New WikiLeaks documents that describe a Montreal mosque as a terror hub are defamatory, says a local Muslim spokesman.
The newly leaked U.S. documents claim a Mauritanian terror suspect being held at Guantanamo Bay was the leader of a Montreal-based al-Qaida cell that planned terror attacks in the United States.
The secret documents, released by WikiLeaks on their website last weekend, also claim that members of al-Qaida were recruited and trained at Montreal's Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah Mosque, where the terror suspect served briefly, possibly as an imam.
But the chairman of the Muslim Council of Montreal said the documents serve as an example of how the community's institutions are unfairly targeted by authorities.
"Our allegations are certainly correct that we've been targeted and this is biased targeting," Salam Elmenyawi said in an interview.
"None of the information is based on evidence. It's rather based on intelligence analysis and this analysis has certainly ignored any other facts that contradicted the conclusion."
Elmenyawi said the documents defame the mosque and show a blatant bias against the Muslim community.
Mohamedou Ould Salahi arrived in Montreal from Germany on Nov. 26, 1999, and served briefly at the mosque.
He left Canada after CSIS and the RCMP began to question him about ties to Ahmed Ressam, the so-called "Millennium bomber" who planned to attack the Los Angeles airport.
According to the documents, Salahi met with Ressam four days after arriving in Montreal and had prior knowledge of the plot as well as contact with the extremists planning the attack.
The documents also claim that the 39-year-old electrical engineer recruited three of the hijackers involved in the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, and facilitated their training.
Salahi has acknowledged joining the mujahedeen in its fight against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. But he says he had no role in the millennium bomb plot and denies any association with al-Qaida, the Taliban or their associates since 1992.
Elmenyawi said Salahi's time at the mosque was brief during the busy Ramadan period and that nothing else is known about him.
"I don't know anything about him and no one in the mosque knows anything about him," he said, adding it's not even clear Salahi was an imam.
Elmenyawi said Salahi was available when extra prayers at night are the norm. The regular imam was on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia.
The mosque was the largest in Montreal at the time with 2,500 attending Friday sermons.
"There's nothing sinister about it," Elmenyawi said.
The leaked documents say Salahi and a number of his associates met frequently at a Montreal safe house operated by a friend and former classmate Salahi met in Germany. The person was later arrested in Israel.
Salahi has tried unsuccessfully to obtain Canadian intelligence documents from interviews the RCMP conducted with him in 2000, which he says could corroborate his claim of abuse at the hands of his American captors.
The Supreme Court has refused to hear his case while the Federal Court of Canada ruled last year he is not entitled to the information because he is neither a Canadian citizen nor subject to legal proceedings in Canada.
He has been held at the U.S. prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for more than seven years.
An attempted prosecution was called off when questions arose about whether key evidence had been obtained by torture.
"I'm not here to defend him good or bad," Elmenyawi said.
"If he's bad, charge him in a court of law, give him a fair trial and finish with it.
"But to defame the mosque in the process is totally unacceptable."
Elmenyawi noted the mosque is one that frequently takes part in open house events, has frequently welcomed politicians and is heavily involved in interfaith work with synagogues and churches in the city.
Several Montreal mosques have been brought to the attention of authorities since the late 1990s.
The most notable of these is Al Sunnah Al Nabawiah, which intelligence officials have long maintained was used by a faction of North African jihadists.
Another Montreal mosque, Al-Qods, is also mentioned in the documents. It made headlines in 2007 when Canadian immigration officials deported its imam, Said Jaziri, for falsifying his refugee application.
Jaziri, a Tunisian who came to Canada in 1997, gained noteriety for advocating Shariah law in Canada and organizing a large protest against cartoons of Muhammad published in a Danish magazine.
He was detained in California earlier this year for trying to sneak into the U.S. in the trunk of a car.
One terrorism expert says the revelations in the documents are not surprising at all.
"Canada for at least a decade has been considered a hub for North African Islamist terrorism," said David Harris, a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
"Somebody has been trying to tell us something and we haven't been very eager to listen.
"We will eventually get the message. It'll just be a bloody message when we do."
