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All 17 people arrested lived in Canada; all but two were under age 26. TORONTO - Canadians are struggling to understand the threat of "home-grown" terrorism after the arrest of 17 Toronto-area young men in connection with what investigators said were plans to commit massive terrorist attacks in Canada. The suspects all lived in Canada at the time of arrest; many are longtime residents and citizens. Like the perpetrators of last summer's London bombings, these young Muslims apparently became radicalized not in Al Qaeda training camps abroad but in suburban neighborhoods where they led relatively unremarkable lives. Such home-grown terrorism...

The Canadian terrorist plot began in a chat room. It developed into a full-blown plot to acquire the means and methods to carry out a terrorist attack, the targets of which are not being revealed by law enforcement. AJ Strata notes that the plot in Canada quickly grew into an international investigation because of links to the US. The NSA can monitor the Canadians without worrying about invoking constitutional issues. However, once they began picking up US links, we cross over into the world of FISA, constitutional protections, and transnational legal issues.This is the exact scenarion I have been...

Over the weekend, Canadian authorities apparently smashed a frightening plot involving Islamic terrorists who planned a series of bombings against sites in southern Ontario. Instinctively, the mainstream media went into its now-familiar coverage template, Phase One of which avoids like the plague any mention of the fact that accused terrorists are Muslims. As Cliff May and I noted here on NRO, and Roger Simon detailed on his website, readers of the New York Times were told that the 17 men arrested “represent the broad strata of our society … Some are students, some are employed, some are unemployed.” In point...

Liberal Blogs Silent On Massive Terrorism Bust Not a word about it at has-been harridan Jane Hamsher's combination blog-slash-application for voluntary state psychiatric confinement. The Daily Kos mentions it as a single item in an open thread about three other news stories, the other three fairly trivial. Mostly Open Threads are opened. Later in the day, "Georgia" posts this: Open Thread by georgia10 Sat Jun 03, 2006 at 05:03:58 PM PDT It's a slow news day...so what's going on in your corner of the world? Yes, very slow news day, Georgia. So what's going on? Well, in the state you...

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario Several members of a suspected terrorist ring prayed daily at a storefront mosque in a middle-class city west of Toronto but never spoke of hurting others, one of their prayer leaders said. "I will say that they were steadfast, religious people. There's no doubt about it. But here we always preach peace and moderation," Qamrul Khanson, an imam at the one-room Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, said Sunday. The 40-50 Muslim families who worship at the mosque were astonished, he said, to learn that police had arrested 12 adults, ages 19 to 43, and five suspects younger...

U.S. officials believe Canadian arrests over the weekend and three recent domestic incidents in the United States are evidence the U.S. will soon be hit again by a terrorist attack. Privately, they say, they'd be surprised if it didn't come by the end of the year, reports CBS News correspondent Jim Stewart. The first of the domestic incidents, all of which drew little attention at the time, began with the holdup of a string of Torrance, Calif. gas stations last summer. Muslim converts who bonded together in prison planned to use the robberies to finance attacks on 20 Army recruiting...

The arrest of 17 residents of Canada with three tons of ammonium nitrate in a plot to attack targets in Ontario is a reminder of the nature of the enemy that America faces in the war on Islamist terrorists. Contrary to the beliefs of some on the American extreme left and extreme right, the terrorists aren’t simply reacting against the American-led war in Iraq or against America’s support for Israel. Canada sent no troops to liberate Iraq. Our neighbor to the North so opposed the Iraq War that at least one American deserter fled there for safe harbor, as draftdodgers...

MISSISSAUGA, Canada, June 4 — Several of the people arrested by Canadian authorities in a huge counterterrorism sweep over the weekend regularly attended the same storefront mosque in a middle-class neighborhood of modest brick rental townhouses and well-kept lawns. The eldest of the 17 Canadian residents arrested in the sweep, Qayyum Abdul Jamal, 43, was described by his lawyer as an active member of the mosque, the Al-Rahman Islamic Center for Islamic Education, though not its leader. "He's on the board, he's there regularly, but he's not an imam," said Anser Farooq, the lawyer representing Mr. Jamal and three other...

More arrests are expected on the heels of this weekend's stunning raids that netted 17 terrorism suspects, including five youths, in the Toronto area, Canada's senior lawmakers said Sunday. Despite the arrests, and police assurances that the threat allegedly posed by this group had been "removed," security officials are still grilling individuals who may be connected, or may have vital information about the alleged plot to bomb targets in Ontario. Reports suggest those targets may have included the Toronto headquarters of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the CN Tower, as well as Parliament Hill. "It's not over," said Liberal...

Are moderate Canadian Muslim leaders doing enough to combat radicalism? They changed the question between 6am and 8:30 because the poll had over 4000 replies/89% negative. Please vote and send a message to the lefty media up here before they blame our Conservative, Bush-friendly PM, our police & RCMP, etc (i.e. anyone who has values and intends to make a difference.) Thanks.

