by Mohammed Adam
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: February 2, 2010

[PHOTO: Mohamed Harkat seemed in a lighthearted mood as his testimony began in the Security Certificate Hearing Monday, February 1, 2010 at the Supreme Court of Canada.]


OTTAWA — Mohamed Harkat completed two days of testimony Tuesday, saying he is neither a sleeper agent, an extremist nor a member of the Bin Laden network, as the government contends.

He told federal court judge Simon Noel that he never knew nor met alleged 9/11 mastermind Abu Zubaydah, and while in Pakistan, he did not associate with extremists.

“That's not true,” he said when asked about being a sleeper agent.

Harkat completed his testimony on a day that his expensive gambling habit, during which he lost between $65,000 and $100,000 was laid bare in court.

He acknowledged a corrosive addiction that put him in debt and nearly ruined his marriage.

Harkat said he lost thousands of dollars playing mainly blackjack at the Lac Leamy Casino in Gatineau. He gambled every cent he had, raiding his savings and deposit account. Harkat said he couldn't help himself, winning and losing large sums of money. Eventually, he had to ask that he be banned from the casino after his wife Sophie asked him choose gambling or her.

“I tell the security (at the casino) I like to ban myself. I did for a year,” he said.

“It was out of control. I lost all the business money I had.”

He explained compulsive gamblers who lose large sums of money consistently can go to the casino authorities and virtually ask to be saved from themselves by signing a form that they not be allowed in.

If they are caught inside, they are asked to leave or thrown out.

But Harkat said even after he made the commitment, he snuck back in “lots” of time. That's when his wife issued the ultimatum and finally, around 2002 he went back to the casino and signed a five-year self-banning order. Slowly, he weaned himself from the addiction until he stopped gambling.

Harkat's gambling has become an important issue in the case against him, with the defence arguing that an obsessive gambler who once ended up in jail, does not fit the profile of a typical sleeper agent who necessarily must attract little attention. They also argue the behaviour is unislamic, and very much out of character for what one would expect of an extremist. But the government says gambling is an addiction that anyone could have.

The government alleges that Harkat came to Canada in 1995 from Pakistan as a sleeper agent to await orders. In 2002, he was declared a national security threat and detained under a security certificate. The hearing before Noel is to determine whether the government was right to detain him. He faces deportation to his native Algeria if the judge rules against him.

During Tuesday's testimony, the simmering frustration over his lawyers' lack of access to information boiled over again, leading to a tense exchange between defence counsel Matt Webber and the judge.

The problem was over which part of the information against Harkat came from intercepts or human sources. The court, backed by the government, had refused a defence request to compartmentalize the information and Webber complained it made defending Harkat difficult.

But the judge said the information in question was clear enough for the lawyers to mount a defence. Noel said Harkat should tell everything he knows to make easy for the court to come to a just decision.

“I need his help. I need it strong. If he wants me to go in favour of his position versus the other, I need all of his contribution,” the judge said.

Harkat will appear on the stand today for cross-examination.

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