Posted on 06/02/2006 9:14:15 PM PDT by GMMAC
Bust nets suspected terrorists across GTA
Toronto red Star
Jun. 2, 2006. 11:56 PM
MICHELLE SHEPHARD AND STAN JOSEY
STAFF REPORTERS
Police from across the GTA, led by the RCMP's anti-terrorism task force, swooped down on as many as 12 locations Friday night to arrest members of what is being described as a homegrown terrorist cell. Police remained tight-lipped about the massive operation, but have scheduled a news conference for 10 a.m. Saturday.
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
This officer is one of numerous heavily-armed police standing guard in front of the Durham Regional Police station at Kingston and Brock roads in Pickering on Friday evening. A joint forces operation brought suspects there for processing.
RICK MADONIK/TORONTO STAR
A joint forces operation brings terrorism suspects for processing at the Durham Regional Police station at Kingston and Brock roads in Pickering on Friday evening.
Shortly after the first arrests the suspects were driven to a heavily-guarded Pickering police station.
The station, on Brock Rd. in Pickering, was surrounded by a heavy ring of police security. A long line of unmarked police cars with suspects sat inside the security perimeter. About every 15 minutes or so another car would be admitted to the station's underground parking garage, where suspects entered the station for processing.
Heavily-armed members of the Durham region tactical unit were stationed at one-metre intervals around the station. Dozens of plainclothes officers, and uniformed RCMP, Durham and Toronto police were involved in the processing.
According to the Star's sources, the Canadian spy service CSIS has been monitoring the group since 2004, and an RCMP criminal investigation was launched last year.
Police have not said why they acted Friday night, and would not say how well-organized the group is, or whether it is armed.
“It is very serious,” a source who asked not to be named told Canadian Press. "These people had plans.”
While the intended target is unclear, the plan was to detonate an explosive device in Ontario, the source said.
“That’s the tool of choice for anybody who wants to cause damage.”
For full coverage, including the background of the group and how it came to police attention, see the Saturday Star and come back to thestar.com for updates throughout the day.
With files from CP
ON THE NET...
Very nice L.J.!
You also do good fig leafs!
Freak Show
LOL, I'll take your word for it!
Smiling....
I have pink slippers.
Yes! ...INDEED!
...and Very nice graphic, to boot!
This does not bode well. These terrorists were from well to do (non-oppressed) families who had enjoyed a free society for a long time and they still wanted to blow up innocents. I guess they weren't as seriously commited as homicide bombers in the mid-east becaseu they planned to use remote detonating devices, but even so it proves it can happen here. Which leads to the question why hasn't it yet?
I haven't heard any news accounts remind viewers of the following. I think it's significant these Canadian terrorist wannabees weren't just idiotic kids with no knowledge of explosives.
"Saturday, April 22, 2006
Georgia Tech Student Detained
Here is the news of the arrest of a Pakistani American student at Georgia Tech.
A 21-year-old Georgia Tech student taken into federal custody last month has been charged with giving “material support” to a terrorist organization, according to his attorney Jack Martin.
The student, Syed Haris Ahmed, a mechanical engineering major who had become increasingly religious in his Islamic faith, was arrested by the FBI March 23 and has been held since then.
[…] Ahmed was taken into custody, his family said, apparently because authorities suspect a videotape he made of a building may have been related to terrorism.
Ahmed’s family immigrated from Pakistan in 1997, are now U.S. citizens and live in Dawsonville.
There are indications that Ahmed is connected to a 19-year-old Roswell man who was arrested Monday in Bangladesh. Ehsanul Islam Sadequee was arrested by Bengali authorities after at least eight months of federal investigation into him and his family, his sister, Sharmin Sadequee, said Thursday. Federal authorities would not confirm the arrest.
[…] Both families deny that their sons have any terrorist ties.
[…] The family of Syed Ahmed said agents confiscated computer hard drives and data CDs from their home.
Ahmed told his family that authorities found a video on the Internet and apparently traced it to him. “He said, ‘I made a video but didn’t distribute it to anyone,’ ” said Samia Ahmed, Syed’s sister. The video was of a building. Ahmed’s family members said they did not know the location of the building or when the tape was made.
Here is some information about the indictment against Syed Haris Ahmed.
Two Atlanta-area men in federal custody as part of a terrorism probe discussed possible locations for a U.S. attack, including military bases and oil refineries, according court documents unsealed Friday.
The U.S. attorney’s office in Atlanta on Thursday unsealed an indictment against Georgia Tech student Syed Ahmed, 21.
Ahmed was arrested last month in Atlanta and pleaded not guilty Wednesday to charges of material support for terrorism.
[…] An affidavit from FBI agent Michael Scherck says the duo traveled in March 2005 from Atlanta to Canada, where they met with three men who are the subject of an FBI international terrorism investigation.
Ahmed “explained that, during some of these meetings, he, Sadequee and the others discussed strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike, to include oil refineries and military bases,” the affidavit says.
“They also plotted how to disable the global positioning system in an effort to disrupt military and commercial communications and traffic.”
The affidavit alleges the “assembled group developed a plan to receive military training at one of the several terrorist-sponsored training camps.” It also says Ahmed traveled to Pakistan in an attempt to get such training.
[…] At a news conference Thursday in Atlanta, U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said Ahmed was charged with providing material support for terrorism, not planning or carrying out terrorist acts.
FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said “no imminent threat” existed at any point during the investigation.
Court documents reveal the investigation included court-authorized wiretapping, recounting a conversation between Ahmed and Sadequee’s sister.
The FBI affidavit also says agents found two CD-ROMs in the lining of Sadequee’s suitcase when he was leaving the United States. One disc contained pornography and the other was encrypted with a code the FBI was unable to crack, according to the affidavit.
It also says Sadequee had maps of the Washington area with the discs.
I don’t know anything beyond what I read in the news reports, but since it is of local importance, I thought I better blog about it."
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