INSET, CSIS, and the Jordanian Intelligence

On June 18, 2005, I wrote a fateful email to a bunch of brothers, inviting them over for a Labour Day Weekend full of camping, shooting, and wholesome fun. The body of the email was:

Assalamu alaikum sadati,

Please let me know if you think you can come up to Vancouver during the Labour Day weekend (Sept. 3-5) for a weekend of camping and shooting. We can shoot the rifle in the woods, but we'll have to go to a range to shoot the handguns. 357 magnum will give you quite a kick! Everything we'll be doing is 100% legal according to Canadian law, in sha' Allah. The Abu Fluffy (NOT MY REAL KUNYA) Armoury is fully licensed and registered. :)

In addition to airfare, plan to bring about $100-150 Canadian for camping, gun range drop in fees, and ammo. If you're planning on coming, please let me know as soon as possible. Those of you from California (or Seattle) can drive if you're up to it.

Abu Monkey (NOT HIS REAL KUNYA): please forward this message to Sidi Chimp (NOT HIS REAL NAME) from LA. I don't have his email address.

One of the guys I emailed had given me his work email address. It turns out that he had left his job and someone else was now reading his emails. The guy was in Toronto and around that time there were some gang shootings in the GTA, so he reported the incident to the police. So, one day I got a call from some guys at INSET telling me they want to meet me. When they came by, I met them outside my front door, closing the door firmly behind. They asked a bunch of routine questions and demonstrated their ignorance of Canadian gun laws. They were polite and reasonable. I posted the whole ordeal to CGN.

Later, someone IM'd me from Amman telling me that the authorities were speaking to acquaintances of mine in Ontario about how they knew me, etc. It was rather stirring for those guys. I shrugged it off.

After I moved to Amman, a CSIS mole by the name of, "Steve" contacted my former brother-in-law in Vancouver regarding my Yahoo profile. You see, where it said, "Occupation", I wrote, "Not currently occupying any countries." (The picture of the revolver I have posted was also probably a bit unsettling.) He broke up laughing and told them I'm just a chronic joker, that I was formerly in the army, lived in the Southern US, and gave them various other excuses explaining my love of guns.

Fast forward to my move to Amman: I entered, left, and re-entered Jordan easily, until I applied for my annual residence. The Jordanian Intelligence did the obligatory background check and found the whole story about me inviting over people to shoot, etc. So now, whenever I leave the country and re-enter, I have to report to them. They ask me routine questions like when was the last time I went shooting. Yawn.

This past week, I added, "firearms" as an interest in my Facebook profile. Mubin Shaikh tried to add me as a friend the next day and wrote me a personal message:

Salaam bro - you still here? i still have your gift of the Salawaat...could'nt get into Ymn remember? 416 123 4567 - promise not to wear a wire...lol...

I told him I didn't know what he was talking about in terms of a gift and asked him to specify when we met and what the context was. He replied:

Oh oh - LOL...I confused yur pic with someone else. My bad.

BTW - we may just run into each other one day - planning to come up to Jordan soon, InshaAllah.

First of all, you LOL too much, Mr. Shaikh. Secondly, I dunno if you think you're going to get a heartfelt welcome here, but I wouldn't bet my curry chips on it.