World Terrorism: Granny's Googles/News/History/Much Much More.

Europe's botched civilization, perverted by socialism and lost faith, seems to have lost the will, the passion to sustain itself. If it continues to practice today's multiculturalist leftism, Europe's demographic doom will be sealed. Some harbingers:

In Brussels, Belgium, the most popular name for baby boys is now Mohammad. Sustaining the population of a nation requires that on average each couple gives birth to 2.1 children. The average European couple now has fewer than 1.4 babies, compared to 3.6 babies born to the average Muslim immigrant couple in Europe. Across Western Europe 16 to 20 percent of babies are being born into Muslim families. In France at least 12 percent of the population is already Muslim, the fruits mostly of immigrants from former French colonies in North Africa. If present birth trends continue, by 2030 a quarter of France's people will be Muslim, more than enough to determine who controls the national parliament and executive. As this columnist recently noted, the nuclear-armed French military is already 15 percent Muslim. Adjacent Switzerland is now 20 percent Muslim. The German newspaper Deutsche Welle days ago reported that Germany's birth rate in 2005 fell to a level lower than at the end of World War II, to a "historic low," more than fifty percent lower than those of France and Great Britain. But at a meeting this week in Berlin that brought together the interior ministers of six European nations, Germany's leftwing Social Democrats continued to oppose the application of any test or standard that would restrict who could migrate into Germany.

The burgeoning Muslim population within Europe is not evenly spread. It is largely concentrated in and around big cities, whose local politicians feel its pressure acutely and often bend to that pressure. In the Netherlands the cities of Amsterdam and Rotterdam nearly have Muslim majorities now.

These Islamic enclaves are already taking on the character of conquered provinces that no longer belong to the European countries around them. As FrontPage Magazine recently quoted from the new book While Europe Slept by liberal American expatriate Bruce Bawer:

In France, a public official met with an imam at the edge of Roubaix's Muslim district out of respect for his declaration of the neighborhood as Islamic territory to which she had no right of access. In Britain, imams have pressed the government to officially designate certain areas of Bradford as being under Muslim, not British, law. In Denmark, Muslim leaders have sought the same kind of control over parts of Copenhagen. And in Belgium, Muslims living in the Brussels neighborhood of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek already view it not as part of Belgium but as an area under Islamic jurisdiction in which Belgians are not welcome.

Son of Slain Chechen President Kadyrov Pledges Blood Feud Against Rebel Leader Basayev

Created: 16.06.2006 18:20 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 18:21 MSK, 2 hours 44 minutes ago

MosNews

Click Here!

Chechen prime-minister Ramzan Kadyrov called warlord Shamil Basayev his personal enemy number one. He claims that Basaev will pay for the death of the former Chechen president Ahmad Kadyrov, Ramzan’s father, and many other Chechens.

Statement of prime-minister, published in several local newspapers reads that Basaev has claimed responsibility for the murder of Kadyrov and of several other terrorist acts committed in Chechnya and Russia, Interfax news agency reported Friday.

“Annihilation of Basaev is my sacred duty as Moslem and as a citizen of Russian Federation” - prime-minister’s statement reads.

According to Associated press news agency Thursday rebel Chechen website Kavkaz Center posted what appeared to be a new video of Shamil Basayev in which warlord claims his responsibility for the 2004 bombing that killed Chechnya’s Moscow-backed president, saying he paid $50,000 to those who carried out the assassination.

Russia’s most wanted Chechen rebel leader in his statement also had put a $25,000 bounty on the head of Kadyrov’s son, Ramzan — a flamboyant prime-minister in the Kremlin-backed regional government who heads widely feared paramilitary forces accused of abducting civilians and other violence.

According the Kavkaz Center, Basayev mocked Ramzan in offering the bounty by saying: “He isn’t worth more than that.”

Large-scale fighting in Chechnya ended shortly after Russian forces launched their second invasion in the region in 1999, but rebels continue to stage regular hit-and-run raids and explode land mines against federal forces and their local collaborators.

