Uncover - S18: "Pressure Cooker" E4: Ticking Time Bombs

Episode Date: January 13, 2023

John and Amanda are losing their grip on reality, frustrating Abe and his shadowy accomplices. John has doubts and asks for spiritual guidance from an imam, but time is running out as zero hour approaches. For transcripts of this series, please visit: https://www.cbc.ca/radio/podcastnews/pressure-cooker-transcripts-listen-1.6563380

From CBC Podcasts and The Fifth Estate, Brainwashed is a multi-part investigation into the CIA's experiments in mind control. From the Cold War and MKUltra to the so-called War on Terror, we learn about a psychiatrist who uses patients as human guinea pigs and what happens when the military and medicine collide. Listen to Brainwashed on the CBC Listen app or wherever you get your podcasts. This is a CBC Podcast. I want to take you back to 1995.

John Nuttall is scraping by, playing guitar in a band called Rat Salad. It'll be more than a decade before he converts to Islam, remakes himself as an extremist, and attracts the attention of Canada's national police. For a while, he's crashing on his friend Michael Lohr's couch. They both love Black Sabbath and Stanley Kubrick movies. Here's Johnny! All of it is escapism.

Just for that one brief moment, you can forget about how shitty your life is and pretend that things are okay. But there's one escape in particular that cements their friendship. The role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons. He liked video games, like most young men do. But no, it was D&D that he liked the most to play.

Jon liked to play the part of a battle-hardened black knight. Jon would just go, I run in there and start stabbing. You know, there was no finesse with him. Michael was the dungeon master. It's up to him to describe the players' surroundings and hint at what danger might be lurking. You have to construct the world for them. You have to tell them what their consequences are. They can have input in

what they're doing, but you're the one who tells them what happens after that. Michael recalls one scenario from a game with John. You know you see a moldy chest covered with rusty rivets with a little bit of wire hanging on one side because he rolled that he was able to see the wire. John was never one to take a hint. Now that he sees the wire, he's like, oh, you opened the chest. Didn't you see the wire? I told you you saw the wire. All right, well, you're lucky the poison needle just took you out for 30 seconds.

But during that 30 seconds, when you didn't look up, this big six-foot spider is going to drop on you and start gnawing on the back of your neck. I can't help but notice the parallel between John's love for D&D roleplay and the elaborate sting operation playing out around him. and D roleplay and the elaborate sting operation playing out around him. Only in this game, Uncle Abe, an undercover cop, is the dungeon master. One thing Michael wondered long before John got swept up in an anti-terror sting, is he ever going to learn to check for traps?

I'm Dan Pierce, and this is Pressure Cooker. By early June, the investigation into John Nuttall and Amanda Carote, codenamed Project Souvenir, is entering its fourth month. The lead investigator, Sgt. Bill Colcat, has assured his bosses they'll have enough evidence to charge the couple by early July. That's less than a month away. John has drawn a picture of a pressure cooker bomb, but police need more than a lousy sketch. They're looking for a detailed plan of attack, typed up and delivered on a hard drive. The problem is, John and Amanda keep getting high and nothing gets done.

So police set up a road trip to get them out of town for a few days and finish their plan. On June 16th, John and Amanda pile into Uncle Abe's black Ford pickup truck. The mood in the car is light and cheerful, like the start of a family vacation. About 20 minutes into the drive, John asks Abe where he's taking them. He tells him they're going to Kelowna, about four hours from Surrey. One of Abe's objectives is to get John to commit to using pressure cooker bombs. And he has a new offer to sweeten the deal. He tells John he can get him the plastic explosive C4.

For the warheads, John asks. Abe says no, for the pressure cookers. But John reminds him the pressure cookers are just a sideshow. He's still set on firing homemade rockets and storming a naval base. I want to attack the ships and the submarines we saw. It's going to take a lot of planning, right? By this time next year, I want to be doing this, you know? Abe tries his best to maneuver John off the rocket idea and onto pressure cooker bombs. But John doesn't take the bait, and eventually wanders off into a rambling monologue. The Defense Secretary of Canada and America will be fired. You know, I want to cause all this internal strife.

