Updated:
06/24/2007 09:00:28 PM
PST
NEW JERSEY, JUNE 7 - Last week in Toronto, twelve Muslim adults, all
in their twenties, and five youngsters, almost entirely of
Pakistani and Bangladeshi origin, were taken into custody by security agencies in what is being called the
biggest ever anti-terrorist operation of its kind in Canada.
Reflecting the worldwide attention the story has generated,
news crews from Canadian and international media, including
The New York Times and the CNN, NBC, ABC, Fox
and Al-Jazeera TV networks, descended on the courthouse
early in the morning, some broadcasting live at dawn in
front of the building.
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Family and friends of 15 of the 17 people
charged with terrorism related charges plead for
the media to give way as they are surrounded as
they appear at the Court House in Brampton, June
6, 2006. (Photo: Toronto Star) |
These youngsters belonged to a "homegrown terrorism cell",
said Canada's security officials, because they ordered and
got delivered 3 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer - a
potential bomb-making agent - in order to fashion powerful
explosives, they added.
The purchase and delivery of this material was part
of a sting operation set up by the investigators.
Agriculture groups have said such an amount of ammonium
nitrate could easily be stacked in the corner of a one-car
garage and if bought in bulk can cost as little as $750, but
the product is not readily available to non-farmers.
Still these suspects managed to have the fertilizer
delivered. It could not have been possible unless they were
being setup, said one Pakistani-Canadian.
And to add drama, an official of the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police (RCMP) said "To put this in context, the 1995 bombing
of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed
168 people took one ton of ammonium nitrate." In short, the
cache was large enough to kill more than 510 people!
Convicted killer Timothy McVeigh reportedly
combined it with diesel fuel as a cheap do-it-yourself bomb.
He was executed.
Commenting on the latest sting operation, a Toronto
conservative columnist wrote, "(Canada's) politicians may now have to
invest heavily in security since they found weapons,
ammonium nitrate, parts for bombs and military fatigues.."
These suspects are also being interrogated about any
possible plans to attack targets in the United States or
links to sympathizers south of the Canadian border.
The story is surreal.
At the news conference Friday there was a table full of
weapons, explosives, fertilizer, flashlights, radios and
military fatigues next to all of the Greater Toronto Area's
(GTA) chiefs of police and high-ranking officials of
Canadian spy and security agencies.
"They had violent ideals inspired by al-Qaida," said Luc
Portelance, Canadian spy agency CSIS' assistant director of
operations...and the group had the "capacity and intent" and
represented a "real and serious threat" said other officials, but interestingly investigators said they have
yet to prove a link to the Al-Qaida.
The way the suspects were brought in and treated during
their court appearance in Brampton bordered on bizarre.
At one point one woman in Burqa was yelled at by JP John
Farnum to "sit down" when she tried to communicate with her
loved one in the prisoner's box.
It was extremely intense -- with enormous security
measures complete with police snipers, dogs and a
helicopter. The defense counsel Rocco Galati said, "This is
a show...It's triple time plus danger pay."
According to Galati, the whole operation was conveniently
staged in advance of upcoming Supreme Court discussions on
how security and terror is investigated. He also sparred
with Farnum when his client's prescription glasses
were removed.
"Please direct the officers to return them," he asked the
JP, but he in turn said. "I can't order them to do
anything."
Galati complained about armed OPP being in the court. "I
don't feel safe with an automatic weapon pointed in my
direction."
Nothing happened. The armed personnel remained inside the
court throughout the proceedings.
Police say they are "proud" they were able to break up
a potential disaster but Galati said he thinks it will
end up with a lot of these charged men walking free to
become neighbors once again.
Wrote Thomas Walkom, national affairs columnist of The
Toronto Star, today:
If these guys are terrorists, they aren't very good ones. At
least that seems to be the picture that is slowly emerging
of the 17 men and boys charged this week under Canada's
anti-terror laws.
Their so-called training camp turns out to have been a swath
of bush near Washago, where their activities — shooting off
firearms and playing paintball — were so obvious and so
irritating that local residents immediately called police.