Neighboring regions have seen increased violence in recent months, leading to fears that militants were spreading the fight beyond Chechnya’s border throughout the North Caucasus.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/16/basaevmustdie.shtml

Photo from www.socialistworld.com

Photo from www.socialistworld.com
Helicopters Bomb Rebel Positions in Russia’s Southern Region

Created: 14.06.2006 16:14 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 16:14 MSK

MosNews

Click me

Russian helicopters on Wednesday bombed a wooded area in the restive southern region of Ingushetia where security forces believed up to 10 Chechnyan militants were hiding, Associated Press news agency reported.

The air strikes came amidst two months of rebel violence in the region bordering on Chechnya, in which 10 people including two high-ranking police officials and three small children have been killed.

The military operation Wednesday, outside the village of Ali-Yurt, about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the region’s largest city, Nazran, involved units of the Ingush Interior Ministry, the Federal Security Service and the Russian army, said Nazir Yevloyev, the regional Interior Ministry spokesman. After the bombing, the troops fanned out through the woods to search for the militants.

“The operation to detain members of an illegal armed group began at 7 a.m. (3 a.m. GMT), and special forces are combing the area and police have cut off escape routes,” the local interior ministry spokesman told RIA Novosti.

In the nearby region of Kabardino-Balkariya, meanwhile, Deputy Russian Interior Minister Yuri Kokov said Tuesday that the special services’ attempts to cut off terrorist financing were ineffective, and accused them of purposely underestimating the number of militant supporters in the region.

“The reason for the weak work in preventing planned terrorist attacks is the terrible corruption among the employees of the military, security and law enforcement structures,” Kokov told a conference of Interior Ministry officers.

The Kabardino-Balkariya regional department of the Federal Security Service announced Tuesday, that seven automatic rifles recovered from the bodies of five militants killed in the October attack on Nalchik, had been stolen from military warehouses in a June 2004 rebel raid in Ingushetia, for which radical Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev has claimed responsibility. Officials have announced such linkages to shore up their argument that Islamic-inspired rebels across Russia’s south are coordinating their actions.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/14/helicopterbombsrebels.shtml

South Russian Province Mourns Pro-Kremlin Officials, Other Victims Slain in Friday Attack

Created: 10.06.2006 14:31 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 14:31 MSK

MosNews

Authorities in Russia’s southern province of Ingushetia, bordering on the restive Chechnya, have declared a day of mourning for the victims of two attacks, in which two pro-Kremlin officials were killed.

President of Ingusehtia Murat Zyazikov met with local police officials and on Friday, following the armed attacks in the village of Ordzhonikidzevskaya and the town of Karabulak, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

First, Galina Gubina, an administrator responsible for helping Russian families resettle in the region had been gunned down, and then a senior police commander, Musa Nalgiyev, was killed as he drove his three young children to school. The children were also killed, as were the commander’s bodyguard and his driver, bringing the death toll in the shootings to seven.

The assassinations, by gunmen firing from at least one car, appeared to be another round of carefully timed assaults against the government. The attacks continued the pattern of sporadic but intensive and often coordinated violence in Ingushetia, where an underground Islamic force, aligned with Chechen separatists, has said it has been carrying out what it calls “responsive measures” against officials involved in government counterterrorism activities in the region.

Pro-Moscow president of Chechnya Alu Alkhanov expressed his condolences to the people of Ingushetia. Anti-rebel raids carried out at individual locations are not enough to eradicate terror, such operations must be held jointly throughout the North Caucasus, presidential spokesman Said-Magomed Isarayev quoted Alkhanov as saying. “If the Ingush administration makes a request we are ready to help them,” Alkhanov said.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/10/ingushmourning.shtml

Photo from www.ej.ru
Russian HR Group Uncovers Secret Torture Cell Used by Pro-Moscow Chechen Police

Created: 09.06.2006 11:11 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:56 MSK

MosNews

One of Russia’s leading human rights groups, Memorial, has produced what it says is documentary evidence of a secret torture and murder cell in Grozny, the capital of Chechnya, The Independent daily reported Friday.