When they get to Kelowna, the couple's reunited with Hassan, their bodyguard from Victoria. We're so happy to see you, brother. They arrive at the hotel and head up to their suite. Wow, this place is bigger than our whole apartment. It's awesome. Abe takes them to another room across the hall to show them their workspace.

Hassan says he swept the room for bugs and set up a secure web connection. They can safely search the internet and do their research. It'll be like they don't exist. There's another reason investigators want John and Amanda out of the house. They just got a warrant to install hidden cameras and microphones. So police stage an elaborate incident to plant bugs in the couple's apartment. They lie to neighbors and reporters,

pretending there's a hazardous materials emergency involving a van with a mobile drug lab. I didn't see anything on the news about it, but the person that told me was a cameraman for the news. He said they think it's a meth lab. That's Charlene Thompson, the neighbor across the street who once called the cops on John. There was a hazmat team here that taped off our whole block for the whole day. A convoy of police shows up. Neighboring houses are evacuated, you know, in case the meth lab blows up.

It got me really scared, essentially. Once the equipment is installed in the suite, the disruptive spectacle comes to an end. So police now have cameras and mics hidden in their home and, of course, in the hotel suites. They're about to get their first look at how John and Amanda behave in private. They need the couple to finalize their plan, but Abe's giving them mixed messages. He tells them to relax, take it easy, enjoy their time away from home, but also to work on their plan. Police need John and Amanda to feel like they have a choice. They can rest and do nothing, or they can do their research.

This will demonstrate in court that they're taking the initiative. But when the two are finally alone, one of the first things officers learn, they're really into online Dungeons & Dragons. Let's play a couple rounds of D&D. We've got enough time for one mission. We just hung out and played video games and smoked weed and just did what we do, you know. Wicked, I got plus five arrows and I'm already level two. That's great. The next morning, Hassan stops by to check on their progress. He asks which plan they're working on.

Hassan shoots the idea down, saying rockets will take forever. And the longer a plan will take, the higher the risk. But he loves the pressure cooker idea. He says it's doable and will send a great message. This actually lands for John and starts to shake him loose. I've got all these plans, but all these plans, they all pertain to one thing, and that's attacking Canada. What's important to us is that the world understands that it's not just a random act of terrorism.

John has an idea for how they can still get their message across. We make a video, put it on YouTube, and say, this is why we did this. This is your punishment for Afghanistan. If there's a way to do that and still have the world know why we did it, then we'll do that instead. Hassan leaves the couple to get to work. Okay, got the quest. Let's go.

I can't help but think of the cops listening in from another room down the hall. It's an expensive trip, and they need to move the investigation forward. Let's do it again. Just remember, at level 50, we can get a really big airship. Salaam Alaikum. It's Abe. He wants John to come out to his truck now. Okay.

I'll be down in a minute. What? I've got to go downstairs. Okay, I'll be down in a minute. Huh? What? I'm going to go downstairs. You said I want to see you right away. I don't want to wait. I'm coming down now. Wait, doesn't he want to see both of us?

He wants to see me alone. Okay. Abe grills John on what he's managed to get done. John tells him he doesn't trust the internet connection. This is the last straw. For me, it's a sign of disrespect. You know how many people have to be in that room to work and check everything, and at the end, I don't trust your connection?

That's a sign of disrespect. Abe tells John a lot of money was spent on that suite so they could do their research. I'm going to tell you the truth. I don't really need you. I'm giving my life for your idea. But I'm not going to give my life for a plan that doesn't work. John's shaken. He promises to go back up to the room and get to work. He tries to get

Amanda motivated. If we don't get some work done by breakfast tomorrow, we're going to be in a lot of fucking trouble. So stop playing games and please take this shit seriously. Please. Do you understand? Yeah. Take this shit seriously, please. Do you understand? Yeah. But... Okay, let's do this.

The call of the dungeon is too powerful to resist. I'm gonna give you 80% XP. X-G. They get up early to try and give the impression they've been up all night working. John's terrified that if they don't make some progress, Abe will murder them. If this doesn't get done, we are done. Get it? We will be dropped. We will be deleted. Do you get it? Yeah.

