OTTAWA -- As the clock ticked down to the inauguration of Barack Obama, the RCMP was investigating urgent, high-level U.S. fears that Somali extremists from Canada were poised for a spectacular attack on the historic ceremony, the Ottawa Citizen has learned. In the days and hours leading up to the Jan. 20, 2009 inaugural on the steps of the Capitol building, the monumental threat unfolded in Washington and at the National Security Criminal Investigations unit at RCMP Headquarters in Ottawa. About three days earlier, an informant walked into an overseas U.S. embassy and claimed that Canadian disciples of al-Shabab, the...