According to Memorial, Russian police used the dungeon to torture and murder hundreds of people, whose corpses were later dumped across the small, mainly Muslim, republic.

Memorial alleges that the torture cell, located in the basement of a former school for deaf children in Grozny’s Oktyabrskaya district, was decommissioned only last month, when the federal Russian police unit occupying the building withdrew.

The claims undermine Kremlin assurances that life in Chechnya is “getting back to normal” and directly implicate the authorities in the unlawful abduction and extrajudicial execution of civilians.

Memorial says it collected the evidence just in time and that the building housing the cellar has since been demolished and the graffiti expunged from the walls in a crude attempt at a cover-up. What is clear is that the cellar was used to interrogate people suspected of collaborating with separatists resisting the republic’s Moscow-backed government. Human rights activists allege that many of these so-called “terror suspects” are innocent civilians and that they are often punished because one of their relatives is a rebel.

The Moscow-backed Chechen authorities have categorically denied Memorial’s allegations, though the republic’s prosecutor, Valery Kuznetsov, is investigating. Mr Kuznetsov has already claimed that it was common knowledge that there were “temporary holding cells” beneath the building. He insists their existence was “official and not a secret object”. Samples have been taken from the cells’ walls for analysis and if they turn out to be human blood, Mr Kuznetsov has promised further tests. Several criminal cases involving the disappearance of people allegedly dispatched to the cells are being investigated.

Nurdi Nukhajiev, Chechnya’s government-appointed representative for human rights, was sceptical about Memorial’s claims.

“I am not saying that angels served there [in the cells],” he said. “I am not saying that the people [policemen] were ideal individuals. But this is 2006 and they weren’t so stupid as to leave evidence of torture and murder behind.”

Russian news agency Regnum reported that Chechen prosecutors have instigated a criminal case into the incident against the military servicemen of the combined unit of the Khanty-Mancy District (troops from various regions of the Russian Feredation are being sent to fight rebels in Chechnya). Oksana Rogozina, an aide to the Chief Chechen Prosecutor told the agency that the report about tortures will be checked within the investigation of this case. The official said that there were no more information on the case, but stressed that the suspects’ complicity in tortures was yet to be proved.

http://www.mosnews.com/news/2006/06/09/secretprison.shtml

Chechen PM Could Double-Cross Kremlin

Created: 29.05.2006 12:55 MSK (GMT +3), Updated: 15:52 MSK

RFE/RL

With a Group of Eight summit scheduled for July in St. Petersburg, Washington is paying renewed attention to Russia. Tatania Lokshina, chairwoman of the Moscow-based Demos think tank, spoke about the situation in Chechnya to RFE/RL correspondent Julie Corwin.

There was a recent public opinion poll conducted by a Chechen ministry which showed that people believed Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadryov had already made some improvements to life in the republic since his appointment in March. Does the poll accurately reflect people’s opinions? Is Kadyrov a truly popular leader now? Or are people afraid to criticize him?

Kadryov is becoming so much more popular. It is even surprising, particularly for those people who have been working in the region quite a lot and remember how the locals used to refer to Kadyrov. Today it’s different. The rhetoric of the public at large is along the lines of, well, whatever he is, no matter how bloody he is, at least, he’s a real man, at least, he’s a real boss, at least he’s a real Chechen. And finally, something is changing. Now you cannot deny — even the strongest critics of Kadyrov, like myself — cannot deny the reconstruction [of Grozny] is actually happening. He is pouring some money into that.

What else has he done?

He’s also talking about something he defines as federal Shari’a [Islamic law], which is a revival of Islam, a revival of the traditional values, and that’s another thing that makes him popular.

How much does President Vladimir Putin support Kadyrov? 100 percent?