Eve drops by with breakfast and coffee around 10.30 in the morning. He asks how things are going, but soon gets the picture. Nothing got done. Nothing got done. It's pouring rain when they all climb into Abe's truck the next day. John tries to make small talk. Did you sleep well, bro? But he's met with icy silence. Abe can't hide his frustration. He tells John he's not showing commitment. He's relying on his partners to do everything. He's wasted valuable Mujahideen resources,

which came from the blood, sweat, and tears of other brothers. That makes me feel horrible to hear you say that, brother, that's something that makes me feel sick. And I want to try harder for them now, even more. Abe pulls into a gas station and goes to fill up the truck. John and Amanda are left alone in the vehicle. We're taking out of the mouths of the Mujahideen. You hear me? This money could be going elsewhere, but it's not because they trust him.

We're doing the Boston idea. Okay? Forget the rockets. In the days following the Kelowna trip, John manages to get some work done. On June 25th, he delivers a shopping list for the bomb supplies and tells Abe what kind of devices he wants to make. We came up with a method using a time bomb with a ticking clock. This is exactly what police are looking for. They just need a clear timeline.

There's no way we can say a time. I think it's a mistake rushing through this at the last possible moment." But investigators can't wait much longer. Abe breaks the news to John that he's planning on leaving Canada, maybe forever. So if John wants him to finance his attack, it has to happen within the next two weeks. Do you have a date like that will be significant in mind? It's something, I don't know. There is one significant date that's just a week away.

July 1st, Canada Day. What would be the best time to do it? The best time, I think, is during one of them fireworks celebrations they have. Like, Canada Day is coming up June 1st, isn't it? No, it's July. July 1st. That's in a few days, next week. John says there's going to be thousands of people at the Victoria waterfront.

Fireworks, a symphony, a laser show, everything. Abe's delighted by the perfect timing. But police face another constraint. Their legal counsel has told them they can't pay for the bomb supplies. John and Amanda are going to have to take the initiative and spend their own money. The explosives, the weapons, all the expensive stuff. I'm getting those for you. What are you getting? Because I cannot get everything.

Because if I get everything, I may just go do it myself. John says his welfare check is coming the next day around noon. He agrees to spend their rent money on the bomb materials. Abe picks the couple up in the morning. rent money on the bomb materials. Abe picks the couple up in the morning. John's got a list of supplies, so police are expecting this to be a simple errand. But with John Nuttall, nothing is simple. He begins by getting the wrong pressure cooker at Walmart.

If this is what I think it is, we're gonna have to take it back. How can we have a plastic piece that can't be plastic? Otherwise, we're better off just using pipes. Now, John's thinking pipe bombs are the way to go. So they spend a few hours trying to find industrial pipes while Amanda's passed out in the backseat. I could fire, really make it hard to get your hands on a bomb around here, don't they? I'm serious.

At one point he realizes if they're using C4, they don't even need pipes. Put C4 in a backpack, put a bunch of finishing nails inside the C4, and that's all you need. Nine-volt battery and an alarm clock. Tick, tick, tick, tick, tick. Abe steers him back to the pressure cooker plan. And John finds pots that he likes. Nearly eight hours into the shopping trip.

I'm missing only the Christmas lights. They're not necessary, but... Oh, you know what? I forgot. I've got to have five meals. The mission to buy supplies is a total shitshow. It drags out across two more days. Everything they

need is on a list, but John keeps coming up with new things to buy. I need gloves. A small light bulb. I need an LED. And I want to get a couple of rags and some bleach. A spade and a shovel. Clock, gloves, need a respiratory mask. They're all sold out.

In the end, they make about 50 stops to get most of the supplies they need. Abe takes them to pick up the methadone prescription Amanda shares with John. They also get their photos taken. Abe says his brothers will get fake passports made in case they need to flee the country. John's thrilled. Leaving Canada to start a new life in a Muslim country would be a dream come true for them. It's a huge reason to keep going. But Abe lets them know this is just a backup plan.

Since they first met, John has looked up to Abe as a true Muslim. He's always asking what's halal or haram, picking up Arabic words and phrases from Abe along the way. Amanda could hear her husband's speech changing. You call them habibi a lot? What does that mean? It means my favorite or my beloved. But between Arabic lessons and talk of explosives, John wonders out loud if his plan goes against his religion.

