Canadian terrorist describes 9/11-type plot hatched in 2006

Jun 24, 2009, 9:49 GMT

Washington/Toronto - A self-avowed Canadian terrorist told a court that a 2006 plot to blow up the Canadian parliament and other targets was intended to mimic the 9/11 attacks in the US, a newspaper report said Tuesday.

The comments came from Saad Khalid, 22, who has pleaded guilty to helping to plan the plot and was in court Monday for his sentencing hearing.

Khalid is the only one of 18 suspects who has admitted there were bomb attacks planned, the Toronto Star reported.

The description of the plot was made public in a 'statement of uncontested fact' presented in the Brampton, Canada, court on Khalid's first day of the sentencing hearing.

The document contained comments Khalid made to an undercover Canadian police agent in the months leading up to the arrests in June 2006.

The suspects were planning 'the Battle of Toronto' - a three-day bombing assault aimed at shutting the downtown core, crippling the economy and killing civilians, the Star reported.

The bombings were to begin on September 11, 2006, five years after the attacks on the US that killed 3,000 people. In addition, the group planned another attack on the UN building in New York or the Sears building in Chicago.

In his role during the planning, Khalid arranged for the rental of warehouse space to store fertilizer to be used in making the bombs and was to have received the delivery truck when it arrived.

The arrests occurred as Khalid and another suspect were unloading a truck and carrying bags of ammonium nitrate into the building. The plotters wore T-shirts with the words 'student farmers' on them, the Star reported.

A video of the unloading was shown to the court.

Since the arrests of 14 adults and four youths in 2006, charges against seven have been stayed, the Star reported.