17 Terrorists Arrested In Toronto

Hat tip, Drudge

Seventeen Canadian residents were in custody Saturday on terrorism- related charges, including plots to use explosives in attacks on Canadian soil, authorities said.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they arrested 12 male adults and five youth and foiled plans for terrorist attacks against targets in southern Ontario.

Officials showed evidence of bomb making materials, a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and what appears to be a door with bullet holes in it at a news conference Saturday morning.

"This group took steps to acquire three tons of ammonium nitrate and other components necessary to create explosive devices," said assistant Royal Canadian Mounted Police commissioner Mike McDonell said. McDonell said that is three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Canadian youths in their teens and 20s, upset at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, were among those arrested.

"Youths" is the new code name Muslim terrorists, the MSM is still allergic to the truth.

Some members of the group allegedly attended a "training camp"north of the city where they made a video imitating military warfare, and the suspects allegedly had acquired weapons and listed targets in Ontario, sources told the Star. 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.

Sources close to last night's investigation are calling the suspects arrested yesterday a "homegrown" group, meaning they are Canadian citizens or long-time residents, raised and allegedly radicalized without leaving the country. It's a phenomenon Canadian officials have been warning about for the past few years.

Ah yes, lets keep the borders wide open . Meanwhile, the local Imam goes into victim mode,

"I think they have it wrong. Those guys have nothing to do with (terrorism)," said Scarborough Imam Aly Hindy. Hindy has been a high profile critic of the RCMP and Canadian Security Intelligence Service, accusing the federal agency of targeting Muslims who criticize the foreign policies of Western governments. He believes this is what led to the arrests yesterday. "Because they are young people, and they are Muslims, they are saying it's terrorism," he said in an interview last night.

Three tons of ammonium nitrate might have something to do with it, unless they were planning on fertilizing the entire provence.

"This very shocking, and the whole community will be affected." The case is critical for Canada's international reputation and will be scrutinized worldwide as it works its way through the courts.

Canada will be scrutinized? I suppose they should have waited 'tll after the attack. So how did CSIS catch these scumbags anyway?

Their words were sometimes encrypted, the Internet sites where they communicated allegedly restricted by passwords, but Canadian spies back in 2004 were reading them. And as the youths' words turned into actions, they began watching them.

So spying on terrorists saved lives, imagine that!

Sources say the arrests involve a "homegrown" terrorism cell — Western youths who have never set foot in Afghanistan but allegedly were radicalized here, and who are thought to be potentially as dangerous as the cells that once took orders from Osama bin Laden.

Reading the same book , bound by the same faith.

Fahim Ahmad, who was arrested as part of yesterday's sweep, was living with his wife and children in a Scarborough apartment in August 2005, while authorities were watching him closely. The 22-year-old allegedly rented a car for two Toronto-area men to go to the U.S.

The licence plate was flagged so it could be pulled over upon its return to Canada, sources told the Star and court documents confirm. On Aug. 13, at 5:30 a.m., a student working with the Canada Border Services Agency at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie pulled over the white Buick that Ahmad had rented, which was being driven by Yasin Mohamed, 24, of Toronto, with Ali Dirie, 22, whose last address was in Markham, as a passenger.

Officers later found two loaded handguns taped to Dirie's inner thighs — a Millennium PT 19mm and a .380 Calibre Jennings. In his socks they found a magazine for a semi-automatic handgun and "several rounds of ammunition," according to the court transcripts.

Nailed by Border Customs, what can we learn from this?