He repeatedly asks Abe to put him in touch with an imam or a sheikh. He said, I've got a spiritual advisor that I speak with. And I said, great, please, can you put me in touch with him? And he said, of course, brother, I'll put you in touch with him. This promise buys the RCMP some time. But investigators have to walk a fine line. They want to maintain Abe's cover as someone who's sympathetic to terrorist causes. But they also want to avoid inciting John with religious justification. From the start, Team Commander Bill Kalkcat said he knew an undercover imam wouldn't pass what the RCMP called a community shock test.

If a police action is likely to outrage the public, it fails the test. Still, Colcat asked an officer in Ontario with specialized religious knowledge to get his undercover certification, just in case. By June, John's moral dilemmas are bubbling to the surface in unexpected new ways. During a phone call, John shares a dream that's been haunting him. I don't know if I told you, but I've been having this recurring dream about being on a sinking ship. John tells Abe he's dreamt of the doomed ship many times.

But this time, he says he saw the Prophet Muhammad. In my dream, the Prophet, he started to pry open a porthole, like a window in the side of the boat. And he spoke to me and he said, come with me, I'll save you. Abe sounds unsure of what to make of this dream. Finally, he says he must be lucky if it really was the prophet. But John has a different interpretation. That means, though, that you're going to die soon, no?

No, I don't know. You know what? Let me ask. interpretation. That means, though, that you're going to die soon, no? No, I don't know. You know what? Let me ask. I'm going to call around and I'll let you know. Once again, Abe defers to his spiritual guy. It takes him nearly two weeks to come back with a response. I ask for your dream.

When you dream of the prophet, it doesn't mean your end is near. It's the opposite. It always means that something good is going to happen to you. In the final days before the attack, John ramps up his spiritual questions. He knows he can't seek out any mom on his own. His questions are too risky. I said, what if anyone gets hurt? You know, I don't want anyone to get hurt because it says in the Quran, if you kill an innocent person, it's as though you have killed all of humanity.

So does that mean that anyone caught in the blast, it is Allah's will that they die. By this time, Abe has already started answering John's questions. Abe replies, that's right. Only Allah knows what will happen next. He reminds John to follow his heart. That's why I always say, you do what you have to do. And the rest is to Allah to decide. Just try to please Him.

The cops don't end up introducing an undercover spiritual advisor. But John gets the message from Abe, that Allah has already chosen his path. He never gets to hear how anyone in the wider Muslim community would respond to his doubts. Mr. Nuttall had zero interest in anything moderate, and the undercover operators knew this. This is Crown Prosecutor Peter Eccles. He isn't convinced that John would have listened to a spiritual advisor who denounced violence. They knew if they tried to introduce Mr. Nuttall to any moderate imam, they would blow their credibility right out of the water, and they could trigger him. Mr. Nuttall wanted to hear from a radical imam who would tell him,

don't worry about it, you're doing Allah's will, go kill some non-believers for us. But John's lawyer, Marilyn Sanford, thinks the police were so laser focused on getting the case to the finish line, the investigators in charge missed the big picture. Who's driving things forward and who's along for the ride? It was also clear that that operation was very controversial within the RCMP, that there were lots of voices who were pointing out the problems with what was happening and that those voices were being disregarded and marginalized. Marilyn says she's seen this happen before,

when organizations like the RCMP bend their own rules in the name of doing good. It tends to happen in important cases. It tends to happen when there's a lot at stake. It's a belief on the part of an investigator or a prosecutor that because the goal is noble, that the ends do justify the means. We tried to ask investigators about this, but the RCMP declined to be interviewed for this series. Of course, John, mixed up as he is, has his own noble cause in mind. In fact, he often talks about his intention.

He uses the Arabic word niya. He says it's not to kill people, but to do something to change the world. My niya is not to kill people at all. The niyyat is not to kill people at all. Inshallah, the people might say, look, okay, we've had enough of messing with the Muslims. Please stop this, you know, and bring our soldiers back. With five days left until Canada Day, Abe sets the couple up at a motel to build the bombs. They're not just going to do this.

