17 terror suspects arrested in Toronto By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press
Canadian authorities said Saturday they had foiled plans for terrorist attacks in southern Ontario with the arrests of 17 people who were "inspired by al-Qaida."
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had arrested 12 male adults and five youths on terrorism-related charges, including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. The suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together, they said.
"This group took steps to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and other components necessary to create explosive devices," said assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Mike McDonell.
That is three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he said, referring to the April 19, 1995, attack that killed 168 people and injured more than 800.
"The men arrested yesterday are Canadian residents from a variety of backgrounds. For various reasons, they appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida," said Luc Portelance, the assistant director of operations with CSIS — Canada's spy agency.
However, he said, there did not appear to be any direct link to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Officials showed evidence of bomb making materials — including a cell phone-bomb detonator — a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and what appeared to be a door with bullet holes in it at a news conference Saturday.
The arrests were made Friday and about 400 officers were involved in the operation.
Heavily armed police ringed the Durham Regional Police Station in the city of Pickering, just east of Toronto, as the suspects were brought in late Friday night in unmarked cars driven into an underground garage.
The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Canadian youths in their teens and 20s, upset at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, were among those arrested.
The newspaper said they had trained at a camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario province.
In March 2004, Ottawa software developer Mohammad Momin Khawaja became the first Canadian charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act. Khawaja was also named, but not charged, in Britain for playing a role in a foiled bomb plot. He is being held in an Ottawa detention center, awaiting trial.
The Canadian anti-terrorism law was passed swiftly following the Sept. 11 assaults, particularly after bin-Laden named Canada as one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for terror attacks.
The other four countries, reaffirmed in 2004 by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australian, all of which have been targeted in terrorist attacks.
The anti-terrorism law permits the government to brand individuals and organizations as terrorists and gives police the power to make preventive arrests of people suspected of planning attacks.
Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, including the 1985 Air India bombing, in which 329 people were killed, most of them Canadian citizens.
Intelligence officials suspect at least 50 terror groups now have some presence in the North American nation and have long complained that the country's immigration laws and border security are too weak to weed out potential terrorists.
I can't believe that after almost 3 days, there have only been 2 posts to this.... does no one find this important? If this were happening in the US there would probably be posts in the hundreds.
I don't know about you guys, but the fact that such a huge event has occured in Canada scares the shit out of me. This Islamic imperialism scares the shit out of me.
Joined: Thu Dec 16, 2004 1:54 am Posts: 7189 Location: CA
corduroy11 wrote:
I can't believe that after almost 3 days, there have only been 2 posts to this.... does no one find this important? If this were happening in the US there would probably be posts in the hundreds.
I don't know about you guys, but the fact that such a huge event has occured in Canada scares the shit out of me. This Islamic imperialism scares the shit out of me.
Why Canada? I mean really, what do they have against Moose and hockey? Does hockey threaten Islam somehow? Yo no comprende. I'm not really concerned about Canada being attacked, because Mounties have shit under control. The 'Smokey the Bear' caps alone will insure Canada's safety.
I can't believe that after almost 3 days, there have only been 2 posts to this.... does no one find this important? If this were happening in the US there would probably be posts in the hundreds.
I don't know about you guys, but the fact that such a huge event has occured in Canada scares the shit out of me. This Islamic imperialism scares the shit out of me.
it is scary, i agree. i think there's a general feeling in canada that because we 'fly below the radar' internationally (with the exception of hockey and speed-skating ) that we'd never really be targeted for an attack. but like i said, if ANY country puts itself in the position we're now in in Afghanistan, the Muslim extreme will eventually try and respond on that country's soil.
I think even now, after this (very) near-miss, canadians - or at least ontarians) are certainly a bit shook up, but there's still this naive sense of 'it's not gonna really happen up here.' i think people often have to be literally smacked in the face with this stuff before they believe they're vulnerable.
but this really is scary, i agree. these guys had their martyr videos already made. they were dead serious.
_________________ "Freedom is the right of all sentient beings." - Optimus Prime
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:56 pm Posts: 19957 Location: Jenny Lewis' funbags
I'm actually surprised almost nobody has responded to this either...maybe because it happened mostly over the weekend. Still this is a huge deal.