I don’t think it’s about Putin supporting Kadyrov 100 percent. I strongly believe that at this point the Kremlin is simply focused on the year 2008, the [national presidential] election and all the relevant problems. As far as Chechnya is concerned, as far as the entire northern Caucasus is concerned, despite the spill-over of the conflict, which is evident to everyone, this is not a priority. The only thing that Moscow wants from Chechnya is just to have the lid shut over the boiling pot and keep it shut until the year 2008. They want to do everything to prevent an explosion.

But the Kremlin has confidence in him?

Apparently they believe he is relatively capable of holding the situation together, of preventing major armed violence in the republic, and they are trying to keep him satisfied. However you try to analyze the situation, he got his Hero of Russia award. That was bonus No. 1. This is the highest award in the country. Then he became the leader of the United Russia party in Chechnya, which is this major pro-Kremlin party, which is really influential in Chechnya. That was his bonus No. 2. Then finally he became prime minister quite recently. That was bonus No. 3.

Had the Kremlin planned for him to be prime minister?

My sources tell me, and I’m convinced of it, that the president’s office, Putin’s office, never wanted him to become prime minister. But then [Sergei] Abramov, Moscow’s envoy to Chechnya, had a very serious traffic accident, and certainly everyone in Chechnya believes that it was arranged. For a while, Abramov was saying he would definitely return to Grozny. And then suddenly — click — he says he’s not returning to Grozny. And when he was asked by journalists and it’s very significant, if he was not returning because of the health reasons. He explicitly said “no, I’m not returning to leave some space for Ramzan Kadyrov — to give my job to Ramzan Kadyrov.”

Will this be enough? Will there be bonus No. 4?

Next comes the presidency, because Ramzan is going to be 30 this fall. And I think that the Kremlin is not so lacking in intelligence as to give him the presidency right away. They will probably withhold the bonus for about a half of year or so. But ultimately Ramzan will threaten, and he’ll get it and what comes next? Because the presidency is indeed the limit of his ambition within the Russian Federation. And he’s young, he’s ambitious, he’s surrounded by former rebels whose allegiance to the Kremlin is more than questionable — let’s put it this way. He’s bound to crave more.

So Kadyrov has made the public happier and has satisfied the Kremlin, what is the situation really like on the ground? There’s more new construction, but is there less lawlessness?

The greatest tragedy today is that now after so many years of bloodshed and thousands and thousands of lives lost, we have actually come back to where we started. Because if you compare Chechnya today with the way it used to be between the two wars, what we find is a very criminal, very chaotic, very out-of-control entity. And the only major difference is that at that time it was a quasi-independent, self-proclaimed state, accountable for whatever was happening in its territory. But today it’s a fully-fledged subject of the Russian Federation.

During the question-and-answer period after her talk, Lokshina was asked if Kadyrov is trying to compete with separatist military leader Shamil Basaev by implementing his federal Shari’a laws.

Kadyrov is trying to demonstrate to the public in Chechnya that he’s a real Chechen leader, that he’s for the traditional values, that he’s for the religious values, and that he will make sure that Chechnya lives by its own laws. Federal legislation does not really matter. Even if Chechnya is not formally independent, Ramzan Kadyrov is trying to demonstrate that under his rule, Chechnya can exist as almost an independent entity while at the same time milking the Kremlin for the money.

http://www.mosnews.com/interview/2006/05/29/talkingchechnya.shtml

[a post for study and research...Remember all we had here?]

Substation break-ins raise fears
A rise in electricity substation break-ins has led to increased security measures and warnings that vandals are gambling with their lives.

EDF, which covers London, the East, and the South East, has had 24 incidents since 1 April. Figures were up by about 50% compared with 2005, the firm said.

Vandals who damaged cables in Kent this year risked an 11,000-volt shock. Some attacks included lorry ram-raids.

Substations will now get second fences, cameras and motion detectors, EDF said.

All substations are already labelled with yellow Danger of Death signs and have basic boundary fencing and locks.

Vandals and thieves are becoming more organised
Alan Feakins

The company said concerns about the risk of deaths or serious injuries had been raised by the firm's security managers and safety experts at the Department of Trade and Industry.

