posted June 05, 2006 12:21 PM            

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday there was no indication that 17 terror suspects arrested in Canada were trying to plan an attack in the United States.

"We certainly don't believe that there's any link to the United States, but obviously we will follow up," Rice said on CBS' Face the Nation, noting that the investigation was continuing.

She described cooperation between the United States and Canada on counterterrorism as excellent.

"I think we will get whatever information we need," she said. "But it's obviously a great success for the Canadians. They're to be congratulated for it."

Canadian officials said they foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting the suspects, who were apparently inspired by the al-Qaida terror group. The suspects obtained three times the amount of an explosive ingredient used in the Oklahoma City federal building bombing, officials said.

posted June 05, 2006 12:48 PM              

WHY? I don't get it. We welcome them in to our country, offering a safe, peaceful place to earn an honest living & raise a happy family, with access to all the privelages any normal person would want for their family - but apparently all they really want is to kill us!! Nice way to show gratitude - f'ing monsters!!!!

And, it's especially unfortunate for Muslims who are NORMAL and DECENT - they get screwed over the most by his deal, because people end up looking at them with suspicion too.

posted June 05, 2006 01:06 PM            

I second your opinion, Lioneye...
Exactly!

Bracebridge is right near me too, and so is the C.N Tower.
I mean.. to think that my kids.. ANYONE's kids.... could go on an afternoon school trip to C.N. Tower, and be involved in something that horrendous makes my skin crawl and makes me sick and sad.
I am proud of this Country, the democracy, the 'feel' of it... and to think poeple would compromise this with something I can't even begin to comprehend.. that hatred.. the planning.... ugh.
When I hear of any terrorist attacks anywhere, I have the same reaction. I mourn right along with the world.. but when something is planned in your backyard, it reaches new levels of disgust.
Understanding, tolerance, acceptance... it doesn't reach twisted agendas..... and that's my worst nightmare.
Literally.. all the nightmares I have are about people who are inhuman.... no concept of lovingkindness... just cruel.
Ick.
Ick.
Ick.

posted June 05, 2006 01:16 PM            

You're right, these scum bags do make it hard for peaceful, honest Muslims living in our respective countries to escape the taint of these terrorists who live among them.

There are so many who only want to live their lives free from the dictatorships and hardships in their native countries but people like this make their lives more difficult.

You ask good questions lioneye:

quote:

---

WHY? I don't get it. We welcome them in to our country, offering a safe, peaceful place to earn an honest living & raise a happy family, with access to all the privelages any normal person would want for their family - but apparently all they really want is to kill us!! Nice way to show gratitude - f'ing monsters!!!!

---

Sometimes the answer is a simple one. We are considered infidels and their brand of religion gives them the right to kill infidels.

Not much room for any meeting of the minds with people whose basic underlying position is that they have the right to kill you, your family, your children and anyone else...including other Muslims who do not agree with their interpretation of their religion.

posted June 05, 2006 01:34 PM            

You know, all the questions raised by the left about US means and methods to detect and foil terrorists here in the US. It's illegal, it's domestic spying on granny. How dare they invade the privacy of these freedom fighters and all the rest of the insanity coming off the left.

In this case, the charge will undoubtedly be made of entrapment by law enforcement...since the terrorists thought they were buying ammonium nitrate from someone other than police...to make their bombs. Oh, and since there was no ammonium nitrate actually delivered, there was no crime...so they may well say.

Plot began in chat room
CSIS monitored discussions on bombing targets
'Training camp' visit turning point for investigators
Jun. 5, 2006. 05:21 AM
NICOLAAS VAN RIJN
STAFF REPORTER
Toronto Star

For most Canadians, ammonium nitrate — even after it was used to destroy the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, including dozens of kids in a daycare centre —is nothing much more than a commonly used plant fertilizer.

Farmers buy and use it by the tonne, mixing it into the soil to ensure a bountiful crop.

But mix ammonium nitrate with the inflammatory rhetoric of an Internet chat room, and it instantly acquires the potential to become something entirely different, needing only the addition of a little fuel oil to turn it into a lethal bomb.

So when a shadowy group of disaffected urban youth began talking in an Internet chat room in the fall of 2004 espousing anti-Western views, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was listening.

