![John Nuttall and Amanda Korody embrace after a Supreme Court judge ordered the release of the Canadian couple found guilty of planting pressure cooker bombs at a crowded Canada Day holiday party, saying the pair were entrapped in a police sting operation, outside of the law courts in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, July 29, 2016. REUTERS/Ben Nelms (Newscom TagID: rtrleight051866.jpg) [Photo via Newscom]](http://cdn01.theintercept.com/wp-uploads/sites/1/2016/08/john-amanda-canada-terror-promo.jpg)
Sting operations — in which an undercover agent or informant provides the means and opportunity to lure otherwise incapable people into committing a crime — have represented the default tactic for counterterrorism prosecutions since the 9/11 attacks.
Critics believe these stings amount to entrapment. Human Rights Watch, for instance, argues that law enforcement authorities in the U.S. have overstepped their role by “effectively participating in developing terrorism plots.” Nonetheless, U.S. courts have rejected entrapment defenses, no matter how hapless the defendants.
In Canada, however, the legal standing of counterterrorism stings has suddenly shifted. Last week, a high-ranking judge in British Columbia stayed the convictions of two alleged terrorists, ruling that they had been “skillfully manipulated” and entrapped by an elaborate sting operation organized by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
“The specter of the defendants serving a life sentence for a crime that the police manufactured by exploiting their vulnerabilities, by instilling fear that they would be killed if they backed out, and by quashing all doubts they had in the religious justifications for the crime, is offensive to our concept of fundamental justice,” the judge wrote. “Simply put, the world has enough terrorists. We do not need the police to create more out of marginalized people who have neither the capacity nor sufficient motivation to do it themselves.”
This is the first time that a counterterrorism sting — whose tactics were developed by the FBI through modifying those of undercover drug stings — has been thrown out of court whole cloth in Canada or the U.S.
Supreme Court Justice Catherine J. Bruce was ruling in the case of John Nuttall and his common-law wife, Amanda Korody, two drug addicts who lived on the streets in British Columbia. As part of a sting operation in which the RCMP paid at least 200 officers a total of more than 900,000 Canadian dollars in overtime, law-enforcement agents encouraged the couple to place pressure-cooker bombs at the British Columbia parliament building on Canada Day 2013.
As in FBI counterterrorism stings, RCMP provided Nuttall and Korody with everything they needed to become terrorists. In addition, as a result of frustrations that Nuttall would not commit to a feasible plot, the undercover Mounties offered inducements for him to move forward, including showing him CA$20,000 in cash.
In June 2015, the couple were found guilty and faced possible life sentences. But the convictions were not entered, pending a judicial review of whether RCMP had entrapped the couple. Bruce ruled that in fact they had been entrapped.
The case of Nuttall and Korody is striking for its similarities to counterterrorism stings in the United States. The FBI has arrested, and the Department of Justice has prosecuted, dozens of people who share Nuttall’s and Korody’s traits: broke, no connections to terrorists, and of questionable capacity and mental state.
In the United States, where a new FBI counterterrorism sting is announced every few weeks, more than 200 people have been convicted based on undercover counterterrorism stings since the 9/11 attacks.
The so-called Newburgh Four, a group of poor and unsophisticated men who plotted with an FBI undercover informant to bomb synagogues in the Bronx, were convicted even after trial evidence revealed the government informant had offered them $250,000 to participate in the plot.
Abu Khalid Abdul-Latif, who had a history of suicide attempts, and Walli Mujahidh, who was diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, were convicted of planning to attack a military recruiting station near Seattle as part of a plot led by FBI informant Robert Childs, a convicted child molester.
Kosovo-born Sami Osmakac, a broke man in Tampa who was also diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder, is serving 40 years in prison for his part in an FBI plot to bomb a local bar and attack a casino. He was convicted after FBI agents described him in accidentally recorded conversations as a “retarded fool” who doesn’t have “a pot to piss in.”
There are many more examples.
While Abdul-Latif and Mujahidh pleaded guilty to their charges, the Newburgh Four and Osmakac argued entrapment at trial. They joined about a dozen others who have tried a similar defense following counterterrorism stings. None has been successful in U.S. courts.
