Three tonnes of explosives and 17 terror suspect captured in Canada

by Elsewhere 22 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Elsewhere

  Three tonnes... that is three times the size of the device used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City.

  Just imagine how many people would have been killed if the authorities did not catch these terror suspects!

  http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2006-06-03T152340Z_01_N02209271_RTRUKOC_0_US-CRIME-ARRESTS.xml&src=rss&rpc=22

  Canada arrests terror suspects; explosives foundSat Jun 3, 2006 11:24 AM ET

  TORONTO (Reuters) - A group of Canadian residents arrested for "terrorism related offenses" had amassed enough explosives to build huge bombs and were planning to blow up targets around southern Ontario, Canadian police said on Saturday.

  Mike McDonnell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the group had acquired three tonnes of ammonium nitrate -- or three times the amount used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City -- as they sought to "create explosive devices."

  Police said they had arrested 12 adults and five young people in coordinated raids in the Toronto area. The adults were from Toronto, its western suburb of Mississauga and from Kingston, Ontario, at the eastern edge of Lake Ontario, not far from the border with the United States.

  "This group posed a real and serious threat," McDonnell said. "It had the capacity and intent to carry out attacks. Our investigation and arrests prevented the assembly of any bombs and the attacks being carried out."

  McDonnell said the investigation that led to the arrests had involved some 400 police and security experts, and taken thousands of hours.

  "We must remain vigilant," he said. "Canada is susceptible to criminal terrorist activity as much as any other country."

  Canada's spy service admitted this week it couldn't track down many domestic terror suspects and warned the country faced an increasing threat from "home-grown terrorists" who had been assimilated into society.

  Jack Hooper, deputy director of operations at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said the service was trying to keep track of "350 high-level targets" as well as 50 to 60 organizations thought to be linked to groups such as al-Qaeda.

  "We know who and where some of them are," he told the Senate's national defense committee on Monday in Ottawa.
• 

  Elsewhere

  http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/06/03/D8I0QCG80.html

  17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Toronto Jun 03 11:09 AM US/Eastern

  By BETH DUFF-BROWN Associated Press Writer

  TORONTO

  Seventeen Canadian residents were in custody Saturday on terrorism- related charges, including plots to use explosives in attacks on Canadian soil, authorities said.

  The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they arrested 12 male adults and five youth and foiled plans for terrorist attacks against targets in southern Ontario.

  Officials showed evidence of bomb making materials, a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and what appears to be a door with bullet holes in it at a news conference Saturday morning.

  "This group took steps to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and other components necessary to create explosive devices," said assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Mike McDonell said.

  McDonell said that is three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City.

  The arrests were made Friday, with some 400 officers involved.

  McDonell said the suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together.

  "The men arrested yesterday are Canadian residents from a variety of backgrounds. For various reasons they appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida," said Luc Portelance, the assistant director of operations with CSIS _ Canada's spy agency.

  Heavily armed police officers ringed the Durham Regional Police Station in the city of Pickering, just east of Toronto, as the suspects were brought in late Friday night in unmarked cars which were drove into an underground garage.

  The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Canadian youths in their teens and 20s, upset at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, were among those arrested.

  The newspaper said they had trained at a camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack CSIS's downtown office near the CN Tower, among other targets.

  Melisa Leclerc, a spokeswoman for the federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day, had no comment on the arrests.

  In March 2004, Ottawa software developer Mohammad Momin Khawaja became the first Canadian charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act for alleged activities in Ottawa and London. Khawaja was also named, but not charged, in British for playing a role in a foiled bomb plot. He is being held in an Ottawa detention center, awaiting trial.

  The Canadian anti-terrorism law was passed swiftly following the Sept. 11 assaults, particularly after Osama bin-Laden's named Canada one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for acts of terror. The others, reaffirmed in 2004 by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australian, all of which have been victims of terrorist attacks.

  The anti-terrorism law permits the government to brand individuals and organizations as terrorists and gives police the power to make preventive arrests of people suspected of planning a terrorist attack.

  Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, including the 1985 Air India bombing, in which 329 people were killed, most of them Canadian citizens.

  Intelligence officials believe at least 50 terror groups now have some presence in the North American nation and have long complained that the country's immigration laws and border security are too weak to weed out potential terrorists.
• 

  jeanniebeanz

  "home-grown terrorists" who had been assimilated into society.

  ...it was just a matter of time. These people don't care who gives them a home, they only care about their warped religion dominating the world.

  Gee... who does that remind me of? Sans bombs, that is...
• 

  MinisterAmos

  I know a guy who buys nitrates in 20 ton quantities for his farm.

  I'm sure he has other "bomb making materials" like oil, gas and batteries in his house as well. I never knew he was a domestic terrorist though. Better start arresting all those farmers!

  This is a big ho-hum because there are any possible number of uses for nitrates. Let's all cry that the sky is falling and stay afraid of our own shadows. That will make it even easier for the powers-that-be to convince us that we need fewer liberties.
• 

  Mary

  Ya, I heard about it first thing this morning.......great. I could be walking down the street and all of a sudden, KA-BOOM!

  There's a known terrorist who lives not more than 6 miles from where I live and the government has known for years that he's been involved in terrorist activities. But of course they won't deport him, because that would violate his Rights and if you know anything about the Canadian government, you know that above all else, we must protect the Rights of scumbags, even if it means sacrificing common sense. Which it most often does.

  the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the group had acquired three tonnes of ammonium nitrate -- or three times the amount used in the 1995 bombing in Oklahoma City -- as they sought to "create explosive devices." The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Canadian youths in their teens and 20s, upset at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, were among those arrested. The newspaper said they had trained at a camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack CSIS's downtown office near the CN Tower, among other targets.

  MinisterAmos said: This is a big ho-hum because there are any possible number of uses for nitrates. Let's all cry that the sky is falling and stay afraid of our own shadows.

  Riiiiight. I'm sure they were just planning on using three tons of this shit to fertilize their fields.
• 

  jeanniebeanz

  I know a guy who buys nitrates in 20 ton quantities for his farm.

  I'm sure he has other "bomb making materials" like oil, gas and batteries in his house as well. I never knew he was a domestic terrorist though. Better start arresting all those farmers!

  This is a big ho-hum because there are any possible number of uses for nitrates. Let's all cry that the sky is falling and stay afraid of our own shadows. That will make it even easier for the powers-that-be to convince us that we need fewer liberties.

  LMAO... Yes, by all means, let's assume that the governments do not know the difference between farmers and terrorists... lol
• 

  MegaDude

  The men arrested yesterday are Canadian residents from a variety of backgrounds

  
  

  
  Now we see the necessity for spying on our own citizens... hopefully.
• 

  ackack

  If you abandon due process, how are you any better than the JW's with their judicial committees?

  ackack
• 

  Mary

  If you abandon due process, how are you any better than the JW's with their judicial committees?

  Seeing as you're from Ontario, you must know that these terrorist will get "due process" and their day in court. Not to mention court appointed lawyers (that you and I will be footing the bill for) which will try and bend every law they know to get these guys off scot free.
• 

  ackack

  Do you have a better suggestion for how our legal system should work? How about enacting prisons in defiance of international law the way the united states has done? Or perhaps we'd be better off just reverting to some sort of police state.

  Honestly though, is there a better solution? It looks as though the physical evidence against these people is going to be overwhelming. Do Ontario courts tend to let people off in the face of overwhelming evidence?

  ackack