Serious terrorists, like Osama bin Laden, base their
operations in remote areas where no one will bother them.
These suspects, it is alleged, simply trespassed on
someone's farm and, when the owner told them to leave, gave
him lip.
Serious terrorists, like the 19 who attacked New York and
Washington on Sept. 11, 2001, try to avoid making waves.
They try to blend in.The young men charged this week
apparently didn't bother with this kind of tradecraft. They
apparently didn't realize, or perhaps didn't care, that
large groups of brown-skinned urbanites dressed in
camouflage are not a common sight in rural central Ontario.
So when local resident Mike Côté came upon a group of just
such men near his Ramara Township farm last December, he
immediately informed police.As he told the Star
this week, the group appeared cold, wet and bedraggled. Some
had fallen though the thin ice into a marsh. The leader of
these alleged terrorists was so disgusted with his young
charges that he complained to Côté about their incompetence.
These, apparently, were the conspirators. One, a former army
reservist, allegedly wanted to cut off Prime Minister
Stephen Harper's head. How would he find it?It appears
that a good many knew the police were on to these suspects.
Harper knew. So did Toronto Mayor David Miller. So did some
of the suspects' neighbors. So did many near the ill-fated
Ramara Township "training camp," who told the Star
later that police asked them to keep their mouths shut.
But the alleged terrorists, it seems, remained blissfully
ignorant. They let themselves get snared in an RCMP sting
when one of the 17 allegedly placed an order for three tons
of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, a substance that can be used
to make bombs.According to police, suspects happily took
possession of the "fertilizer" when it was delivered, not
realizing that the RCMP had substituted harmless white
powder in its stead.
But then that seems to be the history of this group. For
militant terrorists, if that's what they are, they are
remarkably naïve.Some, it appears, chatted openly online
about their paramilitary exploits at websites such as the
now-dismantled
http://www.shaheed.ca, oblivious to the fact that the
RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service
regularly troll such sites.
"I got my gun and tomorrow in the morning I am gonna do some
target practise (sic) inshAllah (God willing) hott," reads
one 2003 posting. "Checked out some paintball guns today at
walmart."
 Shaheed, the Arabic word for witness, is often used to
refer to someone who has died defending Islam — including
suicide bombers. It's not a terribly subtle title for a
radical Islamic website. But then not all of the postings on
http://www.shaheed.ca were radical or even devout.
"Man, ppl always say the Ummah (community of Islam) is so
weak blah blah," reads one 2004 posting. "What ummah? I
don't believe that there's 2 billion or whatever muslims in
the world....It sux."
"Alhumdulilah (thank God) today was the first successful
day of work," reads another 2004 posting. "What a great day
it was. Sure we were late, but it's far. But Alhumdulilah,
the boss is really nice. ... After that we went for pizza."
This is not quite the image that the government and police
are portraying of the 17. They paint the suspects as part of
an efficiently sinister conspiracy devoted, in Harper's
words, to destroying "freedom, democracy and the rule of
law."As such, the arrests last week come at convenient
time for the Harper government. A rise in the public's fear
quotient could increase popular support for his decision to
keep Canadian troops in Afghanistan another two years to
wage war against Taliban and other insurgents.
Polls show that public support has been slipping for that
war. The specter of terrorism at home, however, might
convince more Canadians that the Afghan war is necessary.
(Given that police have said the suspects are homegrown
terrorists unconnected to any international ring, it might
make more sense to station Canadian troops in Mississauga,
where most of the 17 live, rather than Kandahar. But it is
unlikely the Harper government will make this argument).
The arrests also come at a time when Parliament is
conducting a mandatory five-year review of Canada's new
anti-terror laws. Before the arrests, there was a
possibility that parliamentarians might recommend that the
Harper government ease up on some of those laws. That now
seems unlikely.For this, we can thank one of the world's
most incompetent — or perhaps one of the world's most
far-fetched — terrorist conspiracies. |
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