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| Great White North |
| Canuck hard boyz have possible connections in lots o' places |
| 2006-06-05 |
| The arrest of 17 terrorism suspects in Canada is part of a continuing, multi-national probe into suspected terrorist cells in at least seven countries, a U.S. counter-terrorism official confirmed Sunday. The senior U.S. law enforcement official said authorities are combing through evidence seized during raids in Canada this weekend to look for possible connections between the 17 suspects arrested Friday and at least 18 other Islamist militants who have been arrested in locations including the United States, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Britain, Denmark and Sweden. The investigation began as separate probes into what authorities believed were localized cells of militant Muslim young men, who shared an interest in radical ideology on the Internet in various countries and, to a lesser extent, in local mosques and training camps. But over the past year, the counter-terrorism authorities of those countries began to see connections among the cells, in part through electronic surveillance of phone calls and Internet correspondence, as well as ground surveillance of individual suspects, several U.S. officials said in interviews Sunday. "The case is a very good example of how things work in the post 9/11 world. In this case law enforcement and intelligence services from half a dozen places coordinated daily during a very complex investigation," said the U.S. law enforcement official. "It involved surveillances (of) every mode of travel and crossed multiple borders. Each set of arrests were coordinated between all agencies and considered carefully for how they might effect the ongoing probe." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #2 Arrests in: United States, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Britain, Denmark and Sweden. * They are residents of Canada "for the most part," police said on Saturday. Their ethnic or national origins include Somali, Egyptian, Jamaican and Trinidadian. The suspects came from all walks of life, ranging from a sandwich-shop worker to a computer programmer, according to local media reports. Ahmad Mustafa Ghany, 21, was a health-sciences graduate from McMaster University, and was born in Canada after his father, a urologist, immigrated from Trinidad and Tobago in 1955, according to attorney Rocco Galati, who is representing Ghany and another suspect, Shareef Abdelhaleen. Galati said Abdelhaleen is a 30 year-old unmarried software programmer who emigrated from Egypt at the age of 10. Both Mississauga, with a population of nearly 613,000 residents, and Scarborough have large Muslim populations and count several mosques and hundreds of businesses that cater to them. The 2001 Canadian Census counted 42,000 Muslims living in Mississauga and 165,135 Muslims living in Toronto, or about 7 percent of the population. Many in the Muslim community worry about a violent backlash violence as a result of the terrorism arrests. A Toronto mosque was apparently vandalized overnight Saturday. Omar Farouk, pres. of the International Muslim Organization, said the attack on his mosque "clearly showed hatred." LOL, we all hate you because we are all basically racist to the bone! Sayed Reza, an administrator with the Understanding Islamic Academy in Mississauga said he remains confident that Canadians will remain tolerant. lets certainly hope not. "Generally, the Canadian public do support us in times like this," he said, though he later added that he did feel suspicious looks over the weekend since the arrests were announced. "I do feel the hysteria. People were looking us in shock when they drove by the school." And "shocking looks" are the worstus kind of hateful Hate Crime, don't ya know! |
| Posted by: RD 2006-06-05 10:05 |
| #1 in part through electronic surveillance of phone calls and Internet correspondence Thank you NSA. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2006-06-05 09:28 |