In recent months, FBI officials have commented publicly about plans to increase counterterrorism stings, despite the fact that the FBI’s dragnet has been ineffective at catching, among others, Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Orlando nightclub shooter Omar Mateen.
So just to drive this home a bit for all those who are happy he is free, just yesterday I saw Nuttall and Korody sitting in my neighborhood, about 3 blocks from the very spot he planted the fake bombs.. She had sunglasses and her hijab on but he looked absolutely bombed or high or something. They were sitting next to a drug store across the road from the grocery store I was just shopping in with my 5 year old daughter. The thought that this person capable taking the actions to cause of such a level of violence against civilians was sitting free in our neighborhood, possibly even dreaming up other ways to kill us was very unsettling.
For all of you who support this man, I invite you to allow him and accept him into your community rather than in mine.
Go watch the video yourself, it is on Youtube. This ‘innocent’ guy lives in my city. Great. If he does kill, the blood is on your PC hands.
From CBC:
“John Nuttall and Amanda Korody had no idea they were being videotaped by the RCMP in the weeks leading up to their arrest in July 2013. They are each charged with four terrorism-related offenses.
In the latest video played for the jury, recorded on June 28, Nuttall is seen working at a large table in their hotel room in Delta, south of Vancouver. He messes about with glue and pressure cookers, which he is attempting to assemble into bombs.
He repeatedly stresses they have no time to waste.
“Soldier, on your feet,” Nuttall tells his wife.
“I need you now. I hope you’re not just sitting on the edge of the toilet or something.”
He commands Korody to research buildings around the legislature, suggesting she use Google’s Street View service, which offers street-level photographs, to case the area in Victoria they plan to attack.”
In a general sense there is some confusion about who gets targeted in these entrapment schemes. It’s could be anyone but it’s extremely rare that any of the background information and activities are revealed because it isn’t documented and many of the players are often civilian agents picking up extra cash or other favours. This happens from the lowliest of small town departments up to the RCMP and it’s part of police culture. Prosecutors are well aware of what goes on but cooperate fully as do many defense lawyers. Garbage in garbage out is a good way to describe it and it’s all part of the capitalism and the class war we talk so little about in polite company.
The difference between the two nations is that Canada has a fair and balanced judicial system while the US system is corrupt!
Another thing to keep in mind while defending this wannabe terrorist killer, is that his own family with their kids were in attendance at the celebration where he planted the bombs that day.
You know what other state used secretive police organizations to make retards and racial minorities disappear?
I believe that there is a “vaccine theory” at work here.
Use informants to induce crime and then prosecute the hell out of the target with the idea that it awakes the community’s immune system to terror recruiting. It spreads the idea that if someone is trying to recruit you, you should stay away from them because they are the FBI.
So then. if/when a real ISIS recruiter comes into the scene, they can’t gain traction because everyone thinks it is probably the FBI and they are being setup.
Sadly, it’s a pretty smart idea (if you ignore the plight of the targets).
Nobody really controls cops and spies, they do whatever they want and they want more money from the budget, they profit from insecurity and not from security + if you add American bank’s needs to destabilize all countries and militarize them and make money from it…. then you get dead Canadians, Germans, French, etc. Obviously they want to militarize Canadian cops and make money from it, therefore they create terrorist cases. But militarization is part of bigger profit: the goal is to create a totalitarian capitalism, with the pretext of fighting terrorism. They will not just sell arms to the cops and to the military, they will profit from mass spying of citizens, etc. But the main goal is totalitarian liberal capitalism i.e. instead of one dictator in socialist countries, now we get many billionaires who own the state and rule without any respect for workers rights or anything. we are going back to the middle age or antic slavery. that’s the aim of totalitarian system: exploitation, profit and control.
I agree with the B.C. Supreme Court Justice Catherine Bruce decision. The young couple were suckered and led by the RCMP and other agencies who, likely as not, do this to too many people in all sorts of cases, in a malicious attempt to justify they are doing a “good” job while letting society’s real bad guys, the white collar crooks with tonnes of cash and power, continue their greedy ways at the expense of the rest of us.