[
Quote:
b]Theories surface about what led to Ontario arrests[/b] Last Updated Sun, 04 Jun 2006 23:39:11 EDT
Police aren't saying what led them to arrest 17 southern Ontario people in what looks to be Canada's biggest bomb plot.
There have been plenty of leaks from sources, but not many of them have been publicly confirmed at this point.
Some sources say Canadian anti-terrorist forces eavesdropped on extremist internet sites as a massive bomb attack was planned.
Others say farm supply salesmen became suspicious when unlikely looking farmers kept wandering into their store buying up bags of fertilizer. They called police, who organized a massive sting operation that nabbed the suspects with three tonnes of explosive fertilizer and a cellphone hooked to a sophisticated detonator.
U.S. sources say they became aware of the Ontario suspects after arresting two men on terrorism-related charges in Georgia.
FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said U.S. authorities have been co-operating with Canadian police since they discovered that the two Georgia students travelled to Toronto in March 2005 and met at least three of the Canadians who were arrested.
In an affidavit obtained by Canadian Press, the FBI claims the men "discussed strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, to include oil refineries and military bases. They also plotted how to disable the global positioning system in an effort to disrupt military and commercial communications and traffic."
The FBI said security forces apparently kept a close eye on the two Georgia students and the people they met with in Canada, leading to a long investigation and the arrests.
The Toronto Star, however, wrote that cyber-snoops "unravelled a sinister plan to detonate three tonnes of explosive material on unsuspecting civilians."
"It was in 2004 that tech-savvy spies noticed some teens spending more and more time reading and posting to extremist websites," the Star wrote Sunday.
The cyber-spies tipped off the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, which eventually uncovered an attack plan.
The country's top investigators co-ordinated their efforts through an Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, or INSET, comprised of RCMP, CSIS, federal agencies and provincial and municipal police, according to the Star.
They put more than 400 investigators onto a case that culminated in arrests after three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was purchased from undercover officers.
Targets not known
Police are still not saying what the suspects were apparently targeting. The Toronto Transit Commission's subway lines were definitely not a target, police say.
The CN Tower was also unlikely because it is made of reinforced concrete, a substance that is noticeably hard to blow up, said John Thompson of the Mackenzie Institute, a Toronto-based think-tank.
"For example, [consider] the Hiroshima attack in 1945. The reinforced concrete buildings at the Hiroshima memorial were right underground ground zero, and they're still there," Thompson told Canadian Press.
The House of Commons was also unlikely, if only because the suspected terrorists were in southern Ontario.
With those targets eliminated, anyone willing to create havoc would look at an office building, or a collection of office buildings, Thompson said.
It took only one tonne of ammonium nitrate to kill 168 people in Oklahoma City in 1995, and even less to kill six people and injure more than 1,000 at New York's World Trade Center in 1993, Thompson said.
Thompson said the quantity of fertilizer that was seized by authorities would have been perfect for an al-Qaeda-style attack, with multiple bombs set off within minutes of each other.
"They could saturate the hospitals with mass casualties, cause more confusion and panic, and get the police looking in a dozen directions at once."
A truck bomb downtown, he said, "would shatter all the windows in the four bank towers and basically clean off the sidewalk [within] about 100 metres, killing everyone in the open and then killing, wounding and blinding dozens of other people up in the bank towers.
"Such an attack could result in the deaths of more than 1,000 people."
Setting off a bomb in that area, at rush hour would have been catastrophic.
I think even now, after this (very) near-miss, canadians - or at least ontarians) are certainly a bit shook up, but there's still this naive sense of 'it's not gonna really happen up here.' i think people often have to be literally smacked in the face with this stuff before they believe they're vulnerable.
Here in Washington, DC we have resorted back to that same mentality. Bush has so abused the memory of 9/11 that the signifigance of the event has been lost to many people.
Take a good look at what's going on
Jun. 5, 2006. 11:01 AM
ROSIE DIMANNO
CITY COLUMNIST
Be sickened. Be frightened. Be angry. But don't you dare be shocked.