The Sundance Inn is about a half hour south of Vancouver, surrounded by farmland and suburban sprawl. Their suite has two bedrooms, a flat screen TV, a dinner table, and a kitchenette. Police have cameras hidden everywhere. Where's your tape? There's no Dungeons & Dragons this time. John gets to work right away.

He wraps his black and white scarf around his face, pulls on some latex gloves, and lays out the bomb parts on the kitchen table. Three steel pressure cookers, wires, batteries, and an array of ticking alarm clocks. When you hear that clock ticking, it makes you think of food. John's first task is the easiest, the shrapnel. He pours glue into the pressure cookers, coating the inside walls, then sprinkles nails inside the pots.

Those things are going to be spinning like little ninja stars. While John works on the bombs, Amanda spends some time making a list of targets. Centennial Square, right near where the mayor's office is. bombs, Amanda spends some time making a list of targets. John also has her wipe down all the surfaces with bleach and water, like he's seen it done in the spy movies. John's paranoia is in overdrive. His biggest concern is what they might have to do if any hotel staff enter the suite. Aid makes John promise not to hurt any of the staff, no matter what. To just be polite. They put a handwritten Do Not Disturb sign on the door,

and thankfully, nobody's murdered. But for a guy who's so paranoid about getting caught, John's behavior doesn't show it. He sings along to Islamic music while he builds the bombs. John progressively gets more manic as time goes by. The two of them get maybe four hours of sleep in three days. And Abe makes it clear. Time is running out. John has one night left to finish at least one bomb before he has to show it to Abe's partner. And he's convinced make the alarm clock timers.

In a moment of despair, John and Amanda face the East and pray for help. After some more soldering, John connects the timer to a light to test the circuit, and And miraculously, the light turns on. Progress. Some real progress. See that? Boom. Does that give you a little more hope? John's stress is relieved big time. And he's proud of what he's accomplished.

I think it's the coolest thing I've ever made. It cost me a thousand bucks to make. It's almost a shame that we have to blow it up. I know. In 2017, it felt like drugs were everywhere in the news. So I started a podcast called On Drugs. We covered a lot of ground over two seasons, but there are still so many more stories to tell. I'm Jeff Turner, and I'm back with season three of On Drugs.

And this time, it's going to get personal. I don't know who Sober Jeff is. I don't even know if I like that guy. On Drugs is available now wherever you get your podcasts. you get your podcasts. John calls Abe first thing in the morning to report that he's got one of the timers working. Abe says he'll be coming by later that afternoon with this mysterious

other brother. A powerful figure in his organization. Why us? Why does he want to come and see us? Why are we so special? We're nothing. We're nobodies. It just didn't seem right. It was the weirdest thing, man.

To me, it just seemed like... Overkill. John and Amanda are right to wonder what the heck is going on here. Because this is the signature move in what's known as a Mr. Big operation. An undercover technique that was invented here in Canada to help solve murder cases. The Mr. Big script generally goes like this. Undercover cops surveil their target, make contact, and begin developing a relationship. The undercover operators pretend to be part of a criminal organization.

The targets roped into doing seemingly illegal tasks, like delivering packages. In exchange, they're rewarded with cash and acceptance into the group. And the whole thing culminates in an interview with the head of the organization, Mr. Big, who coaxes a confession out of the group. And the whole thing culminates in an interview with the head of the organization, Mr. Big, who coaxes a confession out of the target. Sound familiar? This was an operation that shared some similarities to a Mr. Big, which usually involves homicide investigations. So you're dealing with an offense that's already been committed. This is Amanda's lawyer, Scott Wright. Here you're dealing with an offense that's already been committed. This is Amanda's lawyer, Scott Wright. Here you're dealing with an offense that has yet to have been committed.

It's almost a prospective Mr. Big. So you're not just trying to get a confession, you're trying to get somebody to actually commit an offense. In this case, Mr. Big will decide whether John gets the explosives to carry out his attack. When he arrives that afternoon, John greets him with the usual pleasantries. The two sit across from each other at the kitchen table. Mr. Big asks Amanda to leave the room.

