through a crowd in Montreal answering some impromptu questions, and allowing bystanders to take photos with him.

The man in question is one of four Quebeckers suspected of involvement with a 2012 terrorist kidnapping in Syria of two American journalists.

“Should not have been able to get so close”

Just six months before the photo incident, police raided the man’s residence as part of a terrorist investigation.

Moments later, the man asks the Prime Minister to take a selfie with him, standing directly beside him. Security experts are extremely concerned that a terror suspect got this close to the Canadian leader
Moments later, the man asks the Prime Minister to take a selfie with him, standing directly beside him. Security experts are extremely concerned that a terror suspect got this close to the Canadian leader © CBC

Quoted in the Toronto Star and Lapresse a former terrorism investigator with the Sûreté du Québec (Quebec provinical police), who has also worked with the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team said “We have a prime minister who is very open. But a guy like this should not have been able to get so close. I don’t want to blame the work that was done, but it shows that there is no surveillance on this individual, that the people around the prime minister were not warned”.

A CBC investigation found the man in question and four others in this particular group, were part of a larger group of nine whose names also appear repeatedly on the logbooks of a shooting range in 2012.

This occurred shortly before some are thought to have left for Syria, including the man in the photo. Two of the group are thought to still be in the middle east.

The man spent several months in Turkey in 2012 and 2013 although there is no evidence he crossed into Syria. However, there are some serious questions about possible involvement in the kidnapping of the journalists Matt Schrier and Theo Padnos. During their months-long imprisonment they were regularly beaten and tortured. Schrier’s credit card information was beaten out of him.  Padnos who grew up near the Canadian border recognized the accent of the captors and is positive three of the masked captors were Canadian.

During Shrier’s captivity his card were used to buy many electronic and other items which were shipped to the Montreal address of the man in the selfie, although the name on the bill was that of the man’s roommate.

The man in question has not been charged with any offence and is said to no longer follow radical Islam.  Nevertheless, unnamed sources say the man is on an American no-fly list.

Matt Schrier, who managed to make his own escape after seven months as a captive, wants justice and is surprised no arrests have been made given some of the evidence.

The federal police (RCMP) have not answered journalists questions on the matter saying there is an ongoing investigation.

Additional information- sources

Categories: International, Politics
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