What Nuttall and Karody are is a backdrop to our Bill C-51.
C-51 is perhaps the most controversial legislation to pass in Canada in some years. Among some number of other aspects, it criminalized public activism and moved investigation of those suspected of, or engaging in such, into secret. Correspondingly, our security service was given authority to operate domestically and further, given authority to conduct disruption operations, again in secret. (Disruption tactics have in the past included arson, theft of explosives and false charges of innocents for such. –And a slap on the wrist to those responsible when found out.)
This captured everyone from a kitchen table environmental advocacy group on about a pipeline, to Greenpeace publicizing clear-cutting to a world-wide audience. Were talking legitimate public dissent here that was becoming a major irritant to those doing resource extraction. Evidently our Conservative government of the day was getting a little short with our courts and their reluctance to effectively deal with these environmental protesters.
Nuttall and Korody were managed from the get-go, complete with a contingent of some 240 police officers. In spite of $900,000 in overtime, I strongly expect that there was little for them to accomplish beyond adding weight to the issue if by nothing else than the sheer size of the operation.
This has all the marks of a ‘false flag operation’ to aid the passage of controversial, ill-considered legislation.
Thanks for the backstory !<3
But Justin Trudeau is so handsome! Quit bogging the readers down with technical details. He is the best looking prime minister to come by in a while. All this talk of bills this operation–nobody has time for that.
Generally speaking I think Canada has a saner approach than, say, the US but that said I have noticed that stuff as well and Canada’s been aggressive recently (eg prohibiting mask wearing at demonstrations, which might make more sense if everything wasn’t increasingly under video surveillance). Also iirc Canada originated the Mr Big sting schematic that the US has taken up as well now (UK too iirc) which I have always considered unethical and definitely one of the precursors to the scripts we see used so often in FBI terrorism informant operations. Obviously nothing new but I think a lot of legislation is getting passed by manipulating events and outcomes of events. I haven’t heard of or thought of a way to prevent that short of education in critical thinking and a return to wisdom being considered valuable instead of “too serious”.
Sorry. That was difficult to follow. Hard to write a cogent lengthy comment on a 4″ screen showing 4 lines at a time. If you need me to clarify let me know.
Sure the RCMP entrapped them but don’t try and paint Nuttall as something he is not. What he is not is a gentle and non-provocative human being. What he is, is a man who willingly and knowingly planted bombs at the Legislature on Canada Day, which every year draws 1000’s of families and children with live bands and festivities. He knew full well that 100’s or more innocents would die as he planted those bombs in the soil. He did that with his eyes wide open. This is not some half-wit uneducated moron. The anti-media is doing a great job of painting him with that brush but those that knew or or know him personally know he has always been an angry and violent man who is not afraid to cross the criminal line. He has beaten people before to rob them and intimidate them and was almost always clad in jack boots, spiked clothing and sporting a shaved head, body covered in basement or prison tat’s. He is a large scowling man and can be intimidating and he would use that to get his way on the street with those he didn’t respect or who showed fear. All of this was before his ‘Islam’ days, when he was prone to the punk and metal lifestyle but on the dark side of those tracks emanating from the crusty street punk scene.
Again, the RCMP did it all wrong. But they had likely profiled him and knew that even if he was incapable of masterminding a bomb at that low point in his life, he was more than willing to use one if given the chance and drag his gullible life partner down the rabbit hole as he did so.
In my opinion, releasing a violent individual like this back on the streets and crying foul of the forces that got him off the streets for a short time is a mistake. I highly doubt this man has learned anything from this mistake other than to be less trusting. He certainly hasn’t had some sort of life and vision changing revelation in prison that is giving us back a changed man who holds no ill will towards his fellow citizens.
So you can all shout ‘hurray! he is innocent!’ until he either beats and robs a business man for a brief case, ties a low level street dealer to a chair and beats him or googles the newest home made bomb making plans and blows up your kids, just to make a point.
So convict him of something real, or increase the jail time of the crimes he commits. Manufacturing a crime and entrapping him is a foolish roundabout solution. And untenable, as this ruling shows.