Unless you've been had.
Either way, the time has long passed for domestic bliss born of ignorance, virtue and wilful denial.
For everyone who thought Canada could cower in a corner of the planet, unnoticed and unthreatened by evil men — even when the most menacing of a very bad lot has twice referenced this country as a target for attack — take a good, hard look at what's been presented and what's being alleged.
Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, thrice the amount used by Timothy McVeigh to demolish a government building in Oklahoma City. Cellphone detonators. Switches. Computer hard drive. A 9-mm pistol. Soldering gun. Camouflage gear.
And 17 males — born here or reared here, certainly settled here, some of them little more than children — formally remanded yesterday on terrorism-related charges.
If the accusations prove true, this isn't just slumming with jihad. For the benighted who claim that the war on terrorism is terrorism: Here is your war.
Could be, of course, all a wild misunderstanding, colossal police blundering, systemic racism, nothing more sinister than a barbeque in the country.
Could be the thing it appears, though — evidence of an enemy within.
And not just those accused who allegedly plotted to blow things up in southern Ontario — maybe the CN Tower, perchance the baseball stadium; most likely venues of large gathering, because the objective of terrorism, which this may or may not be, isn't merely to slaughter but to bludgeon the living with fear, to silhouette in gore one's utter vulnerability.
These accused wanted, if intelligence experts are correct (and they've been wrong before), to kill you.
Your children, your parents, your lovers, your neighbours.
Wouldn't matter, the colour of your skin, your mother tongue, the God that you pray to or if you pray at all. Wouldn't matter even if you happen to equate George W. Bush with Osama bin Laden.
The Jihad Generation — nothing alleged about it — makes no distinctions.
Come such a day, Toronto will look like London ... Madrid ... Bali ... New York City.
"This group posed a real and serious threat," said Mike McDonell, assistant RCMP commissioner in charge of criminal intelligence and national security. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out the attacks. Our investigation and . . . arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the attacks from being carried out."
Further: "We must remain vigilant. Canada is susceptible to criminal terrorist activity as much as any other country."
If such a thing had occurred, if it were still to occur, many would have cheered, if not overtly here in Canada, then without shame in distant places. And others, innumerable others, would turn themselves inside out to rationalize, exculpate, mitigate, mock, shift the blame to something societal or political or self-inflicted.
It takes no sophistication to connect non-existent dots, from Mississauga to Afghanistan, from grievances nurtured in the suburbs of Toronto to a so-called global crusade against Islam, as if the West is responsible for the oppression inflicted upon Muslims, in Muslim nations, by Muslim leaders.
It requires, increasingly, little empirical evidence to excuse the radicalism of pupa militants, including those who enjoy the benefits of our own generous, inclusive and hyper-tolerant society. This is the constituency that protects — tacitly encourages — the nihilism of those driven to violent distraction by what they see as endless victimization of their tribe, a purported world-wide Islamaphobia that can only be redressed by random atrocities.
How quickly, do you think, will these arrests — the judicial process only in its infancy — cease to be about them and become primarily about us?
It's not so difficult to grasp, how the phenomenon of homegrown terrorism has arisen, whether in Canada or Britain or any other democratic society that allows — because it must be allowed; there's no acceptable alternative — the free flow of ideas, the expression of hateful opinions.
An open society is a safe haven for imported bitterness and cosseted otherness, increasingly so among "micro-actors" operating in small, autonomous groups, with only the most cursive ideological alliance to the likes of Al Qaeda, if "inspired" by it.
Vile principles take hold, a certain kind of retributive megalomania, particularly in impressionable minds. And thus is nurtured the view that they are entitled to strike back, as destructively as possible.
In the United Kingdom, as the public discovered recently — following the release of a report on last July's transit system bombings — intelligence agencies prevented three subsequent terrorist attacks.
Last month, a video circulating on the Internet called upon Muslims to attack targets in Denmark, Norway and France, because of the decision taken by some media in those countries to publish offensive images of the Prophet Muhammad.