And just a reminder, we can't play Mr. Big's voice, so you're going to hear an actor. I want to make sure that anything you're about to tell me is of your own free volition, and no one has pressured you or told you or guided you in a way that is not of your own piety. John tells him he came to his own conclusions about jihad, that all Muslims are called upon to fight in the name of Allah. We're at war. They've declared war on us. I'm just a soldier behind enemy lines.

Mr. Big then asks John about his plan. John immediately falls into old, familiar territory. The greatest thing I wanted to do was to build TASM rockets, just like the Palestinians, to even attack the naval base, kill as many of those bastards as they can. John rehashes all his old ideas. He even talks about hijacking the nuclear sub.

I don't think you can get a nuclear submarine, brother. Oh yeah, brother, they've got nuclear ICBMs there. But his main plan now is to pack Abe's truck full of C4, take it to Victoria, park it near the crowd on Canada Day, and blow it up. Two days out, John is completely changing the attack. He doesn't even mention the pressure cookers. Mr. Big eventually brings them up. So brother, can you tell me about those four pots?

What's to tell? They just need to go boom. I don't see why we even need those pots. Mr. Big lets out a long sigh. His frustration with John is starting to set in. He asks, whose plan is this? John says, it's kind of all their plan. Everyone chipped in.

How much C4 do you need? John says, he has no idea. That's Abe's department. And what's the timeline? Again, he defers to Abe, saying Canada Day was his idea. He was saying Canada Day was coming up, so none of that was your idea, brother. Around this time, Mr. Big gets a call and walks out of the suite. The cover officer, Corporal Matheson, is on the phone.

Things are going off the rails. He's so noncommittal right now, because he's like, uh, this is not my idea, this is his idea. And I'm like, oh, fuck, he said Canada Day, not me. And I'm like, for fuck's sakes,ittal right now. Because he's like, uh, this is not my idea. This is his idea. And I'm like, oh, fuck. He said Canada Day, not me. And I'm like, for fuck's sakes, you're not ready. To get back on track, Matheson and the operator hatch a new plan. John and Abe are outside having a smoke when Mr. Big comes back and pulls Abe aside.

Can I talk to you for a second? Excuse us. Okay, look, um, he's not ready. and pulls Abe aside. I don't know. I thought things were a lot different on the phone. I'm going to wait in my car because I'm ready to go. I'm not fucking happy. John overhears the exchange. Now he thinks he's got an angry terrorist on his hands. He remembers he just did what he had to do. Fall in line. This is my last chance to save my life, her life, and both our families' lives. Fall in line. and do it. Father, please will you help

me fight? I need to fight. It's too far. We really, really need your help. John totally backpedals and promises this was all his idea from the start. Abe pleads with the

brother to come back inside and listen to John. He says he'll do it for Abe, and they all return to the suite. The rest of the interview goes more or less according to the police script. John lays out his plans and a list of possible targets in Victoria. And he insists he came up with the idea to do this on Canada Day. This is what Mr. Big wants to hear. I'm going to give you the C4, okay?

I'm going to give that to you, but I want you to tell me this. What are you going to do with my C4? John's still talking about blowing up Abe's truck, but Abe puts that to bed. He says he's already gotten rid of the truck. So John reverts to his backup plan, the pressure cookers. With that, Mr. Big tells him to go into the bedroom and send Amanda out. She's been waiting there for hours.

The brother runs through the same list of questions. Compared to John, Amanda's a dream target. Sister, one more time, I want to be very clear. Will you go ahead and do this without us? Yes. And no one is forcing you to do this? No. So how many people were you wishing to either kill or mutilate or destroy?

As many as possible. As bad as this sounds, Amanda and John now say this was all an act. I took her aside and I said, you need to get your shit together and start playing the fucking role because these guys aren't fucking around and we're going to end up fucking dead. Yeah. And I did become more extreme in front of them. Yeah, I was really proud of you, baby. You did good.