It isn’t acceptable and they screwed up and now the lunatic goes free. They can’t watch him forever. At least all the time in prison may have helped him kick his addiction. Now he will have a clearer thought path, hopefully he does turn a new leaf.
Thank god we don’t live in a society where convictions for fake crimes are upheld. Think of the potential for abuse by the state.
Once again… Fake or not. He physically carried and buried the bombs in an area that with a stage setup for bands to entertain families with children on Canada Day. The author insinuates that he was afraid of retribution if he didn’t follow through? BS. He had designs on dying for his cause at the hands of authorities anyways.
Lock him up and throw away the key. This was not his first stint in prison.
Unless you’re outraged at the violent goons who set up and enabled him, you don’t have a pot to piss in as far as ideas go. It’s people like you who enable state terrorism and ultimately make this a worse world.
Keep in mind I have known Nuttall personally for about 20 years and once considered him a friend.
He WILLINGLY carried and planted the bombs in an area with the full expectation of killing children and families.
If you support that action, you are a terrorist in my opinion and I hope they log your IP and monitor you.
And incredibly expensive. Canadians are known cheapskates. I’m surprised they don’t seem to mind their law and order types waste such huge amounts of resources.
Sure the RCMP entrapped them but don’t try and paint Nuttall as something he is not. What he is not is a gentle and non-provocative human being. What he is, is a man who willingly and knowingly planted bombs at the Legislature on Canada Day, which every year draws 1000’s of families and children with live bands and festivities. He knew full well that 100’s or more innocents would die as he planted those bombs in the soil. He did that with his eyes wide open. This is not some half-wit uneducated moron. The anti-media is doing a great job of painting him with that brush but those that knew or or know him personally know he has always been an angry and violent man who is not afraid to cross the criminal line. He has beaten people before to rob them and intimidate them and was almost always clad in jack boots, spiked clothing and sporting a shaved head, body covered in basement or prison tat’s . He is a large scowling man and can be intimidating and he would use that to get his way on the street with those he didn’t respect or who showed fear. All of this was before his ‘Islam’ days, when he was prone to the punk and metal lifestyle but on the dark side of those tracks emanating from the crusty street punk scene.
Again, the RCMP did it all wrong. But they had likely profiled him and knew that even if he was incapable of masterminding a bomb at that low point in his life, he was more than willing to use one if given the chance and drag his gullible life partner down the rabbit hole as he did so.
In my opinion, releasing a violent individual like this back on the streets and crying foul of the forces that got him off the streets for a short time is a mistake. I highly doubt this man has learned anything from this mistake other than to be less trusting. He certainly hasn’t had some sort of life and vision changing revelation in prison that is giving us back a changed man who holds no ill will towards his fellow citizens.
So you can all shout ‘hurray! he is innocent!’ until he either beats and robs a business man for a brief case, ties a low level street dealer to a chair and beats him or googles the newest home made bomb making plans and blows up your kids, just to make a point.
you are working for the Gov, your opinion is not independent, you repeat mantra, phrases. IF he robs a business man or beats somebody, he will be arrested for that and not for terrorism. He would not get idea to kill 1000 people without RCMP. there are many drug addicts in this world, they should not be misused to create insecurity and profit for the cops, secret service and banks that own private arms manufacturer companies.
Do you know Nuttall? I did. for a few decades. He wasn’t a mindless robot then and isn’t now. It is a good route for a defense to take and you all have been duped by the media who have clearly sided with the defendants. Nuttall is and always has been a man who is willing to use violence to get his own way. The RCMP didn’t instill violence into him now any more than they did back when he was a jack booted tough guy playing in punk and metal bands.
No matter who Nuttall was, no matter Nuttall is, no matter whether you knew him or not the fact remains that he would not have had the opportunity nor the resources to pull off the act alone.
To abstract the issue: if the state approached everyone who had bad ideas and secretly enabled and encouraged those bad ideas through money and man power the majority of us would be behind bars.