It also raised concerns that "break-ins could leave substations vulnerable to visits by children with the summer holidays approaching".

Alan Feakins, EDF Energy Networks Director, said swipe cards, alarmed doors and magnetic locks and bolts were included in security upgrade plans.

'Zero tolerance'

He said: "Systems are being installed which are linked to a central control manned 24 hours a day."

He added: "We believe now that the increase in attacks is probably because the vandals and thieves are becoming more organised.

"Their actions are putting themselves and the public at risk so we are doing all we can to stop them."

He said the company operated a "zero tolerance" policy over vandalism.

Mr Feakins already said that vandals who interfered with cables and equipment were not only gambling with their own lives but also the lives of the company's staff.

He said the company, which worked closely with the police, would push for all vandals to be prosecuted and would press for compensation for repairs.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/england/5081056.stm

Published: 2006/06/15 05:48:04 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[a post to study and research]

Jury told of 'plane hijack plot'
The jury in the trial of seven men accused of plotting a bomb campaign in the UK has heard of a plan to hijack and crash a British Airways plane.

The alleged plot was heard in a bugged conversation recorded by the security service, MI5, and played to jurors.

A voice says: "The beauty is they don't have to fly into a building, just crash the flipping thing."

Prosecutors say Omar Khyam was speaking to Jawad Akbar. The men and five others deny conspiring to cause explosions.

The voice said to be Mr Khyam's discusses a plot to use 30 "brothers" prepared to commit suicide on a British Airways plane.

Plans to attack electricity, gas and water supplies are also discussed in the conversation, which the Old Bailey jurors were told had been recorded in Mr Akbar's flat in Uxbridge, west of London.

'Good idea'

The voice, said to be Mr Khyam's, says: "Imagine you've got a plane, 300 people in it, you buy tickets for 30 brothers in there.

"They're massive brothers, you just crash the plane.

"You could do it easy.

The voice said to be Mr Akbar's then says: "To find 30 brothers willing to commit suicide is a big thing."

'Jump him'

Describing the plot as a "good idea" the first voice then adds: "If you spoke to some serious brothers, to the right people, you'd probably get it, bro'... whether they were from abroad, you'd get it.

"Thirty brothers on a British Airways flight... as soon as an air marshal gets up and shoots one the others just jump him."

The defendants were arrested on 30 March, 2004, after fertiliser was found stored in a west London depot.

Mr Akbar, 22, Mr Khyam, 24, and his brother Shujah Mahmood, 19, and Waheed Mahmood, 34, all of Crawley, west Sussex, Salahuddin Amin, 31, of Luton, Beds, Anthony Garcia, 23, of Ilford, east London, and Nabeel Hussain, 21, of Horley, Surrey, are accused of conspiring to cause explosions likely to endanger life between 1 January, 2003 and 31 March, 2004.

Mr Khyam, Mr Garcia and Mr Hussain also deny a charge under the Terrorism Act of possessing 600kg (1,300lb) of ammonium nitrate fertiliser for terrorism.

Mr Khyam and Shujah Mahmood further deny possessing aluminium powder for terrorism.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/uk/5087638.stm

Published: 2006/06/16 15:15:32 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[a post to study and research...Note: Shoe Bomb]

'Shoe bomber' hits Baghdad mosque
At least 11 people have been killed and 25 injured in a suspected suicide shoe-bomb attack at a key Shia mosque in the Iraqi capital Baghdad.

The blast hit the Buratha mosque in northern Baghdad, where up to 90 people were killed in a multiple suicide bombing on 7 April.

The mosque's imam said he believed he was the target, but was unhurt.

Friday's attack was the biggest in Baghdad since a massive security operation came into force on Wednesday.

The imam, Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir, told the BBC the suicide attack appeared to have been carried out by a man who had explosives and ball bearings packed into his shoes to avoid detection in security checks.

Stringent security measures were put in place at the mosque after April's attack, in which the bombers were said to have been dressed as women.