Each of them is given one last chance to walk away, but they both decide to stay the course. The mission is a go. you can. If you have a stone, throw it. If you have a bomb, drop it. Remember this video from the start of the series? Amanda and John are sitting in front of a black ISIS flag with their faces covered. Your bombs kill everything. You're dropping bombs from every plane. You got your, the drones, whatever we have, we have whatever we can muster. It's sort of a manifesto, the kind of video terrorists record before they strike. strike. But here's the thing about this video. Police play a part in basically everything you see. It's recorded at the Sundance Inn, two days before the attack. The motel, of course, paid for and arranged by the RCMP. John and Amanda had talked about making a flag, but they didn't get around to it. So an officer is tasked with making one.

He goes to a Surrey Fabricland store to buy two meters of black cloth. Then he hits a Michael's Crafts store to pick up white fabric markers and paint. The constable finds a photo of the ISIS flag online as a reference and enlists two civilian RCMP members to help color it in. Another undercover takes it to the motel with a camcorder and tripod. John and Amanda love the ISIS flag, which John sticks to the wall with duct tape. It's showtime.

Abe directs them into place and tells them to keep the message short. Give us like 10 minutes. Have a severe head braided down. We gotta get this right because we don't want to misrepresent Islam or the Mujahideen. But there's no time for rehearsal. They decide to wing it. But there's no time for rehearsal. They decide to wing it.

If all you can do is give them the finger, then give it to them. Amanda's performance is strong. Even the police say so in their notes. John sort of fumbles through it. And the minute they're done, he wants a redo. In his second take, John struggles to quote Osama bin Laden. As you send us your bombs, we'll send you ours. As you kill, we will kill. And as you bomb, we will bomb. You know what he said, something like that. He does it better.

Rahimu Allah. When John's done, he and Abe gush over Amanda's performance. You put me to shame. You put me to shame. But he's bummed about his own part in the video. I just froze up. I didn't know what to say. I'm about to go for my first jihad. I just made an ass of myself. No, you didn't.

Okay, babe. My last words. I misquoted the shape. The next day, Abe takes them to Victoria, and they do a final reconnaissance. John's wearing a straw hat with a flower stuck to it as some sort of a disguise.

Abe laughs at him and says he looks like a fisherman. John says, that's good, because he doesn't look like a Muslim. They drive toward the legislature, and Abe suggests planting the bombs in the bushes around the building. John and Amanda seem to like the idea. Look, we can go for demolishing that legislature which everyone will talk about for eternity. No one will ever stop talking.

Books will be written about it. They decide on 9 a.m. for the attack. The real festivities won't have started yet, so they figure kids won't be there to get hurt. Abe tells them, as he has several times before, they don't have to do the mission. They can just have a nice night in town and go home the next day. John and Amanda say they want to go through with it. But when Abe leaves them alone in the hotel, it's a different story.

God, they're like asking us like, oh, are you sure no one's pressuring you to do this? And it's like, all the brothers are pressuring me to do this, you know. Hurry up and do it. Just do it quick. Come up with the plan. It's all up to you. This is all just, like, forced on us. Yeah, but if you tell that to him, he'll just say, okay, well, we won't do it then. And you're lying.

Well, maybe we shouldn't do it then. Okay. If you don't want to do it, we won't do it then. Okay. If you don't want to do it, we won't do it. Except now we've got two bonds made in his possession, and something's gotta happen to him. Yeah, you're right. Fuck. You can't say anything today. I'll drive you home if you want. But that was not really an option. I know. We have no option. We have no way out. We have to do it.

This is not professional at all. I don't know what the hell is going on. It's like they're cops or something. They just want us to hurry up and drop this shit down so they can arrest us. Or not arrest us. Or, not arrest us, they're going to just shoot us. And in that case, why don't they just kill us now? You know what I'm saying? Well, I know why. They want to make a big story on CNN about us. I can't get over how different this story would be if they just walked away. For months they've been grappling

with the possibility that Abe and the other brothers are cops. They're so close to figuring out that this is a setup. It's like Michael Lohr's example from their time playing Dungeons and Dragons. John sees the wire, but he ignores it and walks right into a trap. At 3 a.m., John's up first. They've only slept a couple hours. John talks Amanda out of bed and drinks his share of the methadone. Amanda's moving slowly. She sits on the floor, head bowed, and polishes off the last of their prescription.

