Counterterrorism Blog

Any doubts about the vulnerability of the U.S. to terrorist attacks from cells in Canada or Mexico, or the persistence of Al Qaeda to attack us, should be put to rest by the disclosure by the "National Post" that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service busted a cell of four men in Toronto. The four were Algerian GSPC members, and one of the men was an explosives expert "who studied bomb-making at Osama bin Laden's Al Farooq and Khaldun training camps in eastern Afghanistan." What is scary is that the men were "refugee claimants who had lived in Canada for as long as six years" - I wonder which Canadian immigration law they used to enter and stay in the country. What is scarier is that three of the men "entered from a U.S. border crossing." (!!!) The explosives expert was forced to leave Canada last year, and the other three were deported to the U.S. just this summer - where are they now??!!. The Reuters story on the case explains that the explosives expert couldn't be prosecuted because Canadian law doesn't "make it a crime to be a member of a terrorist group" (where is he now?). Congratulations to our neighbors up north on the bust, but here's hoping they change their laws to pursue members of terrorist groups.

Olivier Guitta posted on the GSPC's plans to bomb the Paris Metro - Evan Kohlmann has posted often about GSPC, its links to al-Zarqawi, and recently on GSPC's promotion of "the world war between Muslims and Christians" - and The Investigative Project's Lorenzo Vidino testified about GSPC before Congress.