The latest bombing took place shortly before weekly prayers were due to begin, during which Mr Saghir was due to deliver a sermon.

The imam, who is also a leading Shia member of parliament, said he believed he was the target of the attack, but added: "This will not deter us, this will not affect the political process."

He said the bombing looked like it was revenge for the killing of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the former leader of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

He was killed last week in a US air strike north of Baquba. Statements apparently put on internet by the militant group vowed to take revenge.

Mr Saghir blamed al-Qaeda in Iraq and what he called "Baathists" for the attack.

No defence

The Buratha mosque has been surrounded by huge concrete blast walls, where visitors are subjected to an initial visual check, says the BBC's Hugh Sykes in Baghdad.

This will not deter us
Sheikh Jalaluddin al-Saghir
Buratha mosque imam

The bomber must also have got through a more thorough body check to gain access the main courtyard of the mosque, he says.

He got close to the imam's position, but before the imam arrived, security staff noticed he was still wearing his shoes, which is not allowed in a mosque.

He was told to take them off, and appeared to be complying, when the bomb went off.

It is believed to be the first time a shoe bomb has been used in Iraq.

While extensive security measures have been introduced to many mosques in Iraq, our correspondent says, these are no defence against a suicide bomber who detonates his explosives when approached.

Mortars

The mosque bombing comes despite a huge new security operation in Baghdad.

Tens of thousands of Iraqi and US security forces have been patrolling the streets of the capital, on the orders of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.

HAVE YOUR SAY
There are too many Iraqis who have too many axes to grind, in order for peace to prevail
Arthur Pomar, US

Cars were also banned from the streets of the capital for several hours on Fridays - in an attempt to prevent such attacks on Friday prayers.

The measures initially appeared to have reduced the number of attacks.

However, at least two people were killed when a barrage of mortars slammed into a northern district of the capital on Friday.

On Thursday, a bomb in a parked car detonated in the south-west of the city, killing at least three civilians and wounding 14.

Elsewhere on Thursday, gunmen shot and killed 10 workers riding a bus in Baquba.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/middle_east/5086326.stm

Published: 2006/06/16 12:01:38 GMT

© BBC MMVI

[a post to study and research, is this a new tape, says Wed.]

* minusText Sizeplus

Generation jihad: terror at the touch of a key
Tech-savvy terrorist groups are going on-line to spread their extremist message

MICHAEL SNIDER

TORONTO -- Ayman al-Zawahiri appears on the screen looking scholarly in a clean white shirt and black turban. The bearded and bespectacled figure, speaking in Arabic, gestures purposefully with his right hand while he marks the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq.

"The Americans and their allies have achieved nothing but losses, disasters and misfortune," he says. The founder of Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Osama bin Laden's top lieutenant congratulates the mujahedeen for their "moral and material defeat of the Western Crusade" and encourages the faithful around the world to rise up against the common enemy.

No beheadings, no insurgent missile attacks. Dr. al-Zawahiri signs off by praising Allah, Lord of the Worlds, and the screen goes dark.

While the message may be only mildly troubling, it's the method that concerns Canadian authorities and terrorism experts. The video, downloaded from a password-protected Web forum last Wednesday, is just one example of how terrorist groups spread their message worldwide. Since 2000, extremist organizations have become adept at promoting their causes and spreading their ideology on-line in an effort to capture the hearts and minds of disillusioned and disaffected Muslims far away from the mountains of Afghanistan or streets of Baghdad.

Experts say this virtual war played a direct role in the emergence of what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service describes as the homegrown threat -- young Muslims who've grown up in Canadian suburbs with computers and high-speed connections, some of whom are accused of planning to attack targets in Southern Ontario.

"The Internet is used to reach out to diaspora communities," said Gabriel Weimann, professor of communication at the University of Haifa and author of Terror on the Internet: The New Arena, the New Challenges.

