Interesting spin from the London free Press: all innuendo, conjecture and "unnamed sources". It does appear police are looking to locate and speak with a third party,apparently named "Jamal". Good luck with that.
Reproduced under the Fair Dealings Provisions of the Copyright ActR.S.C 1985 (as amended)
http://www.lfpress.com/2016/08/12/before-he-was-killed-aaron-driver-had-asked-for-a-cab-to-take-him-to-citiplaza-in-london-home-to-a-canadian-forces-recruiting-centre
Source: London Free Press
Author: Jennifer O'Brien
Publication Date: Saturday, August 13 Edition
Title: Was Military the Suspects Intended Target?
The presence of a Canadian Forces recruitment centre at a downtown London mall has raised suspicion a suspected terrorist killed in Strathroy Wednesday was targeting the military.
The cab company that sent a taxi to pick up Aaron Driver just before the deadly takedown by police has said Driver wanted to go to the CitiPlaza mall in London, though it remains unclear if that was his intended final destination.
The RCMP and the military weren’t answering questions about those concerns Friday, but a source with a connection to the investigation said the possibility was raised among law enforcement officials.
That suspected terrorist, Aaron Driver, had spent months seeking weapons and explosives in the London region, sources told The Free Press.
In the absence of new information from police Friday, small details about Driver, his teenage years in London and his potential crime surfaced.
It was well known criminals in the area were involved in helping him look for weapons recently, a source said.
Driver put the word out so widely, it’s a surprise local police hadn’t learned of his activity, the source said.
At a news conference Thursday, the RCMP said Driver was not under their surveillance and they had no indication he was planning an attack.
RCMP said they were alerted by the FBI at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday that an individual was planning to bomb an urban centre during the morning or afternoon rush hour sometime in the next 24 hours.
A video showed a masked man pledging that Canadians would pay “today” for fighting against the Islamic State.
The RCMP had identified the man as Driver by about 11 a.m and were waiting for him when he came out of his house in Strathroy about 4:30 p.m. carrying a backpack and got into a cab.
Officers blocked the vehicle and told Driver to get out, but he apparently detonated a bomb inside the cab. He left the cab and was killed.
Driver called for a cab about 4 p.m. Wednesday and said he wanted to go to the London mall, Leo’s Taxi in Strathroy says.
There’s speculation the downtown plaza was a stop along the way, and Driver was heading, perhaps by walking to the nearby train station, to a larger centre.
The Toronto Transit Commission and Metrolinx, which operates the GO Transit system, said they had been alerted about a potential threat.
A manager of CitiPlaza would not confirm if it had been alerted about a threat.
Privately, merchants in the mall have expressed concern about a military recruitment centre — a logical terrorism target — so close to them. Security at the centre has been beefed up recently, one told The Free Press.
One shopkeeper said fears the military was a target was the talk of mall tenants, but that there was no police activity outside the centre Wednesday.
As well, the timing of an attack might not have worked, because the centre closes at 4:30 p.m. each day.
However, Driver was known to sometimes stay at a home on Blanchard Crescent in London, which is being investigated as part of the terrorism probe. The house is owned by a Hiam Zabian, according to city tax records, although police at the scene Thursday were seeking a man named Jamal.
Driver has a long and troubled personal connection to the military. His father was an Air force corporal and a fourth-generation military man. But Driver was estranged from his father for much of his life, after his mother died of cancer when he was seven.
He called Wayne Driver his stepfather, and said he was the result of a sperm donor.
In his martyrdom video, which the RCMP played at their news conference, Driver alluded to Canadian military action in Syria and Iraq and the withdrawal of the country’s fighter jets from the battles.
“Then, perhaps, you found yourself safe from retaliation because you ran away from the battlefield. No, no by Allah, you still have much to pay for,” he said.
In their news conference, the Mounties said they did not know where Driver was headed or what specific target he had in mind, only that they believe he was “looking for a location that was heavily populated.”
— With files by Free Press reporter Jennifer O’Brien
- mod edit to add link -
