Federal officials opened up their secret files on five suspected members of the Osama bin Laden network yesterday, disclosing previously classified details of their alleged terrorist activities in Canada. Hundreds of pages of documents filed in Federal Court in Ottawa lay out for the first time the evidence that has led the Canadian Security Intelligence Service to conclude the men are foreign terrorists. The court filings also reveal the array of intelligence-gathering tactics used against the suspects, from telephone wiretaps to clandestine searches, suggesting a new willingness on the part of CSIS to go public with its secrets after years of fighting to protect them. The case summaries include quotes from wiretaps.The summaries also include observations, such as the number of times one of the suspects, Mohamed Mahjoub, looked over his shoulder (three) after making a call from a pay phone.

Among the newly declassified allegations:

- Moroccan terror suspect Adil Charkaoui was overheard discussing his 1998 sojourn in a training camp in Afghanistan. "After three weeks in the camp, a mujahedin [Islamic holy warrior] gave Charkaoui responsibility over a group of fighters with all the responsibility that involved [money, food, weapons] in order to evaluate his leadership," the allegations read. - After coming to Canada in 1996, Mahmoud Jaballah, an Egyptian and the founder of a Toronto Islamic school, was in regular contact with al-Qaeda's second in command, Ayman al Zawahiri. He would call Zawahiri on the latter's Inmarsat satellite phone.

- Within months of arriving in Canada in 1999, alleged Afghanistan-trained documents forger Hassan Almrei gained access to a restricted area of Toronto's Pearson airport. He appeared to have access cards and codes for restricted access to the building.

- Ottawa resident Mohamed Harkat was a member of Al Gamaa al Islamiya, the Egyptian terrorist group headed by the "blind sheik," Omar Abdel Rahman, and responsible for the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center in New York. In 1998, he was heard saying he had received his Canadian immigration status and would soon be ready to take part in jihad.

Only Mr. Almrei is currently in detention. Messrs. Charkaoui, Harkat, Mahjoub and Jaballah have all been released to live at home under close monitoring.

The extraordinary allegations are contained in five so-called security certificates filed by the government in Federal Court yesterday, the first test of a new law that allows Canada to deport foreign terrorists.

Signed by Stockwell Day, the Public Safety Minister, and Diane Finley, the Immigration Minister, the certificates argue the five suspects are threats to Canadian security and should be sent back to their countries of origin.

Earlier in the morning, the Department of Justice appointed a dozen Special Advocates, lawyers who will represent the men and challenge the government's evidence in court.

Absent from the court filings was a certificate against Manickavasagam Suresh, an alleged Tamil Tigers fund-raiser whom Canada has been trying to deport to Sri Lanka since 1994.

Public safety officials have decided not to continue trying to deport Mr. Suresh under a security certificate, although he will likely still face some form of removal proceedings.

"The government of Canada has decided not to reissue a security certificate to Mr. Suresh at this point," said Melisa Leclerc, spokeswoman for Mr. Day.

Canada has been trying to deport the men for several years, but the Supreme Court threw a wrench into those plans last year when it struck down part of the security certificate law as unconstitutional.

The court gave Ottawa until today to fix the law. The government drafted new legislation, which was passed with Liberal support and came into force yesterday. As a result, officials had to file new certificates against each of the men.

But federal security officials have apparently used the opportunity to disclose much more about the suspects, possibly in response to human rights groups, celebrities and MPs who have rallied behind the men.

Intelligence expert Professor Wesley Wark, visiting research professor at the University of Ottawa School of Public and International Affairs, said he doubts Canadian security officials were eager to give away so much about their operations.

"But their hand has been forced," he said, adding that under the new system, Special Advocates can argue in court in favour of making more of the evidence public. "The government is simply reacting realistically, while trying to get a little ahead of the game."

The new case summaries contain an unprecedented level of detail. For example, the new documents list items delivered to Mr. Jaballah's post office box in Toronto: a videotape called The Holy Warrior Sheik Osama and a book titled The Mainstay of Making Preparations for Jihad in the Cause of God, authored by al-Qaeda's deputy boss.

But the most extensive new information concerns Mr. Charkaoui, a Montreal resident who has denied any involvement in terrorism. The CSIS summary says he was heard discussing his trip to a training camp in Afghanistan. Witnesses have also said they saw him there.

The document does not identify the source of this information, but acknowledges that CSIS drew on wiretaps and informants to mount its case. Mr. Charkaoui has insisted he was in Pakistan for religious instruction at the time and never entered Afghanistan.

