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Toronto Terrorism Investigation Started Online
By Jim Hedger, StepForth News Editor, StepForth Placement Inc.
June 5 2006
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They say it started in the autumn of 2004 in an online chat room. It ended
on Saturday with the arrest of twelve adults and five minors by police and
security services across southern Ontario. In a massive show of brute force
and imaginative investigative cooperation between law enforcement agencies,
Canadian security officials shut down a homegrown group of terrorists allegedly
planning one or more attacks similar to the one that destroyed the Federal
Building in Oklahoma City eleven years ago.
Information beyond the names and addresses of those arrested is obviously
difficult to obtain at this time though media speculations suggests one
of the intended targets was the office complex beside the Metro Toronto
Convention Center, the location of the annual Toronto Search Engine Strategies
Conference, which houses the Toronto branch of CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence
Service) and the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police).
According to a story running in the Toronto Star, though the group was
capable of carrying out a devastating attack, the Canadian public was never
actually at risk. Police and security services here and around the world
had been actively monitoring the group both online and offline for over
18-months.
The alleged plot involved three tons of ammonium nitrate, a volatile fertilizer
used by farmers around the world and the same substance used in the horrific
1995 Oklahoma City bombing. By comparison, the truck that leveled the Alfred
P. Murrah Building contained only one ton of ammonium nitrate. When law
enforcement officials noticed the group had placed a large order for ammonium
nitrate, they contacted the shipping company and replaced the explosive
fertilizer with a non-reactive, benign substance. Officers accompanying
the delivery made the first arrests, which were quickly followed by a series
of well-planned and coordinated arrests throughout the Greater Toronto Area
and surrounding districts.
Perhaps the most frightening aspect of the story is the age and background
of the alleged plotters. Most are in their late teens or early twenties
with only one of those arrested being noted as over the age of 40. They
were, by and large, well educated and had enjoyed a typical Canadian middle-class
upbringing of street hockey, roller blading and basketball. While each had
recently adopted a highly ridged interpretation of Islam, none of them fit
the stereotypical image of a terrorist. In both cases where the media was
able to interview members of the suspects’ families, their parents
expressed what appeared to be genuine surprise and very obvious sorrow at
the choices their children had made.
The Internet, like the real world, can be a dangerous place and has several
unsavory neighbourhoods. The police say it started in a chat room dedicated
to discussion of Islam. It would appear the bewildered parents of the wannabe
Jihadists were not monitoring their children’s online activities.
Perhaps if they had, their children would not have ended up in jail.
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