AN ENDURING THREAT: EUROPE’S ISLAMIST TERROR NETWORKS THEN AND NOW he claimed asylum, saying he had suffered torture and been falsely accused of terror offences. He lived in Canada for a further four years, staying in an apartment connected to the GIA and supporting himself through theft. His asylum claim was denied in 1995, but he was not deported after he fraudulently obtained a Canadian passport. Ressam left Canada in 1998 for Afghanistan via Peshawar in Pakistan and met Abu Zubaydah, before travelling on to a training camp in April that year. He returned to Montreal in 1999 via Seoul and Los Angeles and began to formulate his plot to target LAX airport. He moved to Vancouver and began to produce explosives before attempting to cross into the US on 14 December 1999 with the explosives in 1001 his car. His car was searched and he was arrested. After associates testified against him, Ressam was convicted of conspiracy to commit a terrorist act and smuggling explosives in 2001. He initially cooperated with investigators before withdrawing his testimony in 2003 and was sentenced to 22 years in 2005. In 1002 2010, this was ruled to have been too short, and was increased to 37 years in 2012. Foreign training/combat: Ressam travelled to Afghanistan in 1998 and attended Khalden training camp where he learned how to use light weapons, how to make “explosive devices” and techniques for “sabotage, the selection of targets, urban warfare, tactics (including assassinations), security, and the use 1003 of poisons and poisonous gasses”. Movements: France (1984, 1992-94); Canada (1994-1998, 1999); Afghanistan (1998-99). Criminal history: When living in Canada, Ressam supported himself with petty theft. He was arrested four times and convicted once for robbing tourists. He also trafficked stolen identity documents and bank cards, providing these to other militants. Known to the authorities: Ressam was under CSIS surveillancefrom 1996 until 1998 when he left Canada for Afghanistan after the phone number of his apartment was discovered on the body of a GIA militant killed in Roubaix, France. In April 1999, Ressam was named in a letter from the French authorities asking the Canadians to search properties linked to Algerian militants. Canadian authorities were looking for Ressam when he used a fake ID to evade them and re-enter the country in 1999. Networks and associates: Al-Qaeda: -! Abu Zubaydah [Zubaydah met with Ressam in Peshawar in 1999. Zubaydah approved 1004 him and he was sent to a training camp in April 1998]; David Courtailler, Richard Reid, Zacharias Moussaoui [The men all appear to have been at Khalden training camp at the same 1005 time]. Abu Doha network: -! Abu Doha [Ressam alleged Doha had overseen the plot before withdrawing 1006 his testimony]. -! Other: Mokhtar Haouari [Algerian refugee who Ressam worked with to traffic fake and stolen documents and bank cards]; Abdelmajid Dahoumane [Ressam’s accomplice to the LAX plot, ! ! 1001 ‘Ahmed Ressam’s Millennium Plot’, Frontline. 1002 ‘'Millennium bomber' Ahmed Ressam given longer sentence’, BBC News, 24 October 2012. 1003 ‘United States v. Ressam’, United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, 12 March 2012, available at: http://www.investigativeproject.org/documents/case_docs/1927.pdf, last visited: 9 August 2016. 1004 ‘Ahmed Ressam’s Millennium Plot’, Frontline. 1005 ‘Europe fears Islamic converts may give cover for extremism’, The New York Times, 19 July 2004. 1006 Crumley, B., ‘The Terror Suspect Who May Go Free’, Time, 30 October 2006. ! ! 80 !