Just lovely... yet more fuel to ignite the nutcases on all sides of the fence...
17 Terror Suspects Arrested in Toronto
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: June 3, 2006
A police officer stood guard in Pickering, Ontario, on Friday.
TORONTO (AP) -- Canadian authorities said Saturday they had foiled plans for terrorist attacks in southern Ontario with the arrests of 17 people who were ''inspired by al-Qaida.''
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said they had arrested 12 male adults and five youths on terrorism-related charges, including plotting attacks with explosives on Canadian targets. The suspects were either citizens or residents of Canada and had trained together, they said.
''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.
That is three times the amount used to blow up the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, he said, referring to the April 19, 1995, attack that killed 168 people and injured more than 800.
''The men arrested yesterday are Canadian residents from a variety of backgrounds. For various reasons, they appeared to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by al-Qaida,'' said Luc Portelance, the assistant director of operations with CSIS -- Canada's spy agency.
However, he said, there did not appear to be any direct link to Osama bin Laden's terrorist network.
Officials showed evidence of bomb making materials -- including a cell phone-bomb detonator -- a computer hard drive, camouflage uniforms and what appeared to be a door with bullet holes in it at a news conference Saturday.
The arrests were made Friday and about 400 officers were involved in the operation.
Heavily armed police ringed the Durham Regional Police Station in the city of Pickering, just east of Toronto, as the suspects were brought in late Friday night in unmarked cars driven into an underground garage.
The Toronto Star reported Saturday that Canadian youths in their teens and 20s, upset at the treatment of Muslims worldwide, were among those arrested.
The newspaper said they had trained at a camp north of Toronto and had plotted to attack the Canadian spy agency's downtown Toronto office, among other targets in Ontario province.
In March 2004, Ottawa software developer Mohammad Momin Khawaja became the first Canadian charged under the country's Anti-Terrorism Act. Khawaja was also named, but not charged, in Britain for playing a role in a foiled bomb plot. He is being held in an Ottawa detention center, awaiting trial.
The Canadian anti-terrorism law was passed swiftly following the Sept. 11 assaults, particularly after bin-Laden named Canada as one of five so-called Christian nations that should be targeted for terror attacks.
The other four countries, reaffirmed in 2004 by his al-Qaida network, were the United States, Britain, Spain and Australian, all of which have been targeted in terrorist attacks.
The anti-terrorism law permits the government to brand individuals and organizations as terrorists and gives police the power to make preventive arrests of people suspected of planning attacks.
Though many view Canada as an unassuming neutral nation that has skirted terrorist attacks, it has suffered its share of aggression, including the 1985 Air India bombing, in which 329 people were killed, most of them Canadian citizens.
Intelligence officials suspect at least 50 terror groups now have some presence in the North American nation and have long complained that the country's immigration laws and border security are too weak to weed out potential terrorists.
Spoiler
testingtest12
Do not meddle in the affairs of dragons, for you are crunchy and taste good with ketchup. Spoiler
testingtest12
.......All those moments ... will be lost ... in time ... like tears in rain.
Just heard this on the news during lunch, it makes me sick to think what Bush may use this recent event for, fuel for his campaign against Iran? The speech he gave the other day reminded me of Iraq so much I almost lost my breakfast.
As for this specific incident, Im glad they were caught and that no one was harmed, I just wished they wouldnt shout it out from on top of a mountain as it were, these agencies already get enouogh publicity, this is just throwing uneeded fuel onto an overly large fire.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Voltaire
[QUOTE=Xandax]Color me purple and call me barney.[/QUOTE]
Where in the hell did they get that much ammonium nitrate? Did they synthesize it themselves?:speech:
"Be thankful you're healthy." "Be bitter you're not going to stay that way."
"Be glad you're even alive." "Be furious you're going to die."
"Things could be much worse." "They could be one hell of a lot better."
This bag is 50 pounds I believe it says (I can definitely see the 22kg part which is very close to 50lbs) and there are 2000 or so punds in a ton...
"Be thankful you're healthy." "Be bitter you're not going to stay that way."
"Be glad you're even alive." "Be furious you're going to die."
