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Rob Ford an apparent target of Via Rail terror suspects

TORONTO – Rob Ford was allegedly a proposed target of Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser – the two men accused of planning to derail a VIA Rail train.

“I’m caught off guard as much as you guys are,” Ford told reporters at city hall Wednesday. “It’s not the first time people have threatened me with death. I’m just going to go on and continue doing my job. Helping people out, returning calls, go to their houses, go to events.”

An undercover officer who is testifying at the trial told court Wednesday that Ford, Toronto’s mayor at the time, could have been targeted as part of an alleged terror plot which targeted a train between New York and Toronto.

“[Jaser] explained that authority figures don’t travel with security like they do in the States,” the officer said. “They’re much more accessible. In fact, he told me the Toronto mayor takes the subway…He said something about cutting the head off the snake and the body will be confused.”
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Ford rarely took the subway during his four years as mayor and generally travelled in his SUV.

But that didn’t stop him from taking the threats seriously. He said Wednesday he was stunned by the news and wants to know why he wasn’t told about it at the time.

“If they were following me, if my life was in danger, I would think that someone should have told me,” he said. “I’m really shooken [sic] up by it, because it’s just no warning, they had a sniper coming after me apparently, and why? What have I done wrong to these people?”

-With files from Dave Trafford and the Canadian Press

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