Canada: Home-grown terrorism: First wave of alleged terrorists stopped, Al-Queda in Canada?

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It's been said for a while now that Toronto, our fair city, is an obvious target of Islamofacscist terrorism. I believed these conclusions. Now it seems definite. I believe the RCMP, the Metro police, the Prime Minister, the Minister for National Security, and the Mayor of Metro Toronto that indeed Toronto was in the mega-bomb target-s+ts of home-grown Islamofascist terrorists, specifically a cell consisting of 12 adult men (their names and streets of residence are listed in the press) and 5 underage men (they can't be identified in the press because they are legally minors, tho trained terrorists). I've already seen some of their lawyers on TV, presenting the usual whine about dubiousness of the charges, charges that will evaporate as soon as they're presented to the defending attorneys. Canadian judges do dismiss almost everything against violent perpetrators, it seems; but I don't think so this round. Here's an early CNN summary report:

TORONTO, Ontario (CNN) -- Canadian police said on Saturday they had halted a "real and serious" terror threat in and around Toronto.

Twelve men and five youths said to have been inspired by al Qaeda were arrested in the operation involving hundreds of officers, authorities said.

The group was "planning to commit a series of terrorist attacks against solely Canadian targets in southern Ontario," Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said at a news conference.

"This group took steps to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and other components necessary to create explosive devices," he said.

You can view Metro Toronto's chief of police "describe how suspects got their bomb materials" if you download the Windows Media Player plugin; I saw it on local TV.

It's weird thinking that Toronto in general (but apparently not the subway system) was targetted. Within the large geographical zone of Metro Toronto, is the weirder still journey of the mind, almost involuntary, wondering exactly which locations and facilities in this great wonderful multi-ethnic multi-religioned city were targetted.
Altho the subway system has been ruled out, an early report suggested a link between the round-ups and a filming team lurking around the subway system:

The arrests could be tied to investigation of two men skulking around a downtown Toronto subway stop with video cameras on May 23. ¶ Police said passengers reported the men were filming around the Keele subway stop and beneath subway car seats.

. The source of this false lead in the case was a Spanish website in Basque country. They have an eye for certain kinds of details we mite overlook, and in this case simply suggested their natural suspicions given the Spanish experience.

In Japan, the English edition of Mainichi Daily News was quick to pick up the Canadian Press wireservice report, "The arrests were made throughout Friday and more were expected overnight, with some 400 officers involved, in cooperation with [Toronto's] Integrated National Security Enforcement Team, said RCMP spokeswoman Cpl. Michele Paradis." Indeed it seems the whole world tuned into the waves of reports coming out of Toronto; and, while the reports were a dramatic story about terrorists, it was a good-news story because this large cell was cawt and stopped in their project before the massive damage they intended could succeed.Toronto Star has been building our public knowledge of further details:

Sources told the Star that the group had been watched by Canada's spy service since 2004 and a criminal investigation by the RCMP began last year.

It's not known specifically why police acted last night and none of the allegations have been proven in court.

The group is being charged under the new anti-terrorism legislation introduced into the criminal code in December 2001, after the 9/11 attacks. It's only the second time the terrorism laws have been used in Canada. ...

The case is critical for Canada's international reputation and will be scrutinized worldwide as it works its way through the courts.

There has been cause for skepticism concerning the ability of Canada's intelligence and police services to prosecute security cases. Since 9/11, the majority of high-profile security investigations have ended in international embarrassment, such as the acquittal of suspects in the Air India bombing case and the Maher Arar affair which raised questions about international information sharing, exposed an inexperienced federal police force and left an Ottawa man broken after his deportation, detention and torture in Syria.

Then there was Project Thread, a 2003 joint immigration-RCMP case touted as the dismantling of an Al Qaeda cell, but ending in a routine immigration case that sent Pakistani students home branded terrorists.

It sounds like a lot of bias has drifted into the last few paragraphs by three staff reporters–Michelle Shepherd, Surya Bhattacharya and Stan Josey. What is laid at the door of the "intelligence and police services" is more a problem of an inadequate judiciary and crown prosecutors, in my opinion.

As to the huge quantity of a chemical substance that would require delivery to a target by no less than a truck bomb, a substance found in possession of the alleged terrorists a Manitoba news source says this:

TORONTO (CP) - It's a substance easily purchased every day at countless Canadian hardware and gardening stores, yet three tonnes of fertilizer - also known as ammonium nitrate - could have done catastrophic damage to Canadian terrorism targets.

"The quantity of course is alarming; it's quite astonishing," David Harris, a former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said in an interview from Ottawa on Saturday.

"It seems to suggest an almost rabid dedication to undertake something serious, whether as a major catastrophic explosion or a series of devastating assaults," said Harris, now a senior fellow with the Canadian Coalition for Democracies.

Apparently we cawt the first wave before they could do any harm, but there will be more, in my opinion. - Politicarp

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Give credit where credit is due > Canadian Muslim Congress
Emerging Leftist line on alleged terrorists