Historically, there has been hardly any identifiable group that hasn't believed itself ethnically or religiously or politically targeted for what it is.
But modern global jihad is a different animal. It is tearing the world apart. It is picking the fight. It is devouring its own adherents.
It's killing us.
If not in this alleged plot, in Toronto, then by another misbegotten cabal, on another ordinary day, and you know who'll be blamed.
Take a good look at what's going on Jun. 5, 2006. 11:01 AM ROSIE DIMANNO CITY COLUMNIST
Be sickened. Be frightened. Be angry. But don't you dare be shocked.
Unless you've been had.
Either way, the time has long passed for domestic bliss born of ignorance, virtue and wilful denial.
For everyone who thought Canada could cower in a corner of the planet, unnoticed and unthreatened by evil men — even when the most menacing of a very bad lot has twice referenced this country as a target for attack — take a good, hard look at what's been presented and what's being alleged.
Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, thrice the amount used by Timothy McVeigh to demolish a government building in Oklahoma City. Cellphone detonators. Switches. Computer hard drive. A 9-mm pistol. Soldering gun. Camouflage gear.
And 17 males — born here or reared here, certainly settled here, some of them little more than children — formally remanded yesterday on terrorism-related charges.
If the accusations prove true, this isn't just slumming with jihad. For the benighted who claim that the war on terrorism is terrorism: Here is your war.
Could be, of course, all a wild misunderstanding, colossal police blundering, systemic racism, nothing more sinister than a barbeque in the country.
Could be the thing it appears, though — evidence of an enemy within.
And not just those accused who allegedly plotted to blow things up in southern Ontario — maybe the CN Tower, perchance the baseball stadium; most likely venues of large gathering, because the objective of terrorism, which this may or may not be, isn't merely to slaughter but to bludgeon the living with fear, to silhouette in gore one's utter vulnerability.
These accused wanted, if intelligence experts are correct (and they've been wrong before), to kill you.
Your children, your parents, your lovers, your neighbours.
Wouldn't matter, the colour of your skin, your mother tongue, the God that you pray to or if you pray at all. Wouldn't matter even if you happen to equate George W. Bush with Osama bin Laden.
The Jihad Generation — nothing alleged about it — makes no distinctions.
Come such a day, Toronto will look like London ... Madrid ... Bali ... New York City.
"This group posed a real and serious threat," said Mike McDonell, assistant RCMP commissioner in charge of criminal intelligence and national security. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out the attacks. Our investigation and . . . arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the attacks from being carried out."
Further: "We must remain vigilant. Canada is susceptible to criminal terrorist activity as much as any other country."
If such a thing had occurred, if it were still to occur, many would have cheered, if not overtly here in Canada, then without shame in distant places. And others, innumerable others, would turn themselves inside out to rationalize, exculpate, mitigate, mock, shift the blame to something societal or political or self-inflicted.
It takes no sophistication to connect non-existent dots, from Mississauga to Afghanistan, from grievances nurtured in the suburbs of Toronto to a so-called global crusade against Islam, as if the West is responsible for the oppression inflicted upon Muslims, in Muslim nations, by Muslim leaders.
It requires, increasingly, little empirical evidence to excuse the radicalism of pupa militants, including those who enjoy the benefits of our own generous, inclusive and hyper-tolerant society. This is the constituency that protects — tacitly encourages — the nihilism of those driven to violent distraction by what they see as endless victimization of their tribe, a purported world-wide Islamaphobia that can only be redressed by random atrocities.
How quickly, do you think, will these arrests — the judicial process only in its infancy — cease to be about them and become primarily about us?
It's not so difficult to grasp, how the phenomenon of homegrown terrorism has arisen, whether in Canada or Britain or any other democratic society that allows — because it must be allowed; there's no acceptable alternative — the free flow of ideas, the expression of hateful opinions.
An open society is a safe haven for imported bitterness and cosseted otherness, increasingly so among "micro-actors" operating in small, autonomous groups, with only the most cursive ideological alliance to the likes of Al Qaeda, if "inspired" by it.
Vile principles take hold, a certain kind of retributive megalomania, particularly in impressionable minds. And thus is nurtured the view that they are entitled to strike back, as destructively as possible.
