Via Rail terror plot: suspects feared they were being watched

Two men accused of plotting to kill scores of people by derailing a train travelling between Canada and the U.S. believed they were on a mission to avenge foreign military action in their Muslim homelands, their trial heard Wednesday.

Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier face multiple terror-related charges in the alleged Via Rail plot, which targeted a train between New York and Toronto. Not-guilty pleas have been entered for both men.

The pair were arrested in April 2013, after an undercover FBI agent had spent months gaining their trust the year before.

• Train derailment plot a 'very simple idea,' trial hears
• Alleged train attack plotters planned 'multiple missions,' Crown says

Esseghaier, a Tunisian national doing doctoral research on nanosensors in Quebec, was befriended by the undercover officer in the summer of 2012. In September of that year, Esseghaier travelled to Toronto with the officer to introduce him to Jaser, a permanent resident of Palestinian descent.

​Esseghaier first revealed the train plot to the undercover officer during that journey, but begged him to keep the fact that he knew of the project a secret, the trial has heard.

It was only after spending some time with the officer in Toronto that Jaser allowed the plan to be fully revealed, as he, Esseghaier and the officer were on a late-night walk through a quiet residential neighbourhood.

Secret audio recordings of the conversations between the men are being played at trial as the officer testifies.

"Canada or America, those countries they have many the armies in our land and this army is taking control of land and is spreading the corruption on earth," Esseghaier is heard saying. "It's our mission to fight those countries."

Jaser is also heard explaining the justification for the attack.

"An eye for an eye," he says. "We want to make sure that they understand that as long as they're over there, their people will not feel safe on this side."

'Something very simple'

The alleged train plot would see two men drill a hole in a railway bridge under cover of darkness to derail the train, the trial heard.

"Me and our brother Raed want to do something very simple that doesn't need weapons," Esseghaier is heard saying. "And of course the train is full of people ... at least 200 or 300 people at least."

Following the derailment, a video would have to be posted online explaining that the incident was an act of terrorism, the trial heard.

It was in that area that Jaser and Esseghaier thought the undercover officer, who was posing as a wealthy American businessman with radical Islamic views, could help them.

"We need someone to protect our back ... and this person who protect our back should be someone who has a very good position," Esseghaier is heard saying. "He has, you know, the ability to manage the situation by distance ... the ability to deviate the attention of security services."

Politicians targeted

On that same walk, Jaser also revealed a "sniper plot," the undercover officer said.

"He explained that authority figures don't travel with security like they do in the States," the officer said. "They're much more accessible. In fact, he told me the Toronto mayor takes the subway ... He said something about cutting the head off the snake and the body will be confused."

Toronto city councillor Rob Ford, who was mayor at the time, said Wednesday he was upset no one told him about the potential plot. 

"Nobody from the authorities responsible for that called me, had a meeting with me, told me about this," Coun. Ford told CBC News. "This is not something you joke around with, or in their case, ignore."

'We are being watched'

Throughout the men's discussion, Jaser was on guard, the trial heard, directing the trio to walk in the middle of the street to avoid being heard, instructing them to leave their phones in a car before they set off and keeping them away from other pedestrians.

A day earlier, when the undercover officer met with Jaser for the first time, that same sense of vigilance was demonstrated from the outset, court heard.

"Mr. Jaser said 'we are being watched. The government knows who we are and where we are at all times,"' the officer testified.

The undercover officer also said Jaser told him "Islam is not rational."

"He said that we may be viewed as too extreme, too radical," the officer recalled. "Then he said, the thing is, we are."