The spy agency, and an alphabet soup of other security agencies across the continent, closely monitor such sites, where talk may sometimes turn to buildings and bombs and bringing global jihad home to North America, to Canada.

Often it's just that — talk — but when CSIS began monitoring the sites allegedly used by some of the 17 men and youths arrested on terrorism-related charges in a sweeping series of raids across the GTA Friday evening, the Canadian spy agency heard enough to remain interested, and increased surveillance of the group.

While CSIS and police typically won't talk about their operational methods, the available techniques range from monitoring electronic communications, from cell phones and landlines to emails and computers, to physically following persons of interest as they move about and talk to others.

Four months after the surveillance began, two Americans, from the Atlanta, Ga., area, popped onto the radar.

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee had been communicating by email with the Canadian group, investigators allege, and in March 2005 the two hopped on a Greyhound bus, paying $280 (U.S.) for two round-trip tickets to Toronto, where, according to U.S. court documents, they were to meet with "like-minded Islamists."

"According to Ahmed ... they met regularly with at least three subjects of an FBI international terrorism investigation," the court documents allege, and discussed "strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike."

By now the Royal Canadian Mounted Police was involved, and also monitoring members of the Canadian group. The federal police service was brought into the case Nov. 17, 2004, by CSIS agents who believed they had enough information to warrant a criminal investigation.

According to the Los Angeles Times, U.S. authorities were also watching the two Americans, and at some point discovered communications between the men in Canada and Atlanta and other suspected terrorists overseas, including a group arrested in London last fall that counted among its members a computer specialist who used the Arabic word irhabi — for terrorist — as his Internet handle, Irhabi007.

Talk in the group was wide-ranging, according to an American law enforcement official, "about a whole range of targets." Officials and U.S. court documents allege group members were scouting targets that included Canadian government buildings, American oil refineries, and a U.S. tower that they believed controlled global positioning systems used in aviation.

Federal prosecutors in New York also told a recent hearing Sadequee and Ahmed had visited Washington and videotaped the U.S. Capitol, the World Bank headquarters and some fuel storage facilities.

They were charged in March and April and are awaiting trial.

Ahmed, a Pakistani native who has pleaded not guilty, arrived in the U.S. with his family when he was about 12 and is now an American citizen; Sadequee, whose family came from Bangladesh, was born in Virginia; he has been denied bail and is awaiting trial.

In August, 2005, Canadian investigators were watching closely as a car tried to cross back into Canada across the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie. Pulled over by a student working with the Canadian Border Services Agency, the car was rented by Fahim Ahmad, 22 — arrested as part of Friday's sweep — for two others, 24-year-old Yasin Abdi Mohamed of Toronto and Ali Dirie, 22, last of Markham.

Mohamed was found with a loaded handgun tucked in his waistband; Dirie had two pistols taped to his inner thighs; both are now serving two-year sentences.

No charges were laid against Ahmad for making the vehicle available. Not then.

By last winter federal investigators were becoming increasingly concerned about the Canadian group, stressing that it shouldn't be underestimated. Among the things that set alarm bells ringing was an alleged visit to a northern Ontario "training camp" by group members; what they did there or how long they stayed hasn't been revealed.

But investigators allege some of the group's members made a video showing them imitating military manoeuvres. And, police say, the suspects had allegedly acquired guns.

By February, intelligence analysts saw the group as the country's greatest terrorism threat, and called an unusual high-level briefing for chiefs of Ontario's police forces, including Toronto police Chief Bill Blair.

Not long after that investigators brought Toronto Mayor David Miller into the loop, alerting him to a terror investigation that might include a Toronto building as its target.

Although no one is saying so officially, the CSIS headquarters, on Front St. in the shadow of the CN Tower, was among the possible targets — but not, officials stressed during a news conference Saturday, the TTC.

The lengthy investigation took on added urgency this month when talk in the group allegedly turned to acquiring three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, enough to build several powerful bombs.

The rental truck used by Timothy McVeigh to destroy the eight-storey Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City was loaded with only a third of that amount; his victims included 168 dead and more than 800 wounded.

Like the CSIS building, the Murrah complex was filled with law enforcement offices.

By the end of last week, investigators felt they had enough evidence to move in on the group.

Although police haven't officially said so, sources have told the Star's Michelle Shephard that the final act in the multi-year investigation came when federal agents intercepted the group's order for the fertilizer, and arranged to have it delivered by truck.