Aaron Driver didn’t need any help creating explosive devices and proved that by blowing up the cab he was in. Luckily he didn’t kill the driver and only he died. If Driver could do it, Nuttall could do it. The guy isn’t illiterate. He was actually quite a good musician and could write and record music using electronic devices – therefore has the ability to put things together so to speak. If a spud like Driver could create a bomb from reading forums and watching videos all while on the watch list, then Nuttall is as well. I am glad that he is on their radar now and I will always come back to the key fact. Regardless of whether he was empowered or not he made a conscious and physical decision to plant devices that he 100% thought were real and would kill, maim and cripple 100’s of innocent people. Is this really a man you want walking the streets? C’mon now!
“if the state approached everyone who had bad ideas and secretly enabled and encouraged those bad ideas through money and man power the majority of us would be behind bars.”
I think not. Of all the people I know I am 100% certain that not a single one of them could be coerced with money or glory or religious ends to murder scores of families and children on Canada Day at the legislature using bombs packed with shrapnel.
Well, except for Nuttall of course :) – That being said he was always had a bit of a screw loose..
You’re the worst kind of apologist for state terrorism in the land of What If. A scared rabbit willing to make others suffer just so you tremble a little bit less in your hole.
He’s not an apologist. I would guess s/he’s part of the RCMP in some way.
I work with many RCMP (I’m an ambulance attendant) who do a great job and who I’m thankful to have around protecting my safety.
But there are always 10-15% of the RCMP, CBSA, etc that are more like bullies in uniform than honest public servants.
The FBI is a corrupt agency that obsesses over political control of the population, a close analogy of STASI in East Germany. Like STASI, the FBI would never dream of investigating the powerful criminals on Wall Street; even when their actions are gross and blatant (HSBC laundering billions in drug cartel money), such entities escape criminal charges.
The FBI would never bust mid-level banksters on drug charges (despite the fact that many are cocaine addicts) and have them collect incriminating evidence on top-ranking Wall Street executives engaged in fraudulent schemes; instead, FBI agents and executives angle for lucrative jobs in those sectors after leaving government.
There are dozens of examples of such behavior at the FBI; just looking at top executives, Louis Freeh went on to credit card fraud giant MBNA, later swallowed by Bank of America and which wrote off $60 billion in bad MBNA credit loans in 2008-2009; Mueller went on to some politically connected law firm; and Comey, current FBI head, was involved in Lockheed Martin and HSBC before Obama picked him as FBI head.
One other notable example is FBI Agent Jeffrey Taylor, notable for overseeing the final FBI anthrax attack coverup in summer 2008 (he was the guy leading the press conferences), who went on to corporate jobs with Ernst & Young, Raytheon, and finally, General Motors.
The most telling fact, of course, is the lack of FBI or Justice charges for the criminal fraudsters involved in the 2008 economic collapse; add that to their persecution of whistleblowers, political activists and journalists, plus PR-centric ‘terrorism investigations’ like this one, and you really do have the analogue of East Germany’s STASI.
Perhaps Canada’s action will persuade the FBI to acknowledge is true purpose: fear-mongering for neo-capitalism.
I do not understand why police go through all the trouble to manufacture these cases and imprison people they manipulate into a conviction. What is the end goal. They spend hundreds of thousands of dollars and then the imprisoned cost hundreds of thousands more to keep in prison. Could at least ONE law enforcement official explain to us the reason for these stings. Is it because not enough is going on and they need the money? Sure appears that way.
It’s because they get counted as foiled terror plots. So the FBI can claim something like 50 foiled terror plots, when in fact it’s probably just a few actual plots.
“…and they need the money?”
Oh, jeez. A little bit louder now, and with a lot more emphasis. Because money will continuously flow to the Secret State. And to a lesser degree, a PR stunt. One begets the other, but there is only one end game.
Peter Bergen wrote a book in 2016 about most of the FBI “terrorism” arrests and prosecutions.
The FBI’s history is replete with underhanded tactics, massive failures, and overblown accomplishments.
It’s enough to make a person livid.
I don’t totally disagree with all of this but I *do* think a lot of it isn’t meanspirited so much as bad training and information. Years ago FBI agents weren’t being taught that terrorism was very common, related to Islam, and out to kill your family and perceived way of life. These were considered unusual (and very much so) cases. Sort of like from what I have heard serial killer cases are treated (and people generally arent as far as I know coerced into becoming serial killers by the FBI (as in the long term here and there sort).
