Does it really have to be spelled out in black and white for people to realize something so obvious?
Killer's video now a Tory propaganda weapon
Since his attack on Ottawa last Oct. 22, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau has become the chilling face of Canadian homegrown terrorism. A widely published photo showing him brandishing a rifle with a kaffiyeh over the lower half of his face and his long hair flowing wildly has helped cement the image.
But the RCMP's release Friday of what would become his martyrdom video when he was gunned down on Parliament Hill leaves the impression that Zehaf-Bibeau was not a particularly adept jihadist.
RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson told a parliamentary committee that the minute-long video was shot immediately before his deadly attack at the National War Memorial, as he sat in his car in a downtown Ottawa parking lot.
It feels almost like an afterthought. None of the props that have come to be associated with such videos - black flags, Arabic script, weapons - are in the background. There is just a brick wall and the inside of his Toyota Corolla as Zehaf-Bibeau talks into the camera of a dashboard-mounted cellphone.
Far from menacing, he begins forcefully enough by declaring himself a representative of the "mujahedeen of this world" at war with Canada over its military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Canada's officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents," he says.
But soon he's grasping: "It's a disgrace you guys have forgotten God and have you let every indecency and (here he pauses, searching unsuccessfully for the right word) things running your land. We don't (another pause) we don't go for this." As threats go, it is pretty meek.
And the events of the day would show that he failed to back up his talk. "So, just aiming to hit some soldiers, just to show that you're not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful," he says in the only reference to his plot. While the murder of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in the minutes that followed was tragic, Zehaf-Bibeau's imagined slaughter of "some soldiers" amounted to the assassination of a single unarmed ceremonial guard.
When the Mounties initially refused to release the video, they cited concerns that it would be used as a propaganda tool. "We weighed the video's release against the knowledge that it could serve to further radicalize and ultimately incite more violence," Paulson told the committee Friday. "We considered that the video will be used by terrorist elements and sympathizers to facilitate recruitment, financing and action." Who will undoubtedly use the video are politicians, as became clear within seconds of the end of Paulson's presentation.
"I have to tell you, I'm a little bit, I almost need to take a breath after seeing that video and reading the transcript of what we just saw," Conservative MP Roxanne James said, sounding like she might need smelling salts.
Questioning from government members made clear that, although the video is of limited propaganda value to the jihadists, the Conservatives see it as a boost to their anti-terrorism agenda.
The Opposition NDP, on the other hand, asked whether police were investigating the role mental illness played in Zehaf-Bibeau's attack. And NDP MP Randall Garrison got Paulson to acknowledge that the Oct. 22 attack could have been prosecuted as terrorism under existing law, the implication being that the Tories proposed Anti-terrorism Act, Bill C-51, is unnecessary.
When Zehaf-Bibeau pulled off the road on his way to the war memorial and hooked up his cellphone to record his video, he denounced "Harper" and professed to be striking a blow against a government that was joining the fight against the Islamic State group. Little did he know that his final video would become a tool in the hands of the government he despised.
Killer's video now a Tory propaganda weapon
Killer's video now a Tory propaganda weapon
Since his attack on Ottawa last Oct. 22, Michael Zehaf-Bibeau has become the chilling face of Canadian homegrown terrorism. A widely published photo showing him brandishing a rifle with a kaffiyeh over the lower half of his face and his long hair flowing wildly has helped cement the image.
But the RCMP's release Friday of what would become his martyrdom video when he was gunned down on Parliament Hill leaves the impression that Zehaf-Bibeau was not a particularly adept jihadist.
RCMP commissioner Bob Paulson told a parliamentary committee that the minute-long video was shot immediately before his deadly attack at the National War Memorial, as he sat in his car in a downtown Ottawa parking lot.
It feels almost like an afterthought. None of the props that have come to be associated with such videos - black flags, Arabic script, weapons - are in the background. There is just a brick wall and the inside of his Toyota Corolla as Zehaf-Bibeau talks into the camera of a dashboard-mounted cellphone.
Far from menacing, he begins forcefully enough by declaring himself a representative of the "mujahedeen of this world" at war with Canada over its military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq. "Canada's officially become one of our enemies by fighting and bombing us and creating a lot of terror in our countries and killing us and killing our innocents," he says.
But soon he's grasping: "It's a disgrace you guys have forgotten God and have you let every indecency and (here he pauses, searching unsuccessfully for the right word) things running your land. We don't (another pause) we don't go for this." As threats go, it is pretty meek.
And the events of the day would show that he failed to back up his talk. "So, just aiming to hit some soldiers, just to show that you're not even safe in your own land, and you gotta be careful," he says in the only reference to his plot. While the murder of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo at the National War Memorial in the minutes that followed was tragic, Zehaf-Bibeau's imagined slaughter of "some soldiers" amounted to the assassination of a single unarmed ceremonial guard.
When the Mounties initially refused to release the video, they cited concerns that it would be used as a propaganda tool. "We weighed the video's release against the knowledge that it could serve to further radicalize and ultimately incite more violence," Paulson told the committee Friday. "We considered that the video will be used by terrorist elements and sympathizers to facilitate recruitment, financing and action." Who will undoubtedly use the video are politicians, as became clear within seconds of the end of Paulson's presentation.
"I have to tell you, I'm a little bit, I almost need to take a breath after seeing that video and reading the transcript of what we just saw," Conservative MP Roxanne James said, sounding like she might need smelling salts.
Questioning from government members made clear that, although the video is of limited propaganda value to the jihadists, the Conservatives see it as a boost to their anti-terrorism agenda.
The Opposition NDP, on the other hand, asked whether police were investigating the role mental illness played in Zehaf-Bibeau's attack. And NDP MP Randall Garrison got Paulson to acknowledge that the Oct. 22 attack could have been prosecuted as terrorism under existing law, the implication being that the Tories proposed Anti-terrorism Act, Bill C-51, is unnecessary.
When Zehaf-Bibeau pulled off the road on his way to the war memorial and hooked up his cellphone to record his video, he denounced "Harper" and professed to be striking a blow against a government that was joining the fight against the Islamic State group. Little did he know that his final video would become a tool in the hands of the government he despised.
Killer's video now a Tory propaganda weapon