It won't be long before the awful effects of withdrawal set in. They pack up their stuff, get dressed, and take time to say their prayers. take time to say their prayers. Abe's waiting outside in the dark. He drives them to an underground garage, where they get into a white Chevy van. Abe sets the timers and arms the bombs,

showing John and Amanda the fake C4 that's already been placed in the pots. He opened them up and showed me them, and there was fake C4 that's already been placed in the pots. He opened them up and showed me them and there was like C4 packed inside. Whoa, and I jumped back and I was like, holy fuck. And then he starts taking the safety off and showing me how the thing works and I'm like, wow, look at how confident he is just playing around with a bomb that's live, ticking time bomb, right? The timers tick as they approach the legislature right on time. 5 a.m.

There it is, brother. There it is. See it? Yes. How much is going to be left of it? Hopefully none. Aid pulls up near the building, and John jumps out. There are about 20 officers taking care of surveillance. Sean has a target with a duffel bag just around the corner on the north side of the legislature. The duffel bag actually belongs to a staff sergeant on the team.

John and Amanda fail to find one themselves. Amanda uses a garbage bag to carry her device. There are multiple camera angles of each of them bending into the bushes to hide the bombs. Both wear army green cargo pants, black hoodies, and masks fashioned out of t-shirts. It's just before sunrise, and it's getting light. Abe tells them to stay low until they're safely away. After a couple minutes, they can take off their masks. They switch vehicles, then head back to the mainland on the ferry.

Abe drops them off at a hotel that'll be a safe house for a.m. on July 1st. The bombs were set to go off an hour ago. Amanda and John are holed up in a Best Western, not far from the U.S. border. They mostly sit on the couch, glued to the TV. But there's also a lot of pacing going on, especially from John. About an hour slips by, and they start to wonder why news of the attack hasn't come on. Maybe they're just not reporting it because it's so shocking. Maybe it's Canada Day.

And they don't want to wreck anyone's fun by telling you. They watch coverage of Canada Day celebrations at the Parliament in Ottawa. Prime Minister Stephen Harper makes an appearance. Carly Rae Jepsen performs. But the big star is astronaut Chris Hadfield. Talking about Commander Chris Hadfield. He's here with me now. Oddly, at one point, John starts singing the national anthem, just to show he knows it. Amanda says she knows it in French, so John makes her prove it. A couple hours in, the hotel phone rings.

It's Abe. Abe tells John to get ready. He's going to pick them up and bring them to a chartered plane. Abe tells them to relax, sit tight. He's got to make some calls and arrange everything. John's elation over the news they're leaving the country quickly turns to panic, as he and Amanda try to figure out what they may misfire at the wrong time, and the lawn at the legislature is filling up with families. What if it goes off now? Our kids are there right now. Right now, they're making a fucking human plight out of kids.

Abe calls again and says they'll go through airport security, so bring only the clothes on their backs. He gives them directions to meet him outside and has John repeat it. We're going out the hotel to the road, turning left, meet you in the parking lot of Rupert King. Okay. We're on our way. Okay? That's it. They'll finally make their escape.

Leave it. Leave it. Everything. Leave. Leave everything just now. I need it now. John and Amanda step out the motel door and into the afternoon sun. We have an emergency! John and Amanda step out the motel door and into the afternoon sun. Amanda and John are taken down by the RCMP's heavily armed tactical team. John remembers seeing the little red laser dots from their guns. They're hauled off to separate jails to wait for their trial, which is nearly two years away. They'll have plenty of time to contemplate all the warning signs they missed, and the depth of their friend Abe's deception.

He betrayed me. Ultimate betrayal. He stabbed me in the back and my wife, both of us at the same time, and he tried to kill us slowly by locking us in a jail cell until we fucking died. That's next time on Pressure Cooker is written and produced by Sarah Berman, Rafferty Baker, and me, Dan Pierce. Mixing and sound design by Rafferty Baker. Our digital producer is SK Robert. Jeff Turner is our senior producer. Our executive producer is Chris Oak. And Arif Noorani is director of CBC Podcasts.

Uncle Abe's voice has been replaced by Siavash Desvare. The voice of Mr. Big was performed by Matt Humphrey. Our theme song is by Humans. Special thanks to Graham MacDonald and Taranum Kamlani. Thanks for listening.