At the same time from what I have read the average agent age has decreased, there are fewer “lifer” types and most of the field and CT agents seem to have joined up just after 9/11. When you are looking for a problem and can’t find it maybe you inadvertantly create it because you either expext it, you are told to expect it, or want a case of your career (maybe to leverage into a highpaying job in the public sector afterwards). Does that make it ok? Hell no. But it does noone any good to forget that these are people too and often they are under an inordinate amount of pressure to secure “results”. I think a lot of them convince themselves they are doing the right thing. Or I hope I do. The alternative seems to me far too pessimistic and cynical. When you are trained to see everything as a nail, it becomes easier, I am guessing, to be a hammer. Or not fit in if you don’t. Like that experiment with the same size lines and social opinion. Who knows?
“…provided Nuttall and Korody with everything they needed to become terrorists.”
I am willing to go as far as to say, capitalism is the real provider here.
Democracy, slowly bled to death for the ill gotten, merciless will of fears strict parenting by HATE.
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police have come a long ways since the days of Dudley Do-Right. Too bad they’re using whatever “skill” they have gained by using it in the same sneaky, destructive and money grubbing, vainglorious ways that the FBI so frequently does.
J. Edgar Hoover was in the pocket of the Capone organization before the FBI existed. What do you think has changed?
The FBI just declared themselves to be DOJ, too, and cleared Shillary of blatant criminal behavior. The names may change but the song remains the same.
I doubt that Hoover was in Capone’s pocket…he was too stupid. There were rumours, however, that the New York mob had the goods on his pecadillos, so that he left them alone.
The FBI seems to think that social-climbing is a virtue…how else could a dullard like Comey rise so high? Matter of fact, Mark Felt, the Deep Throat of Watergate fame, seemed to act out only because Nixon snubbed him for promotion. Bob Woodward, basically, was his note-taker.
Setting someone up to fail is a prime method of malicious scumbags everywhere. To “win”, one must create “losers”.
Welcome to the reality to the arch enemy of exploited citizens. Welcome to the reality of how ‘false flags’ are perpetrated all over the globe…and then blamed on Islam who Israel hates.
Israel is the enemy of the world.
Our police departments are trained there.
Our governments are controlled by them.
Your tax dollars are relished on them while you waste away.
They line the pockets of traitors who could care less whether you live or die.
They cause oppression, disparity, hopelessness, cruelty, torture, murder, and destruction.
They imprison, manipulate, propagate, lie, plot, and scheme.
Deceive, entrap, arm, and snuff out life from every living thing except themselves.
BDS Israel and learn all of what they control.
Right. KKKristians have NOTHING to do with it.
You DO know that Lorne Ahrens, one of the 5 Dallas cops ambushed recently, was a white supremacist? To find out, search “lorne ahrens white supremacist”…searching for “lorne ahrens” will give you only drooling hagiography.
I’m sure that Ahrens received his training in Israel.
Not very helpful to blame Israel … and to go on a long harangue of accusations – this kind of blaming solves nothing
Welcome to the real world where police are only efficient in framing innocents and murdering innocents with full backing of our governments!
So does anything happen to these a-holes for committing entrapment? If there’s no consequence I expect it to continue or even escalate. Maybe Canada will even suffer an “attack” soon. This sucks
It feels like a double standard, with 0 accountability.
So glad you guys p/u this story. What is the difference between a mob boss ordering an OP(murder,car-bomb,kidnapping, terrorism,etc) Or an RCMP OP manipulating individuals to engage in criminal terrorist activity, by providing from A-Z the (skill-set, tradecraft, wherewithal) ?
Shouldn’t these individual be entitled to some form of compensation and is there no accountability for such dubious unethical police behavior?
God blesses America because our political leaders says he does.
The FBI goes searching for patsies. Set the patsy up as a fall guy for the real operators. How many times have their been initial eyewitness reports of multiple shooters, that don’t match the single dead patsy, who left a glaring clue.