Free Republic

Call it what it is. This is a war. An underhanded evil campaign planned all over the world where we are the enemy. Not just the few folks serving in our uniforms. Not just the powerful politicians who make the decisions we like or don't like, support or oppose. We are the enemy. You, me and the family down the street. Yes, there are those who believe if you die or your kids die or some soul you don't know, who happens to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, is blasted to an instant grave, then the...

Toronto, Canada (RSN)- Canadian Police foiled a terrorist attack on Canadian Soil, say the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper released a statement saying "These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people," Soon after the announcement, The American FBI said the arrest seventeen may have had contact with two men recently arrested in Atlanta, GA on terrorism charges. RCMP Commissioner Mike McDonnel said that the arrested had the capacity and the intent to attack Canadian Targets. [snip] Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, the terrorists from...

Terror suspects remain a mystery Jun. 3, 2006. 09:10 PM From an unmarried computer programmer to a university health sciences graduate and the unemployed, the 17 suspects charged in a foiled terrorist plot represent a "broad strata" of Canadian society. "Some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed," RCMP assistant Commissioner Mike McDonell said Saturday. The 12 men in custody range in age from 19 to 43 and are residents of Toronto, Mississauga and Kingston, Ont., while the five youths cannot be identified under the Youth Criminal Justice Act. Rocco Galati, lawyer for two of the Mississauga suspects, said...

OTTAWA (CP) - Canada's spy agency says potential terrorists already reside in Canadian cities. The deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service says there are many people currently living in Canada who fought with al-Qaida during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. And Jack Hooper says those same people have since trained in al-Qaida terrorist training camps. Hooper made the revelation today at a Senate committee studying Canada's role in Afghanistan. He pointed to several examples of people who had lived in Canada, and later took part in terrorist attacks. RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli told the committee that the Mounties...

The international riot over a few cartoons of the prophet Mohammed in a Danish newspaper is getting out of hand. Angry muslims stormed the European Union office in Gazastad. On sunday a group of angry muslims burned...

U.S. authorities unearth smuggling tunnel under B.C. border SEATTLE (AP) - U.S. government agents have shut down a drug-smuggling tunnel built under the Canadian border near Lynden, Wash., a government source said Wednesday. Authorities had been monitoring construction of the tunnel for eight months and sealed it Wednesday, shortly after it opened, making three to five arrests in the process, said the source, a government employee who had been briefed by local law-enforcement officials. The exact length of the tunnel was not known. It ran from a building on the Canadian side to a house on the U.S. side, 90...

…explosive equipment at home and made threat against school could be charged as adult. The 17-year-old Bucks County boy charged with having bomb-making equipment in his bedroom and threatening to blow up his school is a Canadian who hates Americans, prosecutors say. Travis W. Biehn was ordered held at the county juvenile detention center Friday after Judge Kenneth G. Biehn — no relation — ruled the boy remains a danger to the community. ''He had the explosives in his home and the parents didn't know about it,'' said Assistant District Attorney Robert D. James, who is prosecuting the boy. ''We...

Report by "La Opinion" Hispanic daily paper in Los Angeles today, May 25, 2005. Translation into English from Spanish by Alta Vista Babelfish. Comment: Can President Bush, in good faith, now criticize The Minutemen, who might be providing a supporting role as average, fed up and concerned citizens, in the War on Terrorism by actually DOING SOMETHING at the local level despite his naysaying and criticism??

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) - Nicaragua's National Police declared an alert along its borders because of the "possible presence" of two suspected members of the al-Qaida terrorist network in Central America, officials said Tuesday. An Interior Ministry news release identified the two as Ahmad Salim Swaydan, suspected of involvement an April 2002 plot against the U.S. Embassy in Thailand, and a Yemeni man known only as Altuwiti. A photo of Swaydan released by Nicaraguan authorities matched that of a man on the FBI's most-wanted terrorist list: Sheikh Ahmed Salim Swedan, a 36-year-old Kenyan indicted on Dec. 16, 1998 for alleged involvement...

The United States, Canada and Mexico should establish a common security perimeter to guard against terrorism in North America, a tri-national independent task force said in a report released on Tuesday. The countries should police their borders together to help border trade, allow easier movement of citizens and to keep out potential security threats, the task force said at New York's Council on Foreign Relations. "If our two borders, the one between Canada and the United States and the U.S. and Mexico, became a frontline for security the impact that would have on normal relations and economic relations would be...

