Cablegate: No Passport for Convicted Terrorist Kamel

VZCZCXRO8567
OO RUEHGA RUEHHA RUEHMT RUEHQU RUEHVC
DE RUEHOT #0647 2331907
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 211907Z AUG 09
FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 9778
INFO RUCNCAN/ALL CANADIAN POSTS COLLECTIVE PRIORITY

UNCLAS OTTAWA 000647

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE

E.O 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER PREL PGOV CA
SUBJECT: NO PASSPORT FOR CONVICTED TERRORIST KAMEL

REF: OTTAWA 079

1. (SBU) Summary and comment. The Supreme Court of Canada declined
to hear an appeal on August 20 by convicted terrorist and
naturalized Canadian citizen Fateh Kamel of the federal government's
refusal to issue him a passport (reftel). The decision decisively
underscores the federal government's right to deny passports to
individuals on the basis of national security. End summary and
comment.

2. (U) Fateh Kamel was born in Algeria in 1961. He fought against
the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the mid 1980s, and moved to
Canada in 1988. He married a Canadian schoolteacher and became a
Canadian citizen in 1993. In 1991, he allegedly attended a training
camp in Afghanistan, and in 1993 fought in Bosnia. In 1996, he met
Osama Bin Laden in Khartoum and worked with al-Qaeda and Algerian
groups. He returned to Montreal in 1997, where he allegedly
specialized in the forging of documents (especially Canadian
passports) for Global Jihad, and allegedly headed a group of radical
Islamists, including convicted "Millennium Bomber" Ahmed Ressam. He
currently resides in Montreal with his wife and young son.

3. (U) Authorities arrested Kamel in Jordan in March 1999 and
extradited him to France, where courts convicted him in 2001 on
charges of supporting terrorism and plotting to blow up Paris metro
stations. The court sentenced him to eight years imprisonment. He
served four years in prison. Authorities reduced his sentence for
good behavior and released him in January 2005. He returned to
Canada on January 29, 2005.

4. (U) Kamel applied for a Canadian passport in June 2005. The
then-Liberal government denied the application, but in March 2008
the Federal Court ruled that the denial infringed Kamel's
constitutional right to leave and enter Canada. The Federal Court
of Appeal set aside the ruling in January 2009, prompting Kamel's
final application to the Supreme Court, which on August 20 declined
to hear the case. According to practice, the Supreme Court did not
provide its reasons, while assigning any and all costs to Kamel.

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