In what appear to be accounts of wiretapped conversations or informant reports, the CSIS document makes the following allegations about Mr. Charkaoui: - In April, 1999, he and others watched a videotaped debate about jihad, in which one speaker said Islam's objective was to "rid itself of the scourge of Western corruption, that everyone who opposed this doctrine should be killed, and that with the jihad, Islamists would rule the world." Mr. Charkaoui expressed his support for this view, the document says. - In October, 1999, Mr. Charkaoui talked about the mujahedin in Bosnia and Chechnya and talked of recruiting "brothers" for the jihad. In the same conversation, he praised the principles of the late Abdellah Azzam, the godfather of the modern jihadi movement. - In November, 2001, he said the war in Afghanistan was a war against Islam led by "the impious and Christians." - In March, 2002, he described how he was transformed from being nonreligious to a fervent believer after reading about the treatment of Muslims during the Crusades.

The document alleges Mr. Charkaoui has a violent temperament. It reports a 2002 incident in which he roughed up a man for failing to deliver pamphlets for his pizza restaurant.

"Charkaoui cornered the delivery-man in a public washroom, threatened him with a knife and struck him with blows from his elbows," the report states. The following month, he came to blows with someone who had criticized one of his pizza shop employees.

The document also reveals that in 2000 Mr. Charkaoui applied for employment at the Montreal airport, to work in flight information or air-traffic control. CSIS notes the job application came a few months after a June, 2000, conversation in which he had discussed hijacking an aircraft "and could fall into the framework of planning an attack."

CSIS further alleges that Mr. Charkaoui had been using crime to raise money to finance jihad before his arrest. Johanne Doyon, one of Mr. Charkaoui's lawyers, said she could not comment because she had not received the files from the court.

Each case will now go before the Federal Court, which must decide whether the case is reasonable. Critics claim the process amounts to a "secret trial" because much of the proceedings occur behind closed doors, but the government says it balances national security concerns with the rights of foreigners.

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CASEBOOK OF SUSPECTS

Backgrounds of five suspected members of the Osama bin Laden Network awaiting trial in Canada

HASSAN ALMREI

Nationality Syrian Alleged terror affiliation Bin Laden Network

Allegation A documents forger who could "facilitate the movement of others … to position them to perpetrate violence on foreign or Canadian soil," the Federal Court says.

Training Attended camps in Afghanistan several times in the 1990s Arrival in Canada 1999 Arrest 2001

New Information: Shortly after coming to Canada he gained access to restricted areas of Toronto's Pearson airport

Quote: "… I am not a fanatic or an extremist."

Current whereabouts Detained

ADIL CHARKAOUI

Nationality Moroccan Alleged terror affiliation Moroccan Islamic Combatant Group Allegation Discussed hijacking a plane and flying it into a building in Europe

Training Accused of attending camp in Afghanistan

Arrival in Canada 1995 Arrest 2003

New Information Was heard discussing his time at a training camp in Afghanistan

Quote "It's a witch hunt." Current whereabouts Montreal

MOHAMED HARKAT

Nationality Algerian Alleged terror affiliation Bin Laden Network.

Allegation Worked in Pakistan for Saudi charity linked to bin Laden. "… Harkat is an Islamic

extremist; a supporter of Afghani, Pakistani and Chechen extremists," according to CSIS.

Training Accused of traveling to Afghanistan. Arrival in Canada 1995 Arrest 2002

New Information An alleged member of the Egyptian terrorist group that bombed the World Trade Center in 1993

Quote "I am innocent." Current whereabouts Ottawa

MAHMOUD JABALLAH

Nationality Egyptian Alleged terror affiliation Egyptian Al Jihad

Allegation Was communications link for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200

Training Allegedly trained in Yemen Arrival in Canada 1996 Arrest 1999 and 2001 New Information After coming to Canada was in regular contact with al-Qaeda number two Ayman Al Zawahiri Quote "This case is built from nothing."

Current whereabouts Toronto

MOHAMMAD

ZEKI MAHJOUB

Nationality Egyptian Alleged terror affiliation Vanguards of Conquest wing of Egyptian Islamic Jihad

Allegation Worked for bin Laden in Sudan and served as a leader, a decision-maker, planner and recruiter Training Was associated with the supervisor of an al-Qaeda training camp

Arrival in Canada 1995 Arrest 2000

New Information Was the alleged second in command of Vanguards of Conquest

Quote: "I have never been a member of Vanguards of Conquest." Current whereabouts Toronto

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