In the United Kingdom, as the public discovered recently — following the release of a report on last July's transit system bombings — intelligence agencies prevented three subsequent terrorist attacks.
Last month, a video circulating on the Internet called upon Muslims to attack targets in Denmark, Norway and France, because of the decision taken by some media in those countries to publish offensive images of the Prophet Muhammad.
Historically, there has been hardly any identifiable group that hasn't believed itself ethnically or religiously or politically targeted for what it is.
But modern global jihad is a different animal. It is tearing the world apart. It is picking the fight. It is devouring its own adherents.
It's killing us.
If not in this alleged plot, in Toronto, then by another misbegotten cabal, on another ordinary day, and you know who'll be blamed.
Ya, and there are still people here in Canada living under rocks who think that the all the world loves us because we are "peace loving and multicultural".
Canada terror suspect charges made public By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer
At least one member of a group of terror suspects plotted to storm Canada's parliament and behead officials, including the prime minister, if Muslim prisoners in Canada and Afghanistan were not released, according to charges made public Tuesday.
Authorities also alleged that Steven Vikash Chand plotted to take over media outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
"There's an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada," attorney Gary Batasar said. "It's a very serious allegation. My client has said nothing about that."
Chand is a 25-year-old restaurant worker from Toronto. Charges were expected to be read against at least some of the other suspects Tuesday.
Batasar spoke outside the courthouse, where bail hearings for 10 of the 17 suspects were postponed.
He said the charges were based on fear-mongering by government officials.
Canada terror suspect charges made public By BETH DUFF-BROWN, Associated Press Writer
At least one member of a group of terror suspects plotted to storm Canada's parliament and behead officials, including the prime minister, if Muslim prisoners in Canada and Afghanistan were not released, according to charges made public Tuesday.
Authorities also alleged that Steven Vikash Chand plotted to take over media outlets such as the Canadian Broadcasting Corp.
"There's an allegation apparently that my client personally indicated that he wanted to behead the prime minister of Canada," attorney Gary Batasar said. "It's a very serious allegation. My client has said nothing about that."
Chand is a 25-year-old restaurant worker from Toronto. Charges were expected to be read against at least some of the other suspects Tuesday.
Batasar spoke outside the courthouse, where bail hearings for 10 of the 17 suspects were postponed.
He said the charges were based on fear-mongering by government officials.
What? This is a problem? Doesn't this fall under the 'right to petition the government to address grievances"? Oh wait, you guys run things differently up North. Friggin commonwealth mumble mumble...
That's a misquote. The guy actually said he wanted to "bed Elisha Cuthbert of Canada" not "behead the prime minister of Canada". I fail to see how that is a crime.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:56 pm Posts: 19957 Location: Jenny Lewis' funbags
broken_iris wrote:
That's a misquote. The guy actually said he wanted to "bed Elisha Cuthbert of Canada" not "behead the prime minister of Canada". I fail to see how that is a crime.
That's a misquote. The guy actually said he wanted to "bed Elisha Cuthbert of Canada" not "behead the prime minister of Canada". I fail to see how that is a crime.
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 4:56 pm Posts: 19957 Location: Jenny Lewis' funbags
corduroy11 wrote:
MF wrote:
broken_iris wrote:
That's a misquote. The guy actually said he wanted to "bed Elisha Cuthbert of Canada" not "behead the prime minister of Canada". I fail to see how that is a crime.
That's a misquote. The guy actually said he wanted to "bed Elisha Cuthbert of Canada" not "behead the prime minister of Canada". I fail to see how that is a crime.
She's 18 now right? No crime here.
age of consent in Canada is 14 believe it or not
Oh, how i've wasted my life.
we went from talking about a major terrorist attack that was averted to talking about sexual relations with 14-year-olds... oh how the mind digresses...
Joined: Sun Oct 17, 2004 1:25 am Posts: 3942 Location: The Harbour Steps
Does anyone else find this plot extremely far-fetched and almost fake sounding? No real terrorist would try to carry out something this outlandish and, well, impossible.
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