Information Arises on Chiheb Esseghaier, al Qaeda Terrorist Arrested in Canada; Was PhD Student

Canada and the United States foiled an attempted attack by al Qaeda today, arresting Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser. Among other things, Esseghaier, it has been learned, was a PhD student at INRS University in Quebec.

On Esseghaier's Linkedin profile, he posted this picture as his profile:

This is the same image that al Qaeda uses on their flags:

His profile lists various colleges that he has attended, including INRS, Université de Sherbrooke, and IPEST in Tunis. Esseghaier states that he is able to speak Arabic, French, and English.

Esseghaier explains in a short biography he wrote on a personal website:

Born in Tunis, Tunisia. I got Engineer degree in Industrial Biology from Institut National des Sciences Appliquées et de Technologie (INSAT), Tunis in 2007. After that, I continue master studies at the same institute in Industrial Biotechnology field and i got the MSc degree in 2008. Then, i moved to Sherbrooke University to work on research project on SPR biosensor and gallium arsenide semi-conductor biofunctionnalization. In November 2010, I joined BBBL lab in Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique (INRS) to start PhD program in developing optical and electrochemical biosensors.

He has also been published several times:

G. A. R. Y. Suifan, C. Esseghaier, A. Ng, M. Zourob, Washeless and highly sensitive assay for prostate specific antigen cancer detection, Analyst, 2012. in press.

C. Esseghaier, A. Ng, M. Zourob, A novel sensitive layer for rapid HIV-1 protease detection using magnetic bead mediation, Biosensor and Bioelectronics, 2012. in press.

M.G. Silva, S. Helali, C. Esseghaier, C.E. Suarez, A. Oliva, A. Abdelghani, An impedance spectroscopy method for the detection and evaluation of Babesia bovis antibodies in cattle, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 135, Issue 1, 10 December 2008, Pages 206-213.

C. Esseghaier, Y. Bergaoui, H. ben Fredj, A. Tlili, S. Helali, S. Ameur, A. Abdelghani, Impedance spectroscopy on immobilized streptavidin horseradish peroxidase layer for biosensing, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 134, Issue 1, 28 August 2008, Pages 112-116.

H. Ben Fredj, S. Helali, C. Esseghaier, L. Vonna, L. Vidal, A. Abdelghani, Labeled magnetic nanoparticles assembly on polypyrrole film for biosensor applications, Talanta, Volume 75, Issue 3, 15 May 2008, Pages 740-747.

C. Esseghaier, S. Helali, H. Ben Fredj, A. Tlili, A. Abdelghani, Polypyrrole-neutravidin layer for impedimetric biosensor, Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical, Volume 131, Issue 2, 14 May 2008, Pages 584-589.

The image that Esseghaier used on his Linkedin profile is popular on Islamic fundamentalist websites, such as Islamic Awakening.

This picture was included on Chiheb Esseghaier's personal website:

From left to right, front row: Reda Elshafey, Mona Tolba,Teresa Simao,Shimaa Eissaa,
Minhaz Uddin Ahmed, Esen Sokullu,Raja Chinnappan,Goe Gerald, Chiheb Esseghair,
2nd row: Andy NG,Babak Safavieh,Irina Stateikina, Gaston Conteras Jalal Abdul-hadi,
Samir Saeidi, Chaker Tlili,Mohammed Zourob

Update: The Huffington Post is reporting the same information.