Canadian Terror Plot

[A_Wanderer]

A group of Canadian residents arrested for "terrorism related offenses" were inspired by al Qaeda, had amassed enough explosives to build huge bombs and were planning to blow up targets in densely populated Ontario, police said on Saturday.

Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the group had acquired three metric tons of ammonium nitrate -- or three times the amount used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City -- as they sought to "create explosive devices."

Police arrested 12 men and five young people. The adults were from Toronto, its western suburb of Mississauga and from Kingston, Ontario, at the eastern edge of Lake Ontario and not far from the border with the United States.

At a news conference announcing the arrests, police showed off a haul they described as bomb-making equipment, including white sacks of fertilizer, a cell phone in a box with wiring, a board apparently used for target practice, a computer hard drive and army fatigues.

"This group posed a real and serious threat," McDonell said. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out attacks. ... The modus operandi is very similar to other attacks that have taken place around the world and other threat of attacks."

He added: "We must remain vigilant. Canada is susceptible to criminal terrorist activity as much as any other country."

Police charged the adults, aged between 19 and 43, and five youngsters under the age of 18, with terrorism-related offenses and they were to appear at a heavily guarded courthouse on Saturday. The building was ringed by police vehicles, and snipers stood guard nearby.

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[AcrobatMan]

good work done ...


we need strict anti-terror laws...

 

[BonosSaint]

Congratulations on stopping what could have been a horror.

 

[wizard2c]

reply

Yes....thank you..........I cannot resist links.......good work A_Wanderer!!

 

[verte76]

Good grief. I'm glad they got those terrorists before they could wreak any havoc.

 

[LarryMullen's POPAngel]

Nice.

At least they were caught.

 

[bobert16]

This really is a crazy thing for us Canadians... we hear so often of terror overseas, but rarely does something like this strike so close to home. It's a true eye-opener.

 

[4U2Play]

One of these days, everyone around the world will realize that these Islamic fanatics hate everyone that disagrees with their various radical brands of religion.

Staying out of Iraq and Afghanistan, supporting Palestinian jihadists against Israel, hating America, it doesn't matter... you are all kafirs, convert or die.

Canada received a wake up call today. It will be interesting to see how it will respond (Patriot Act anyone?)

 

[nbcrusader]

Well done

 

[bonoman]

I wonder why people are saying "how will we respond"

Doesnt this indicate that our system is working. It has been said that the majority of these people are home grown and are of Jamican, Trinadad and African decent. 5 of them are under 18!

Isnt our system working? We caught them.

 

[Bluer White]

Thank God for electronic surveillance.

 

[prideofzootv]

i hope the american government will take that on board and increase there anti terror stratergies so we dont have another 9/11 or oklahoma incident!

and our british government is bad aswell, did anyone catch the sunday ppl a month or so ago?

a journalist desgised himself as a worker, no ID and walked into the new Wembley stadium, and the new Arsnal football stadiums with no problems, got into the VIP sections etc, and got out without anyone asking him for anything!

imagine if that was filled with people! sheesh!

 

[Bluer White]

The U.S. definitely needs to take a look at how anti-terror funds are being distributed. It's impossible to prevent an attack at every important place in America, and it's true that no city or state will EVER be satisfied. But it makes since to direct the majority of funds to the most obvious targets in our biggest cities. I think Homeland Security is failing us on that.

 

[prideofzootv]

just need to watch some documentaries about 9/11 and it is a perfect example of where the government lacks its common sense, had all these warnings yet nothings done about it, they have all these radical islamics preachign about killing americans yet nothing is done, i remember being in NY in Feb, there were 3 radicals preaching calling us white bastards, one guy from philly started having a go back and the police threatened to arrest the guy from threatening behaviour yet these guys were saying behead the americans and white population etc, its stupid!

 

[nbcrusader]

they have all these radical islamics preachign about killing americans yet nothing is done

What should be done about this preaching?

 

[AliEnvy]

just need to watch some documentaries about 9/11 and it is a perfect example of where the government lacks its common sense, had all these warnings yet nothings done about it,

I wonder if Homeland Security has really built or maintained any solid bridges between all the territorial, uncooperative levels of law enforcement.

This Canadian incident, politically-speaking, is a "coup" and huge opportunity for our right-wing Prime Minister whose support in the polls is lowest in and around Toronto.

 

[Judah]

Well, i'm going to wait and see. It seems that the RCMP and CSIS have been a bit too enthusiastic about speaking about these arrests. People are actually commenting about how PRish it all seems. And it wouldn't be the first time an intelligence agency in some country touts a major terrorist-ring find and then nothing comes of it. I just read in the paper yesterday about Britain's "chemical bomb terrorist ring" that was announced last week now looking like nothing but hype.

http://www.sulekha.com/news/link.as...060724&cid=1106964983&ei=IzaFRKmzFs2QHZD3sO8H

 

[MrsSpringsteen]

cbs.com

U.S. officials believe Canadian arrests over the weekend and three recent domestic incidents in the United States are evidence the U.S. will soon be hit again by a terrorist attack. Privately, they say, they'd be surprised if it didn't come by the end of the year, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart in a CBS News exclusive.

The first of the domestic incidents, all of which drew little attention at the time, began with the holdup of a string of Torrance, Calif. gas stations last summer. Muslim converts who bonded together in prison planned to use the robberies to finance attacks on 20 Army recruiting stations.

Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton admits they stumbled on the plot during a search.

"Make no mistake about it," Bratton said. "We dodged a bullet here — perhaps many bullets."

Police in Toledo, Ohio, busted another cell in February. This one consisted of three men training to attack U.S. forces overseas. Once again, luck played a role. When they tried to enlist someone in their mosque to help, he turned them in.

"These individuals are often hiding in plain sight in cities like Torrance and now Toledo," says John Pistole, a FBI deputy director.

Two months ago, a pair of Atlanta men, one a Georgia Tech engineering student, were arrested not long after communicating by e-mail with two of the suspects arrested in Canada over the weekend. The Atlanta men are charged with videotaping domestic targets, including the U.S. Capitol and the World Bank.

Analysts now conclude similarities between all the cases were dramatic: All were self-financed, self-motivated, and in each case the men were seeking out others to join their cell.

In short, Osama bin Laden didn't pay for these plots, recruit for them or even know of them. They were all totally homegrown — even amateurish. But if four, including the one in Canada, have been uncovered in just 11 months, officials fear there are inevitably other plots that have not been and are maturing even now.

The next attack here, officials predict, will bear no resemblance to Sept. 11. The casualty toll will not be that high, the target probably not that big. We may not even recognize it for what it is at first, they say. But it's coming — of that they seem certain.

 

[A_Wanderer]

Toronto's Police Chief says the 17 terror suspects arrested this weekend were motivated by politics, not faith.

Bill Blair commented two days after Canadian authorities arrested the suspects on terrorism-related charges.

Blair suggested a Toronto mosque could have been vandalized Saturday night in relation to the arrests.

Blair told reporters "we have tried to make it very clear that this was not the actions of the Muslim community, it was the alleged actions of a small number of young men who were ideologically inspired to commit violent and criminal acts."

The Chief told reporters that no police official involved in any public discussion since the arrests has made any reference to the Islamic faith.

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Right, they all just really hate bacon.

 

[Irvine511]

[BRight, they all just really hate bacon. [/B]

while it's delicious and all, that stuff they serve in Canada is not bacon.

it's ham.