"Things could be much worse." "They could be one hell of a lot better."
A barn out in the middle of nowhere maybe? Some abandoned warehouse they purchased? As for the transportation I have no idea...
"Be thankful you're healthy." "Be bitter you're not going to stay that way."
"Be glad you're even alive." "Be furious you're going to die."
"Things could be much worse." "They could be one hell of a lot better."
[QUOTE=Fiona]No. I was just wondering whether there weren't more convenient ways to cause bother really. Sorry don't mind me[/QUOTE]
Erm... Ok?
"Be thankful you're healthy." "Be bitter you're not going to stay that way."
"Be glad you're even alive." "Be furious you're going to die."
"Things could be much worse." "They could be one hell of a lot better."
@ Fiona & Tony: the advantage of ammonium nitrate is that it is freely available, it's used as fertiliser. That's the problem with some of these bomb makers, the components to make them are freely available since they have a host of legitimate uses and you can't just forbid their sale.
Of course I suppose they spread their purchases of the stuff and even then it might be that a large purchase of it triggered the interest of the police and intelligence services.
I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Oscar Wilde The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I'll walk carefully.
- Russian proverb
[QUOTE=Phreddie]Just heard this on the news during lunch, it makes me sick to think what Bush may use this recent event for, fuel for his campaign against Iran? [/QUOTE]
Did you ever think Bush's "people" may have organized the whole thing??
Heh, I read recently that if one can get hands on a reasonable quantity of Botox and would somehow disperse it over a crowd, the toxic cosmetic could cause some serious harm.
(Botox paralyzes muscles and is, in fact, poison)
[size=-1]An optimist is a badly informed pessimist.[/size]
Botox is just a fancy name for the stuff that causes Botulism...
Shana, I know it may have been Bushes people, but, Bush is the symbolic leader of the nation, the best way to get at a group is to direct all negative attention towards their symbols. Also, I truly believe that Bush is just a bad person who like any 'good' leader in history wants to have on successful war before he is out.
If God did not exist, it would be necessary to invent him. Voltaire
[QUOTE=Xandax]Color me purple and call me barney.[/QUOTE]
The links are not wrong in saying that Ammonium nitrate as such is not an explosive. You need other ingredients to construct the bomb and skill, because its dangerous. But the fact is that you need only a little illegally obtained TNT or similar explosive and then with enough NH4NO3 and diesel oil, you can upgrade it to quite something devestating.
All the sites you posted are true: the one that pooh-poohs the danger of NH4NO3 as well as the one that stress it, they just stress different aspects that best fit their own personal agendas. I think the BBC, as often the case, gives the best account without overdramatising things.
I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Oscar Wilde The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I'll walk carefully.
- Russian proverb
[QUOTE=Lestat]The links are not wrong in saying that Ammonium nitrate as such is not an explosive. You need other ingredients to construct the bomb and skill, because its dangerous. But the fact is that you need only a little illegally obtained TNT or similar explosive and then with enough NH4NO3 and diesel oil, you can upgrade it to quite something devestating.
All the sites you posted are true: the one that pooh-poohs the danger of NH4NO3 as well as the one that stress it, they just stress different aspects that best fit their own personal agendas. I think the BBC, as often the case, gives the best account without overdramatising things.[/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Fiona]3 tons is still an awful lot then[/QUOTE]Dosage for fertilising is in the low hundreds kg/ha, so in terms of farm size in the US and Canada, the purchase of such an amount would not necessarily be suspicious, depending on who is buying.
I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Oscar Wilde The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I'll walk carefully.
- Russian proverb
O-kay. Sorry, I thought you were suspicious they could obtain such large amounts of the stuff...
Well it depends on what they wanted to do, if you want to blow up a large building it might be needed but the logistics involved would be a bit difficult yes, though three tonnes might fit into a large van. I'd imagine they were going for a bombing run maybe (several smaller explosives) or part of it was just in case.
I think that God in creating man somewhat overestimated his ability.
- Oscar Wilde The church is near but the road is icy; the bar is far away but I'll walk carefully.
- Russian proverb