"Supporters" Say Undercover FBI agent "lured" Muslim student into plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train; to cause the death of "up to 100,000 people"

Let me ask Atlas readers a logical questions. What, if anything, could or would ever prompt you a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train; to cause the death of “up to 100,000 people” by contaminating the air or water; to provide financial support and weapons to anti-government fighters in Syria, and to recruit other terrorists in North America?

Because this is the defense of Muslims caught before they could go jihad. Over and and over we hear that the FBI “lured” them.

Supporters of Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian man allegedly linked to a foiled Canadian terror plot, say an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian businessman provided money, advice and the promise of a job if Abassi would come to the U.S. His zabiba (above) is indicative of his devout religiosity.

“Undercover FBI agent ‘lured’ Tunisian student, allegedly linked to foiled terror plot, to U.S., supporters say” The Star, May  27, 2013 (thanks to Lookmann)

Ahmed Abassi, a 26-year-old Laval University student, was allegedly in regular contact with the agent, who secretly recorded them discussing a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train.

MONTREAL—Supporters of Ahmed Abassi, a Tunisian man allegedly linked to a foiled Canadian terror plot, say an undercover FBI agent posing as an Egyptian businessman provided money, advice and the promise of a job if Abassi would come to the United States.
U.S. court documents have already revealed that an undercover agent played a crucial role in the arrest of Abassi, a 26-year-old student at Quebec’s Laval University.

Abassi was allegedly in regular contact with the agent, who secretly recorded them discussing a plot to attack a Via Rail passenger train; to cause the death of “up to 100,000 people” by contaminating the air or water; to provide financial support and weapons to anti-government fighters in Syria, and how to recruit other terrorists in North America.

But a Facebook page set up days after his arrest on immigration charges was announced says the FBI agent actually lured Abassi to New York, and to his eventual arrest, after his Canadian student visa was cancelled.

That unexplained immigration problem prevented Abassi from returning home with his new wife to their apartment in Quebec City and from continuing his studies.
The detailed account of the months leading up to Abassi’s arrest on April 22 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport — which includes a video interview with Abassi’s sister — make two notable claims.

First, that American law enforcement agents may have enticed a suspected terrorist to enter the U.S. in order to further an investigation. Second, that an undercover FBI agent may have been operating on Canadian soil as part of that probe.
The two countries have a mutual legal assistance treaty that lets forces in either Canada or the U.S. pursue an investigation across the border as long as they are under the host country’s command. Authorities on both sides of the border have already acknowledged their close co-operation in the probe.

The Facebook page claiming Abassi’s innocence contains intimate wedding photographs, an up-to-date copy of the engineering student’s resumé and postings of support by people identifying themselves as relatives and friends. It also contains https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tuyD7l7fQUE#!, speaking in Arabic to the news outlet Zoom Tunisia about her brother’s case. In the interview, she reiterates the details of the written account, including those about the Egyptian businessman.

The case summary, which is posted in Arabic, English and French said the “tension and anxiety” over the cancellation of Abassi’s Canadian student visa was compounded by a serious car accident that left a brother in a Tunisian hospital. That stress, it said, was partially relieved by the promises made a mysterious Egyptian entrepreneur in New York whom Abassi knew as Thamer Al-Nouri.
According to the Facebook case summary, Abassi first met Al-Nouri in August 2012 through Chiheb Esseghaier, a Montreal engineering student and alleged co-conspirator who was also arrested April 22 along with Toronto man Raed Jaser. Both are charged with conspiring to commit terrorist acts in Canada.
Abassi and Al-Nouri met again a few weeks later, once more in Quebec, when the Egyptian arrived on a purported house-hunting tour. But their relationship appears to have blossomed when Abassi found himself stranded in Tunisia in late January.
The Facebook account claims Al-Nouri sent money to help Abassi’s convalescing brother and then suggested he come to the United States to be closer to his wife. Al-Nouri also promised him a job and a lawyer to deal with the Canadian visa problem, and he took care of the U.S. work visa application, the account claims.
Abassi was reluctant but was later convinced to accept the offer after Al-Nouri persuaded the man’s wife and mother that this was the best option for him.
“Faced with no clear response from the Canadian Embassy in Tunis about his visa file, he was forced to accept the proposition to travel to the United States,” the summary said.
A spokesperson with the U.S. Attorney’s Office in New York would not comment on the claims made on the Facebook page. Sabrina Shroff, Abassi’s American lawyer, also would not comment. The Toronto Star’s requests for interviews with Abassi’s sister, his wife and the administrator of the Facebook page were either turned down or ignored.
Court documents corroborate some details of the Facebook summary, including the cover story that the agent was a businessman. After Abassi entered the U.S. in March 2013, they discussed visa requirements that would allow him to remain there, “purportedly in order to work for the (agent’s) U.S.-based company,” court documents state.
Upon his arrest, Abassi claimed to be working for the undercover agent’s company.
U.S. court documents say Abassi admitted to police under questioning that “he may have radicalized” Esseghaier, the accused Montreal plotter, as well as “discussed plots to poison a water system and to derail a passenger train.”