For most Canadians, ammonium nitrate — even after it was used to destroy the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City in 1995, killing 168 people, including dozens of kids in a daycare centre —is nothing much more than a commonly used plant fertilizer. Farmers buy and use it by the tonne, mixing it into the soil to ensure a bountiful crop. But mix ammonium nitrate with the inflammatory rhetoric of an Internet chat room, and it instantly acquires the potential to become something entirely different, needing only the addition of a little fuel oil to turn it into a lethal...

Do you feel that Canadian Muslims are doing enough to keep radical imams and mullahs away from their mosques? We need to send a message to the lefty news media in Canada before they start blaming our Conservative PM for this turn of events, blame the RCMP for entrapment, etc. Please freep.

Vandals strike at Toronto mosque Muslims make up about 2% of Canada's population Vandals smashed windows at a Toronto mosque hours after Canada announced it had foiled an alleged Islamist bomb plot, arresting 17 men and youths.At least 28 windows were broken but nobody appears to have been hurt in the overnight attack and a mosque official said five cars were also damaged. Police have not officially linked the attack on the mosque with the arrests. But a spokesman assured Muslim community leaders that hate crimes would not be tolerated. "It is certainly possible that that damage was motivated...

MISSISSAUGA, Ontario (AP) - 0603dvs-canada-terror The Royal Canadian Mounted Police itself delivered three tons of potential bomb-making material to a group that authorities said wanted to launch a string of attacks inspired by al-Qaida, according to a news report Sunday. The Toronto Star said the sting unfolded when investigators delivered the ammonium nitrate to the group of Muslim Canadians, then moved in quickly on what officials called a homegrown terror ring. The newspaper said that investigators learned of the group's alleged plan to bomb targets around Ontario, then controlled the sale and transport of the fertilizer. Authorities refused to discuss...

PM vows to keep up the fightOttawa Sun By Kathleen Harris June 4, 2006 PRIME MINISTER Stephen Harper vowed to ramp up Canada's fight against terrorism at home and abroad in the wake of the stunning Toronto sweep of homegrown terrorist suspects. Speaking to 240 fresh-faced military recruits during a swearing-in ceremony in Ottawa yesterday, Harper praised the RCMP, CSIS and Toronto-area police authorities for busting the al-Qaida-inspired cell and pledged more tools to fight terror in the future. "We will continue to support them by strengthening our laws, our policies and the resources dedicated to the fight against terrorism...

Vandals smashed 30 windows of a Toronto mosque and damaged nearby cars after the arrest of 17 suspected al Qaeda sympathizers accused of planning bomb attacks. Canadian Muslims expressed fear on Sunday that a backlash had begun. The vandals struck overnight at the west-end mosque, a police official said on Sunday. A second official said he had no information on any link between the incident and the arrests, which began late Friday. "The actual weapon that was used to break (the windows) is unknown," said secretary Ameer Ali of the International Muslims Organization of Toronto, which houses the mosque. "We...

SEVENTEEN people who face terrorism charges for allegedly plotting attacks in southern Ontario were motivated by politics and hate, not religion, Toronto's police chief said today, hoping to stem any backlash against local Muslims. "It appears that a number of these young men were motivated by an ideology based on politics, hatred and terrorism, and not on faith," said Chief Bill Blair after meeting with local Muslim leaders to discuss their fears of repercussions. "I am not aware of any mosques that these individuals were influenced by," he said. His comments came after a mosque in Toronto was vandalised overnight,...

Paris and London, June 3, 2006 Over the past nine months, speeches by Usama Bin Laden, Ayman Zawahiri, other Jihadi cadres and the documents found after the arrest of Terror-architect Abu Mus’ab al Suri all put the West and democracies on notice: the second generation al Qaida is marching. The “Jihad country-list” includes those countries whose troops are engaged in battles against the Terrorists around the world or whose police force is attempting to disrupt the cells at home. Beyond the "regular" countries-targets such as the United States, UK, Australia, Russia, India, Jordan and Israel, many others "infidel" countries made...

TORONTO (CP) - The lingering threat of global terrorism became a concrete reality for Canadians on Saturday following allegations that 17 people plotted an imminent attack with three times the explosive material used in the devastating Oklahoma City bombing. A bag of ammonium nitrate was displayed by police as they revealed that an "inspired by al-Qaida" group of mostly Canadian citizens had amassed three tonnes of the fertilizer - commonplace in backyard gardens but also used in large quantities to make explosives for deadly ends. "It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack," RCMP assistant commissioner Mike...

Veiled supporters of some of the suspects in a terrorist plot leave the courthouse in the Toronto suburb of Brampton. Canada foiled a homegrown terrorist plot and arrested 17 Canadians who were allegedly planning major attacks inspired by Al-Qaeda in the province of Ontario, officials said.(AFP/Geoff Robins)