Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Toronto; secretly Canadian Over the last fortnight Al qaeda has seen operations closed on two fronts. First in the form of a strange Canadian "terrorist" ring in and around Toronto. [it's worth noting that during this same period College Park also had two terror 'rings' shuttered, a third grade school teacher - sentenced in Virginia as a practicing jihadist, and an abortion clinic opponent who drove up here with his pipe-bombs and guns - Man Arrested for Plotting Clinic Attack] The conspiracy seems to have involved alienated middle-class youth not dissimliar to the ones that carried out the London bombings. Who in many ways are just acting out the stresses of a traditionalist religious back culture with a western upbringing. The principle difference between them and many other Canadian youth is the canned solution offered by those who have purred their way into the Mosques and clubs with poisonous visions of the struggle: revolution and resistance Canada faces 'jihad generation' | csmonitor.com. For those in the US inclined to such things it offers a chance to militarize yet another border, and continue to prepare to cleanse the nation of un-American activity (I'd give a link here but you can probably find your way to Michelle Malkin's blog on your own). How sad that there are but twelve gates to the city. They seem to be having so much fun with this, but they will have them all bricked up before long. At least there is some indication that we are putting this matter on the same footing as we do other negative potenialities: " "Threats posed from the northern border may not be any less than from [the] southwestern border," concludes a draft study of border vulnerabilities from the University of Southern California's Center for Risk and Economic Analysis of Terrorism Events." US targets other leaky border | csmonitor.com. For all that the Ontario plans, twisted fantasies that they might be, were detailed violent and stewed in a hatred there was no rational ground for. Meaning can be extracted from the mere concept of hating Canadians. In such cases I'm all for statistically based contingency planning and expenditure. The charges covered a lot of ground and varied considerably. Another CS monitor article More arrests possible in Canadian terror case | csmonitor.com I read gave a run-down on the various speculation of that week, as it notes most of this was coming from US press because of Canadian strictures on what the press can say once charges are filled. Among these are purported connections between some of these men and Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. If the US example can offer any advice here its that it is not the arrests and charges but making a case and selling it to a jury which is critical. I heard on Amy Goodman's radio show Democracy Now that much of this was the result of a Canadian sting operation by the CSIS. Goodman is not the most careful or restrained of journalists, so I didn't think anything of it at the time. Then in a Globe and Mail article globeandmail.com : Terrorist charges hint at varying roles I saw this line: "Police would not confirm the raid was the culmination of a monitored delivery of three tonnes of ammonium-nitrate fertilizer." The CS Monitor article (More arrests... above) also quotes the Toronto Star "saying the police showing only "sample" bags of ammonium nitrate" leaving it unclear how much explosive these men were ever in possession of. Actuality I feel happier with idea that nobody was able to get their hands on so much explosive on their own, without turning to an agent provocator. 11:58:58 PM    comment [];trackback [];

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. 2006 Paul Bushmiller. Last update: 6/14/06; 1:16:48 PM.