Posted on 07/04/2005 10:16:20 AM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
Monday July 04, 2005
By BETH DUFF-BROWN
Associated Press Writer
TORONTO (AP) Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, and intelligence officials believe at least 50 terror groups now have some presence here.
They are from Sri Lanka, Kurdistan and points between and include supporters of some of the best-known Mideast groups, including al-Qaida, authorities say.
Osama bin Laden named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror. The others, reaffirmed last year by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australia.
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, counterpart of the CIA, said terrorist representatives are actively raising money, procuring weapons, ``manipulating immigrant communities'' and facilitating travel to and from the United States and other countries.
Besides al-Qaida, those groups include Islamic Jihad; Hezbollah and other Shiite groups; Hamas, the Palestinian Force 17, Egyptian Al Jihad and various other Sunni groups from across the Middle East, CSIS said.
CSIS said the Irish Republican Army, Tamil Tigers and Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and major Sikh terrorist groups also have supporters in Canada.
The Air India bombing of 1985 was the deadliest terrorist attack on a commercial airliner prior to Sept. 11, with the government accusing Sikh terrorists living legally in Canada of taking down the airliner over Ireland, claiming 331 lives, most Canadian.
The separatist Tamil Tigers of Sri Lanka whose followers helped start the trend in suicide bombings when they assassinated Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi in 1991 have their political headquarters in a Toronto suburb.
Canada's clandestine Communications Security Establishment, which listens in on conversations and translates messages from foreigners under suspicion, has increased its annual budget by 57 percent since Sept. 11, and Canada has spent some $6.5 billion to beef up security along its border.
There currently are four Arab Muslim men in Canadian jails under ``security certificates,'' which allow Ottawa to detain suspects without public trial or evidence in the name of national security. All four suspects argue they face risk of torture if returned to their native Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Egypt. A fifth suspect, Adil Charkaoui, was granted conditional release in February but must wear an electronic tracking device and remain in Montreal. Human rights groups have condemned Canada for holding the men.
Canada adopted its Anti-Terrorism Act in the months that followed Sept. 11, yet only one man has been arrested under the act: Mohammad Momin Khawaja.
Born in Canada to Pakistani immigrants, Khawaja was arrested in March 2004 on suspicion of participating in and facilitating terrorist activities in London and Ottawa, according to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Young men like Khawaja, 26, are representative of the type of recruits al-Qaida is after, CSIS said in a report recently made public by the Toronto Star.
``There is a direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from al-Qaida and related groups,'' CSIS said. ``Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and relative ease at moving through Western society.''
The U.S. State Department has estimated there are 40 terrorist organizations with sympathizers or supporters in the United States.
EDITOR'S NOTE AP Homeland Security reporter Lara Jakes Jordan contributed to this report from Washington.
This goes with the story the other day where it was stated that Canada's armed forces had to use paintball gear for their exercises. It will be the US who bails them out anyway. I wonder if the libs will scream about "going to Canada" now.
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050702/ca_pr_on_na/army_paintball_1 now this is SCARY
You aren't kidding, they are breeding like cockroaches and no one seems to want to stop them ... we could be in very BIG trouble in the next 2 - 3 years.
Why not?
As long as Canada fails to recognize Earth First!, ALF, ELF, PETA, etc. as terrorist organizations, the rats still hold sanctuary status.
Only fifty groups? That seems low to me. Canada is pretty darn big. Easy to hide in plain sight, too. We've probably got fifty groups of survivalists in Northern Wisconsin, alone.
Cross ref: Canada's Ambassador Declares War on Fox News
(Denny Crane: "Sometimes you can only look for answers from God and failing that... and Fox News".)
Don't count ALL of us out. Canada is a vast, rough country outside the cities. The terrs might create some trouble in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver but I doubt people in the backwoods of the north and out west are going to put up with that #$@!! one minute longer than they have to. The aftereffect of a grim scenario like, say, Ottawa going up in a mushroom cloud (painful for me to contemplate, since I was born there) is that we would no longer have a federal establishment holding us back, for all the good and bad that implies.
MI Ping
The Canadian government is at least one of them.
The Canadian government is at least one of them.
"Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks..."
Canada has not been, is not, and never will be a "neutral" nation. Canada is NOT a neutral nation on the terror war. Canadian armed forces have been fighting in Afghanistan almost from the beginning of the war. Canadian naval forces have worked with the USN in the Persian Gulf and elsewhere during the war. Canada is a founding member of NATO and NORAD and a signatory to DOZENS of defense treaties with the USA. Where do they get this crap? Elsewhere in the article:
"There currently are four Arab Muslim men in Canadian jails under ``security certificates,'' which allow Ottawa to detain suspects without public trial or evidence in the name of national security. All four suspects argue they face risk of torture if returned to their native Algeria, Morocco, Syria and Egypt. A fifth suspect, Adil Charkaoui, was granted conditional release in February but must wear an electronic tracking device and remain in Montreal. Human rights groups have condemned Canada for holding the men. "
Haha. Looks like we have a GITMO NORTH. My quesstion is, why only four?
"Osama bin Laden named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror."
...but our elected "leaders" in this country continue to tell us publically that this is not a religious war and that Islam is a "religion of peace"....bull!
Do you hear that President Bush? Close the borders!!
The Canuck government is so ultra-liberal as to think that it's fun to let additional danger be poised in Canadastan to threaten the U.S. I'm surprised they aren't all wearing gangsta pants and changing their nat'l anthem to rap music.
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