Toronto, 16 May (AKI) - Converts to Islam in Canada are becoming a major source of al-Qaeda operatives and pose a security risk in the country, according to a report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that was released to the Toronto Star newspaper under the federal access to information legislation. The report cited in the daily, said that there is a "direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from al-Qaeda and related groups," and that those groups are attempting to expand their support in Canada. "Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and...

TORONTO: Canadian intelligence experts believe that converts to Islam in the country are becoming a major source of Al-Qaeda combatants and pose a risk to security. An intelligence report from Canada's spy service, released to a daily said "there is a direct threat to Canada and Canadian interests from Al-Qaeda and related groups," and that those groups are attempting to expand their support in Canada. "Converts are highly prized by terrorist groups for their familiarity with the West and relative ease at moving through Western society," the recently declassified Canadian Security Intelligence Service report said. This trend is now bringing...

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's government is monitoring the country's tiny Islamic communities as part of an arrangement with U.S. authorities, the federal attorney general's office confirmed Friday. Officials on Friday confirmed statements made the previous day by Jorge Serrano, the head of the Attorney General's anti-terrorism investigations office. Serrano said Mexico was engaged in surveillance of the country's Islamic communities. There are about 3,000 Muslims among Mexico's population of 100 million people, and none has been connected with or implicated in any terrorist activity. Serrano told local media Thursday that Mexican authorities paid attention to the movements of such Islamic...

Two declassified reports from the Canadian intelligence service say young Islamic militants with Canadian nationality or residency have been through terrorist training camps in Afghanistan or elsewhere and constitute "a clear and present danger to Canada and its allies." "The presence of young, committed jihadists in Canada is a matter of grave concern,"

Influx of terrorists 'Jihadist returnees' may plan attacks, report says Stewart Bell National Post Monday, May 09, 2005 A number of "jihadist returnees" have arrived back in Canada from other countries and some may intend to commit acts of terrorism, according to a declassified intelligence report. The report, by the government's Integrated National Security Assessment Centre (INSAC), says "a number of other Islamic extremists have recently returned to Canada from abroad. "Those dedicated extremists possessing terrorist training and Canadian documentation may return to Canada in order to carry out an attack. "They may also use their documentation to gain...

A political specter haunts North America -- the specter of the world's next failed state. We can still call it Canada, at least for a couple years. And who knows, like news of Mark Twain's demise, my cheeky pessimism may be greatly exaggerated. Our northern neighbor's polyglot populace of beer drinkers, peaceniks, Mounties and socialists may yet dump their crooked politicians and craft a new, more robust deal with Quebecois separatists. If you don't know about Canada's crooked politicians, you're not alone. Democracy and free speech are breaking out in Beirut, but they're both taking a beating in Ontario. The...

What steps should Western border agencies take to defend their homelands from harm by Islamists? In the case of non-citizens, the answer is simple: Don't let Islamists in. Exclude not just potential terrorists but also anyone who supports the totalitarian goals of radical Islam. Just as civilized countries did not welcome fascists in the early 1940s (or communists a decade later), they need not welcome Islamists today. But what about one's own citizens who cross the border? They could be leaving to fight for the Taliban or returning from a course on terrorism techniques. Or perhaps they studied with enemies...

Canada Seeks Immigrants for Work Force By BETH DUFF-BROWN Associated Press Writer April 18, 2005, 4:35 PM EDT TORONTO -- Canada opened its arms wider to foreigners Monday, enticing international students to join its work force once they graduate and making it easier for immigrant parents to join children already in Canada. The United States has attempted to limit the number of refugees and immigrants since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, and also stanch the stream of illegal aliens that cross the U.S. border from Mexico each year. Canada, by contrast, is seeking more immigrants to complement its relatively...

If poet Robert Frost was right when he wrote "Good fences make good neighbors," the opposite might also be true: that bad fences make bad neighbors. We have just that kind of situation with our supposedly friendly neighbor to the north. Perhaps the recent meeting between President Bush and Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin might result in getting something done about the dangerous disrepair of the Canadian side of the border, which endangers the United States. Criticism of the Canadian border porosity comes not from impatient Americans but in a detailed report of the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA) officers'...

Auditor General Sheila Fraser has delivered a hard-hitting report criticizing Canada's anti-terrorism initiatives. Fraser says there are "serious weaknesses" in the country's emergency response and airport security screening systems. She also cites inefficiencies in controlling the issuing of passports. It's the latest in a series of critiques against national initiatives intended to beef up Canada's ability to defend against terrorism, following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on New York and Washington. Fraser finds that three-and-a-half years after those attacks, fake bombs and guns are getting through airport screeners. "Last year, I said Sept. 11, 2001 changed our perception of how...