Free Republic

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

February 13, 2009 SNIPPET: "He was a small-time hoodlum with a big chip on his shoulders, a man who spoke of Jihad, researched bomb-making techniques and looked at a nuclear plant, the Montreal Stock Exchange and a military base as possible terrorism targets. In the end, Omar Bulphred, a 23-year-old native of Algeria, and an accomplice settled for firebombing two Jewish institutions before getting arrested after police heard them talk about abducting a gay man at random to rob him and cut his throat. The troubling story of the two Montreal terrorist wannabes can be told following Mr. Bulphred's guilty...

VIA Rail officials are red-faced after news got out that one of the company's employees purchased a train ticket under the name of Osama bin Laden on the second anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Benoit Dulong was disciplined for buying the ticket under the terrorist's name in 2003, but his union argued he did it to shock his employer into improving lax ticket security. "The intent was to create an impact and to alert the employer on the seriousness of the situation," Canadian Auto Workers national representative Robert Masse told the Sun yesterday. The story was posted...