TORONTO — Court is hearing two men facing multiple terror-related charges considered blowing up a rail bridge in an alleged plot to derail a Via Rail train travelling from New York to Toronto.
Not-guilty pleas have been entered for both Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier.
In recordings played at their Toronto trial Friday, Jaser is heard telling an undercover FBI officer that they initially meant to weaken the bridge with jackhammers but found the structure too solid.
He goes on to say they could use heavy duty torches instead or simply blow up the bridge.
The recordings were made by an undercover FBI officer who posed as a wealthy U.S. businessman with radical views who befriended the suspects.
The accused were heard in another recording Thursday declaring that Canada's military action in Muslim lands justifies the butchering of civilians.
In one, Jaser is heard saying if it's in the right hands, "Islam is a very powerful weapon" that can "bulldoze the whole world."
Several months before their arrest, in September 2012, the undercover officer travelled to Toronto with Esseghaier and was introduced to Jaser.
Court heard the suspects revealed the full extent of their alleged plot to the officer, as well as a "long-term" plan to use a sniper to attack leaders in Canadian society.
Later, on a trip back to Montreal, court heard the agent ask Esseghaier how they could justify the deaths of innocent women and children who would die in the train plot.
Esseghaier is heard explaining that since foreign soldiers were killing women and children in their country, the carnage would be justified.
