TORONTO

The jury in the Via Rail terror trial believed the FBI undercover agent who infiltrated an alleged plot to murder hundreds of train passengers was Tamer el-Noury.

That was the name he used with alleged terrorists Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier. That was the name he used to swear his testimony was true.​ And that was the name he used throughout his lengthy time on the witness stand.

But it was a lie.

In fact, it was a pseudonym permitted by Justice Michael Code to be used to protect the agent’s identity in ongoing investigations.

Media were not allowed to indicate the name was not his real one and we were shunted to another courtroom so we would never see the agent’s face. Instead, we could only hear his voice as he testified for days on the stand.

Code said he was persuaded the undercover officer’s identity had to be protected, not only because of his ongoing terror investigations in the U.S. and Canada, but also due to the “ongoing efforts of terrorist groups and of certain individuals operating Internet websites to identify the small number of undercover officers who are trained and are suitable for these kinds of investigations.”