Canada Faces Security Concerns as Individual With Alleged al-Qaeda Links Issues Repeated Threats, Authorities Cite Mental Health Factors

Image: Jihad Watch

A homeless man with a documented history of involvement with al-Qaeda and longstanding mental health issues is facing additional criminal charges after allegedly issuing fresh threats from behind bars, this time targeting Passport Canada offices in Quebec.

Mohamed Abdullah Warsame, a 52-year-old Somali-born Canadian citizen, appeared before the Montreal courthouse via video conference on Thursday. The appearance came as prosecutors expanded the case against him to include new allegations that he threatened to bomb federal government offices while in custody.

Following the brief hearing in Quebec court, Warsame’s lawyer, Leonard Waxman, emphasized his client’s severe psychiatric condition. Waxman told reporters that Warsame has struggled with mental illness for many years and was recently diagnosed with schizophrenia, a condition that significantly impairs his judgment and perception of reality.

“He really has deep psychiatric problems,” Waxman said. “We know that he’s sick. That doesn’t mean he won’t go to jail, but I want to see if I can do something psychiatrically for him because he’s not a well person, and that’s the reality of this case.”

Warsame was initially arrested by the RCMP in June after allegedly telling a staff member at Montreal’s Old Brewery Mission homeless shelter that he intended to detonate bombs in the city’s public transit system. He was subsequently charged with uttering threats in connection with those remarks.

Earlier this week, authorities laid additional charges, accusing Warsame of uttering threats and committing a terrorist hoax. These new allegations stem from an incident in November in which he allegedly used a jail phone to threaten to blow up Passport Canada offices in both Montreal and Quebec City.

The case has drawn heightened attention due to Warsame’s past. In 2009, he pleaded guilty in a U.S. federal court in Minnesota to providing material support to the terrorist organization al-Qaeda. According to court documents from that case, Warsame travelled to Afghanistan in 2000, where he attended al-Qaeda training camps and met the group’s founder, Osama bin Laden. He later sent money to a senior commander associated with the camps.

After returning from Afghanistan, Warsame relocated to Minneapolis, where prosecutors said he continued to share information with al-Qaeda associates during 2002 and 2003. He was arrested in December 2003 and spent more than five years in solitary confinement before formally pleading guilty. In 2009, he was sentenced to 92 months in federal prison, receiving credit for time already served.

Following the completion of his sentence, Warsame was deported to Canada in October 2010.

Despite his past, Waxman insisted on Thursday that Warsame has no current ties to extremist organizations and poses no real threat. “Absolutely zero,” he said, stressing that his client lacks both the intent and the capacity to carry out any attack.

“He can mouth off that he’s going to blow this up or blow that,” Waxman added. “I don’t even think he has a match to do it.”

(This Article was originally published by Jihad Watch)