A Canadian reporter who interviewed Aaron Driver more than a year ago about his support for the Islamic State says the terror suspect had “radical views” when he spoke with him, but did not appear to be as “militant” as the man shown in the martyrdom video RCMP released on Thursday.
Allan Woods, a reporter with the Toronto Star, conducted a two-hour interview with Driver in February 2015, in which the terror suspect expressed his support for the Islamic State, and called the attack on Parliament Hill in October 2014 “justified.”
Driver, 24, was killed Wednesday during a confrontation with police who were investigating a “potential terrorist threat” in Strathroy, Ont. At a news conference the next day, RCMP said Driver had been planning an “imminent attack.” Authorities also showed a video of a masked Driver praising recent terror attacks in Europe and warning that bloodshed in Canada is the only solution.
“What stands out to me the most is the change in the person I talked to in early 2015 and the person that we saw in the video yesterday that was played for us by the police,” Woods said in an interview with CTV News Channel on Friday. “Much more strident, much more angry – militant, even.”
Woods said when he interviewed Driver, he found him to be polite, and not necessarily a “radicalized” individual.
“He even was a bit critical of some of the violence we see coming from the Islamic State, some of their propaganda, worried that it would attract the wrong kind of people to the movement,” Woods said.
“For an ISIS sympathizer, I thought he was fairly calm and thoughtful. He was generous with his time, he didn’t seem angry,” Woods later added.
Driver is identified in the 2015 article only by his online alias, Harun Abdurahman.
In the interview, Driver acknowledged that Canadian intelligence authorities were already “monitoring” him and that he found it “unnerving.”
Woods also said Driver believed that all Muslims had an obligation to emigrate to Islamic lands where Sharia law is applied.
“The most surprising thing he believed is that the … terrorist attacks on Parliament Hill and in Quebec were justified because of Canada’s intervention and aggression in Iraq.”
Woods said Driver acknowledged that his views were “more radical” and would be “reprehensible to most Canadians, most Canadian Muslims, even.
“He didn’t much care though, that was the issue with him.”
RCMP said Thursday that it was a tip from the FBI about a “martyrdom video” that included a threat of an attack on Canadian soil that sparked a massive police operation in Strathroy, a community located about 225 kilometres west of Toronto.
The confrontation ended with Driver’s death.
