For the first time since they were , then , John Nuttall and Amanda Korody are speaking out in an exclusive interview with W5鈥檚 Victor Malarek.
鈥淲e certainly didn鈥檛 want to hurt a bunch of random Canadians on Canada Day,鈥� said Korody. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e just innocent people going through their daily lives.鈥�
That is hardly how the RCMP and Crown Prosecutors see the couple, who they believe are dangerous terrorists. In July of 2013, the RCMP announced they had foiled a major terrorist plot to bomb the BC Legislature in Victoria.
John Nuttall and Amanda Korody, a Canadian couple who鈥檇 recently converted to Islam, planted three pressure cooker bombs outside the legislature on Canada Day. But the bombs never went off, and the RCMP reassured the public there was never a real threat. This was all part of a large scale undercover operation run by the RCMP called 鈥楶roject Souvenir.鈥�
鈥淣uttall and Korody were charged with four terrorism related offenses and a jury found them guilty of conspiring to murder persons unknown and making or possessing an explosive substance for a terrorist group, in June 2015.鈥�
A year later, a that John Nuttall and Amanda Korody were entrapped, and the RCMP had manufactured the entire plot. The pair were set free.
鈥淭he whole thing was just so conniving from the very beginning,鈥� said Korody.
鈥淵ou don鈥檛 just wake up one morning and decide to be a bomber,鈥� added Nuttall. 鈥淭hese guys groomed us for six months to do this.鈥�
More than 200 officers were involved in 鈥楶roject Souvenir鈥�. Documents obtained by W5 show that Mounties billed nearly a million dollars in overtime during the four month operation.
The undercover sting began when the RCMP got a tip in early 2013 from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that John Nuttall was a potential security threat. An undercover RCMP officer posing as a Muslim businessman from the Middle East made contact with Nuttall and Korody who believed that he had connections to a terrorist network.
The undercover officer befriended Nuttall and Korody, and over the course of several months built up a relationship with them. He took them for coffee, on trips out of town and even gave the couple money.
More than 180 hours of undercover video and audio, obtained from court records and reviewed by W5, show the evolution of the plot as the Mountie, identified as Undercover Officer A, won the trust of the pair and then led them into a terror plot.
鈥淚 loved him like a brother,鈥� said Nuttall in the interview with W5.
But Nuttall and Korody鈥檚 lawyers argued the undercover operator worked to isolate their already marginalized clients. Nuttall and Korody were recovering heroin addicts living on government assistance.
鈥淭hese were people who were already fairly socially isolated and became more so. They were unsophisticated, gullible and naïve,鈥� said Nuttall鈥檚 lawyer, Marilyn Sandford.
As the bond between the couple and their RCMP handlers grew, their conversations turned to jihad.
After months of Nuttall proposing absurd plans, like stealing a nuclear submarine, hijacking a Via Rail train that had stopped running years ago, or firing homemade rockets labelled with 鈥淔ree Palestine鈥�, the RCMP pushed Nuttall and Korody to come up with a feasible plan.
鈥淣uttall appeared to be someone who couldn鈥檛 stay focused on anything,鈥� said lawyer Mark Jette, who represented Amanda Korody. 鈥淗e seemed to have ideas, terrorist kinds of ideas, but they were fanciful.鈥�
When Nuttall eventually suggested pressure cooker bombs, similar to the ones used in the Boston marathon bombing, the RCMP encouraged him to pursue that plan, and undercover officers promised to secure the explosives for the devices.
At different points throughout 鈥楶roject Souvenir,鈥� Nuttall and Korody questioned whether they were doing the right thing. They asked the undercover operator to help them find spiritual guidance, but were dissuaded by the undercover officer posing as a devout Muslim. The couple were told to follow their hearts and that everything in Islam is pre-determined by Allah.
Omid Safi, director of Islamic Studies at Duke University, says that advice was wrong, and believes it was meant to keep Nuttall and Korody on the path to committing a terrorist attack. 鈥淐lassic Islamic thought rejected the notion of: don鈥檛 worry about it because God has already decided it鈥� as negating human free will,鈥� Safi told W5.
As the plan to carry out a terrorist attack inched closer to reality, Nuttall and Korody talked about backing out. But Korody claims they feared they鈥檇 be killed by the undercover RCMP officer they believed was a terrorist.
鈥淲e thought that it was either follow through with the plan or take a dirt nap.鈥�
On Canada Day 2013 the couple were secretly filmed placing their bombs on the Legislature lawn. A few hours later, in RCMP videos, they can be seen fretting over the fact that they might hurt innocent people, including children.
鈥淲hat if it goes off during a time when children are there? What if it goes off now?鈥�
Despite the ruling, Phil Gurski who was an analyst from CSIS at the time of the undercover operation, and who testified for the Crown, believes that the RCMP operation was professional and the couple were capable of committing terrorist activities. 鈥淚 think that they were in fact capable,鈥� Gurski told W5. 鈥淭hey certainly had the intent.鈥�
B.C. Supreme Court ruling - July 2016