"Almost all terrorist activities of recent years . . . were actually executed by members of diaspora communities, whether that's in Spain, England, Holland and now [allegedly] in Canada. It's not people being sent by al-Qaeda, it's actually a homegrown community that is affiliated, or who affiliate themselves -- as [allegedly] is the case with Canada -- with the jihadist movement or with al-Qaeda."

A World Wide Web sewn with threads of fanatical Islam worries CSIS.

Just days before 17 terrorism suspects were arrested in Toronto and Kingston, CSIS deputy director Jack Hooper told a Senate committee that Canada is fighting a clandestine war against "technologically sophisticated" homegrown extremists.

Many are tech-savvy because they are "drawn from the ranks of the young and well educated," adept at using the Internet for communication, education and planning, said Wesley Wark, a University of Toronto professor who specializes in security issues. "Use of the Internet is second nature to this generation. The Internet allows them to connect to the like-minded, in ways that seem to promise anonymity."

Sparked by an influx of message postings on extremist websites, Canadian authorities tracked a number of terrorism suspects on-line for nearly two years. CSIS and the RCMP say they unravelled a plan to detonate a quantity of ammonium nitrate at Southern Ontario targets. On June 2, they swept down across Toronto, arresting 15 men. Two more, already in custody in Kingston for gun-running charges, were charged as well.

Thirteen of the accused, including five youths, are under the age of 25.

News media reports have also linked several arrests in Britain with members of the alleged Canadian cell. One of two men British police arrested last week had lived in Toronto, the BBC reported, citing confidential police sources.

As well, reports say, Younis Tsouli, a British man referred to as al-Qaeda's hacker, who allegedly had close ties to the recently killed al-Qaeda in Iraq chief Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, may have had connections to Canada. U.S. law officials told The Wall Street Journal that Mr. Tsouli's arrest in October spurred the investigation that culminated in the 17 Canadian arrests and that he may have been communicating with the Canadian suspects.

But even before the recent international sweep, authorities were aware that extremists took advantage of the unregulated and easily accessible medium to communicate and spread their messages of hate.

By 2000, Prof. Weimann wrote in an on-line article, How Modern Terrorism Uses the Internet, nearly every terrorist group had established a presence on the Internet. Today, he said, there are more than 4,800 websites associated with extremist groups, many used for recruiting young acolytes.

"All over the world there are huge Muslim communities that feel like second-rate citizens. Terrorists are reaching out to those communities, reaching out with the spirit of jihad and providing them with the idea that they belong to a global community," Prof. Weimann said.

Messages of inspiration from al-Qaeda leaders are one thing. But Web forums distribute much more graphic and powerfully persuasive videos.

"You find beheadings, [insurgents] attacking U.S. targets, blowing up cars and trucks of the U.S. Army and snipers shooting U.S. soldiers -- many, many videos of shooting U.S. soldiers," said Jonathan Halevi, a retired colonel in the Israeli Defence Force who now is director of Toronto-based Orient Research Group, an independent think tank that researches radical Islam.

The purpose of these graphic videos, Mr. Halevi said, is to evoke fear in the enemy while instilling courage in supporters. "There are endless videos that show how the martyr is smiling after his death. The logic behind it is, because when he reaches his goal, he's pleased and is waving from heaven."

The challenge authorities face monitoring extremist websites -- and those who participate in them -- is vast. Sites appear and disappear quickly, hackers hijack legitimate websites and upload files, notify others of their location and then vanish.

Infiltrating Web forums and gaining the trust of participants, not to mention mastering Arabic, is not easy, said Josh Devon, co-founder of the Washington-based SITE Institute, a private organization of concerned citizens that monitors and sometimes infiltrates extremist forums.

"[It's] difficult in the sense that if you aren't in from the beginning and aren't active in discussions, they get suspicious. The community is very small and sometimes you have to be recommended to get access to the website."

Canada's police and spy agencies are tight-lipped about what strategies they use and resources they have to monitor and combat the on-line threat. RCMP and CSIS won't comment on the two-year investigation that led to the 17 arrests. But the threat, they say, is growing.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20060615.TERRORWEB15/TPStory/National

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