Enraptured by jihad, indubitably committed to the Islamist cause, wildly ambitious in envisioned mayhem.
But a rube. And apparently easy pickings for a slick undercover FBI agent who posed as ally whilst methodically constructing a case that resulted in multiple terrorism-related offences.
So smitten was Chiheb Esseghaier with his new-found fellow-traveller in the cause of radical Islam that the relationship which blossomed almost bordered on homoerotic love — even as the "subject" sought romantic advice about a female co-worker in the Montreal lab where he was doing research for a PhD in nanotechnology.
While the jury which has been listening to evidence in a Toronto courtroom against Esseghaier and his co-accused, Raed Jaser, still has a long way to go before beginning its deliberations, the profile which has emerged of this accused depicts a man seized by religious fervour yet lacking in any prudence or wariness.
He brought the agent, Tamer el-Noury, into the alleged plot afoot, and Tamer el-Noury brought the body pack which recorded countless hours of their scheming conversations.
In a way, it was akin to jumping into bed with someone on the first date, so wantonly did Esseghaier come to trust and value the agent who presented himself as a wealthy American businessman eager to finance the alleged terrorist spectacles under consideration — most specifically, as court as heard, sabotaging a Via passenger train en route from New York City to Toronto.
That was originally scheduled for Christmas Day, 2012, but had to be deferred after Jaser, leery over the "rash" approach exhibited by Esseghaier, withdrew from the project. In any event, the two men were unable to find a bridge best suited for the conceived derailment, which was to be triggered by disabling a section of track.
Nor was Jaser, as heard in intercepts, pleased with Esseghaier standing firm on taking their direction from his purported Al Qaeda-connected jihadi mentor, "The Responsible One," a man Esseghaier said had close ties to Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahari, the one-time eye surgeon who succeeded bin Laden as head of Al Qaeda. Esseghaier told el-Noury he'd been put in contact with The Responsible One — known to Esseghaier by the name El Masoul — by a Taliban fighter he'd met during two training trips made to the Iran-Afghanistan border. El Masoul, he said, wore a jacket that had once belonged to bin Laden. And through El Masoul, Esseghaier boasted about receiving a personal note of encouragement "in his studies" from al-Zawahari.
The veracity of these claims can't be proven but Esseghaier clearly believed them.
"He told me El Masoul was one of the very few people on the planet who could meet with al-Zawahari," el-Noury testified under cross-examination Friday, his 10th day on the witness stand.
Court heard Friday that, during one conversation while they were driving, Esseghaier picked out El Masoul from faces that appeared on a U.S. reward website of wanted terrorists. On the site, El Masoul is identified as Muhammad Abdullah Khalil ar-Rahayyal, one of the hijackers of an American plane in Pakistan in 1986, in which 20 passengers were indiscriminately killed. But that individual was from Lebanon and spoke Arabic. Esseghaier told el-Noury "The Responsible One" was an Iranian who spoke Farsi.
John Norris, lawyer for Jaser, cast doubt on Esseghaier's identification of El Masoul. El-Noury said he was just repeating what Esseghaier had told him.
The agent also recounted how Esseghaier, who obviously was financially strapped — he slept on a mattress laid out on the floor of his small Montreal apartment and seemed to own only a couple of shirts and one pair of trousers — insisted on adding $1,200 of his own money into a cash-stuffed suitcase he thought was being sent to Islamic fighters overseas. That occurred when Esseghaier was visiting el-Noury in the latter's New York apartment. The two men had already carefully counted out $250,000 which the agent, presumably, had been given by the FBI to further the ruse.
"He was careful with my money even more than he was with his own."
However Esseghaier feels about his portrayal in court as a naïve dupe, he isn't showing it in front of the jury. He has no lawyer and refused to enter a plea when formally indicted two weeks ago. It was Justice Michael Code who entered a "not guilty" plea for the defendant.
Jaser has pleaded not guilty.
On Friday, after Crown prosecutor Sarah Shaikh turned the witness over to the defence, Code asked Esseghaier if he had any questions for el-Noury. Esseghaier remained silent and stone-faced, turning his head to face the back of the courtroom.
If this was body language, it said: I do not see you, I do not hear you.
The jury was clearly aware of the exchange — or non-exchange — between defendant and judge. They must surely be curious about what had just transpired. Unless they're dumber than a bag of rocks, they probably get it by now: What they don't know, or at least that they don't know something.
The two accused, once alleged accomplices, now sit well removed from each other in the dock, with an empty glass stall separating them. They have never been seen to communicate with one another during the trial. For his part, Esseghaier has problems staying awake, either nodding off into zzzz-land or, as Friday, yawning widely.
Norris began his cross of the agent by focusing almost entirely on the defendant who is not his client.
The lawyer took el-Noury back to his first meeting with Esseghaier, on a plane departing Houston for San Jose in June 2012. There had been a problem over seat assignments and el-Noury was ultimately placed next to Esseghaier. Norris manoeuvred delicately around the purported "coincidence" which sparked friendship.
"There was an ongoing investigation into Mr. Esseghaier?"
"And as part of that investigation, you were tasked with forming a relationship with him?
"You engaged with Mr. Esseghaier and the two of you exchanged Islamic readings?"
Under direct examination by the Crown, el-Noury had already revealed the cover story — what he calls "the legend" — which he imparted to Esseghaier during the flight: That he was a real estate developer partly raised in Egypt; that his religious and political views had taken a sharp turn following his mother's death from brain cancer when he came under the influence of a more aggressively Islamist uncle; and that he'd given money for the financial support of mujahedeen fighters overseas.
"You were portraying yourself as someone who shared views with (Esseghaier)," noted Norris.
That day, and over the next five nights when they enjoyed dinner together in Santa Clara, the men had long, rambling discussions about Islam, the occupation of Muslim troops and the obligation of jihad.
"You shared with Mr. Esseghaier how meeting him had had a real effect on you, how fate had brought the two of your together," said Norris.
Well, fate had nothing to do with it.
"Because of meeting him, your life had a purpose now," Norris continued.
"Something like that," el-Noury responded.
Norris: "That's the gist?"
El-Noury: "That's the legend."
The trial continues Tuesday.
Rosie DiManno usually appears Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.
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