Canada ping!
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Posted on 06/04/2006 9:10:54 AM PDT by Ernest_at_the_Beach
A Canadian counterterrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
At a news conference yesterday, the RCMP announced terrorism charges had been laid against a dozen Toronto-area men and five teens under the age of 18. The group "took steps to acquire components necessary to create explosive devices" including three tonnes of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, police said.
Ammonium nitrate fertilizer is commonly used in terrorist bombs, police said.
By comparison, the truck bomb used to blow up the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, contained a single tonne of ammonium nitrate.
"It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," said RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell.
"This group posed a real threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks."
Police declined to identify the intended targets because the investigation is continuing, but said they were all in southern Ontario and did not include the Toronto transit system, as some news media had reported.
As senior RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials spoke to reporters, some of the evidence seized during police raids was displayed on a table guarded by police officers.
The materials included a bag of ammonium nitrate, a pistol and ammunition clip, computer hard drive, and what appeared to be a cellphone-activated electronic detonator hidden inside a small black fishing tackle box.
The accused made brief court appearances in Brampton, north of Toronto, yesterday.
They face charges of participating in the acts of a terrorist group, including training and recruitment; firearms and explosives offences for the purposes of terrorism and providing property for terrorist purposes.
The accused men are mostly in their teens and 20s. They include men of Somali, Egyptian, Jamaican and Trinidadian origin. All are residents of Canada and "for the most part" are Canadian citizens, police said.
Charged are: Fahim Ahmad, 21, Zakaria Amara, 20, Asad Ansari, 21, Shareef Abdelhaleen, 30, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, Mohammed Dirie, 22, Yasim Abdi Mohamed, 24, Jahmaal James, 23, Amin Mohamed Durrani, 19, Steven Vikash Chand, 25, and Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21. A 12th man and five youths can't be named.
"For various reasons, they appear to have become adherents to a violent ideology inspired by Al-Qa'ida," said Luc Portelance, the CSIS assistant director of operations.
"Any movement that has the ability to turn people against their fellow citizens is obviously something that CSIS is very concerned about."
He called the investigation the largest since the Anti-terrorism Act was passed in December 2001, in response to the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
"It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community, or ethno-cultural group in Canada," he added.
CSIS and RCMP officials invited about a dozen members of Toronto's Muslim community to a meeting yesterday morning to discuss potential fallout.
"The police said they are cognizant of the fact that there could be a backlash and that they've taken all precautions to ensure that nothing like this happens," said Canadian Muslim Congress spokesperson Tarek Fatah. "They are very conscious of the fact that this is a small group of criminals and they don't reflect the vast Muslim community in Toronto."
The Toronto busts are linked to arrests that began last August at a Canadian border post near Niagara Falls and continued in October in Sarajevo, London and Scandinavia, and this year in New York and Georgia.
The FBI confirmed yesterday the arrests were related to the recent indictments in the United States of Ehsanul Sadequee and Syed Ahmed, who are accused of meeting with extremists in Toronto last March to discuss terrorist training and plots.
National Post
Canada ping!
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Really? I think it reflects that the Muslim community is boiling over with treacherous, murderous maniacs. Seems pretty negative to me.
-ccm
It seems that way to me too!
All good English , French and Irish names. I am sure that we can sit down and discuss the problem with these people, they are sane, good natured and only want what is best for the World.
The one thing that truly amazes me is the Black acceptance of the Muslims who were the first big time Slave traders?
I just hope the "alleged terrorists" didn't have their civil rights violated. <sarc
No worry, synbad, when dealing with scum like these the fact that Canada has no equivalet "Bill of Rights" comes in handy.
Utter PC garbage. I saw no Christian or German or Norwegian or French or Italian or Anglo-Saxon or Dutch or Irish names in those arrested. Wholly made up of muslim men between 15 and 45. Round them all up NOW. This is WAR.
The work I was waiting to do was also part of my culture - charts relating to the Scottish clan system.
Before 9/11 I would not have given this incident much thought, but now I was wary of the woman and her purpose.
I wonder if she thought of me in the same way?
The guys, no doubt, were going to move on 06/06/06. There are probably some out there who haven't been caught who are planning the same thing.
A MISSIONARY IN DISGUISE WAITING TO CONVERT YOU.
Thank God someone is keeping track of their communication.
If the Left had their way, we'd all be mourning the innocent lives lost and the Left would be complaining that Bush isn't doing enough.
"It is important to know that this operation in no way reflects negatively on any specific community, or ethno-cultural group in Canada," he added.
Then why do they have to say it?
I have decided that the cycle can't be broken.
Most interesting....I think they should realize that if the redneck mob gets wild the elites will be included....
Yes it does reflect on them. This is just another PC statement and I think PC is going to get a lot of us killed.
Always good for a laugh to ask them if they know why, if the a-rabs were such big time slavers, there is no 'race problem' in Saudi?
Hint: Castrated slaves don't reproduce...
Fixed.
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