But, the Star has learned, police switched the fertilizer with a harmless powder before making the delivery.

After the deal was done, the handcuffs came out.

At around the same time an elite team led by the RCMP's anti-terrorism task force, comprising federal agents and police officers from forces including Toronto, York, Durham and Peel, began swooping down on locations in Mississauga and Toronto.

Heavily armed officers and armoured vehicles were used in the raids, and police say they met with no resistance in arresting 12 adult males and five juveniles. Most were processed that night at a heavily-guarded Durham police station in Pickering, and appeared in Brampton court the next morning, also under heavy security.

On Saturday, at a 10 a.m. news conference, investigators began revealing some of what they know.

Chiefs of the Toronto, Peel, York and Durham police forces, and representatives from the OPP and CSIS, flanked RCMP Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell as he outlined what police say were their plans for the fertilizer.

"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," McDonell said. "If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one tonne of ammonium nitrate.

"This group posed a real and serious threat," McDonell emphasized. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out these acts."

Behind him, a tabletop held evidence from the Friday evening raids, including a 9-mm Luger pistol, military fatigues, a grab-bag of items ranging from two-way radios, knives and flashlights to duct tape, and a sample bag of ammonium nitrate.

Six of the accused adults are from Mississauga, four from Toronto and two are serving time in a Kingston prison on gun-smuggling charges. Most of the men are in their 20s, although one is 30, another 43.

Police have said they will not discuss the five juveniles arrested during the sweep.

Charges against the men — who return to Brampton court Tuesday — include participating in or contributing to the activity of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; providing or making available property for terrorist purposes; and the commission of indictable offences including firearms and explosives offences for the benefit of or in association with a terrorist group.

This marks only the second time that such charges have been laid since the Criminal Code was amended in 2001, in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, to include terrorism offences.

It's also the first time police have made arrests to stop what they allege was an imminent terror attack on Canadian soil.

For neighbours of the 10 men and five juveniles who appeared in Brampton court Saturday — Yasin Abdi Mohamed and Ali Dirie, in prison in Kingston, did not appear — the arrests and charges came mostly as a shock.

They talked of quiet men, religious men, who played basketball and went to school and looked for jobs, of an elder who mentored younger men, but mostly, of men who kept to themselves, coming and going silently to and from their homes in Mississauga and Toronto.

"They never spoke to anyone," said one neighbour.

One youngster talked of the older brother, 19, who'd often disappear, for weeks at a time, without telling anyone where he was going.

"I heard he was going to some camp," the younger brother said. "But I don't know anything about it."

But eventually the older brother and his friends would reappear, the boy recalled, usually with a gift.

posted June 05, 2006 08:01 PM            

According to the news, it looks like this group may have involved terrorists in 7 Nations.

By BETH DUFF-BROWN and ROB GILLIES

TORONTO (AP) - Police said Monday more arrests are likely in an alleged plot to bomb buildings in Canada, while intelligence officers sought ties between the 17 suspects and Islamic terror cells in the United States and five other nations.

A court said authorities had charged all 12 adults arrested over the weekend with participating in a terrorist group. Other charges included importing weapons and planning a bombing. The charges against five minors were not made public.

The Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa, is believed to be among targets the group discussed. Toronto Mayor David Miller said CN Tower, a downtown landmark, and the city's subway were not targets as had been the speculated in local media, but declined to identify sites that were.

A Muslim prayer leader who knew the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, told The Associated Press on Monday that Jamal's sermons at a storefront mosque were "filled with hate" against Canada.

Authorities said more arrests were expected, possibly this week, as police pursue leads about a group that they say was inspired by the violent ideology of the al-Qaida terror network.

"We've by no means finished this investigation," Mike McDonell, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, told AP. "In fact, you might look at it that, really, we're just starting with the arrests. We have a responsibility to follow every lead."

Although both Canadian and U.S. officials said over the weekend there was no indication the purported terror group had targets outside Ontario, McDonell told AP on Monday that there are "foreign connections," but he would not elaborate.

In Washington, a spokesman for the National Security Council at the White House, said President Bush spoke with Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper about the case Monday afternoon, but gave no specifics of what was discussed.

"Prime Minister Harper called the president to update him on the situation involving the arrest of 17 individuals in Toronto who are charged with terrorism-related offenses," spokesman Frederick Jones said.

A U.S. law enforcement official said investigators were looking for connections between those detained in Canada and suspected Islamic militants held in the United States, Britain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Denmark and Sweden.

American authorities have established that two men from Georgia who were charged this year in a terrorism case had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

Prosecutors have said the Georgia men, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, traveled to Washington to shoot "casing videos" of the Capitol and other potential targets.

Sadequee, 19, a U.S. citizen who grew up near Atlanta, is accused of lying to federal authorities during an FBI terrorism investigation. Ahmed, 21, a Georgia Tech student, faces a charge he provided material support and resources for terrorism.

In Atlanta, Ahmed's lawyer, Jack Martin, told AP there may have been some connection between his client and the suspects, but he insisted it wasn't part of any terrorism plot.

"Other than having the possibility that they may have met at some point, I know of no indication that anyone believes my client had anything to do with what these guys were up to," Martin said.

A U.S. counterterrorism official said the 17 suspects in Canada are an example of a type of group that authorities have been concerned about for some time: self-organized, ad hoc cells of homegrown extremists, a development first seen in Britain.

The official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said Canada's government rightfully considered the 17 a serious threat because there was evidence the group was far along in planning attacks.

"It came to a point where our concern for the safety and security of the public far outweighed our appetite for collecting evidence," said McDonell, the RCMP deputy commissioner.

The U.S. counterterrorism official added there was no reason to believe the group had U.S. targets in mind, but also no reason to exclude the potential.

Canadian police say there is no evidence the suspect group had ties to al-Qaida, but describe its members as being sympathetic to jihadist ideology. Officials are concerned that many of the 17 suspects were roughly 20 years old and had been radicalized in a short amount of time.

The Ontario Court of Justice released details of the charges faced by the 12 adult men arrested Friday and Saturday. The men are scheduled to appear in court Tuesday for a bail hearing.

Each is charged with one count of participating in a terrorist group.

Three of them - Fahim Ahmad, 21, Mohammed Dirie, 22, and Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24 - also are charged with importing weapons and ammunition for the purpose of terrorist activity.

Nine face charges of receiving training from a terrorist group, while four are charged with providing training. Six also are charged with intending to cause an explosion that could cause serious bodily harm or death.

No information was released on the five young males arrested due to federal privacy laws that protect minors.

Canadian media have reported that the suspects attended a training camp in Washago, a rural community 90 north of Toronto. The National Post quoted unidentified residents in the wooded area as saying they heard machine-gun fire and saw men dressed in camouflage carrying equipment.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police displayed evidence Saturday that included camouflage uniforms, flashlights, walkie-talkies and detonators, but have refused to confirm whether they were used at a training facility.

Officials announced Saturday that the suspects were arrested after the group acquired three tons of ammonium nitrate, which can be mixed with fuel oil to make a powerful explosive. One-third that amount was used in the deadly bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building in 1995.

The Toronto Star reported that undercover Mounties delivered the substance to the group in a sting operation. The Star, citing unidentified sources, said the suspects actually received a harmless substance.

Some people who know the suspects said they were astonished by the arrests.

But Faheem Bukhari, a director of the Mississauga Muslim Community Center, said Jamal, the oldest suspect, had taken to giving hateful sermons and preaching intolerance to young Muslims at a small storefront mosque in Mississauga, a city near Toronto where six of the suspects lived.

"These youth were very fun-loving guys, soccer-loving guys, and then all of sudden they were not associating with guys they used to," Bukhari told AP, referring to some of the younger suspects.

He said Jamal once told "the audience that the Canadian Forces were going to Afghanistan to rape women."

Canada has about 2,300 soldiers in southern Afghanistan to bolster Afghan reconstruction and combat Taliban militants.

Bukhari's description contrasted with the view of another prayer leader at the mosque, who said while Jamal was "aggressive" in his sermons but never promoted hatred or violence.

"I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There's no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation," Qamrul Khanson said Sunday.

posted June 05, 2006 10:37 PM            

I'm glad to see the Canadian government reacting to the threat...and handling it in a thoroughly professional manner.

Welcome to the hated and now you understand terrorists don't need any particular reason to attempt to kill you. So far as I know, Canada is not involved in Iraq.