Canada Busts Ontario Terror Cell

Here's a question: If it is lack of democracy that causes terrorism, as President Bush has said, why are there terror cells operating in Canada? From the Toronto Star:

At a news conference earlier in the day, a CSIS official said a series of terrorist attacks plotted against unspecified targets in southern Ontario were “inspired by Al Qaeda,” adding that the ring of suspects arrested posed a “real and serious” threat.

Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate, a commonly used fertilizer used to make explosives, were recovered by police, who say that’s three times the amount used in the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma that killed 168 people.

“It was their intent to use it for a terrorist attack,” RCMP assistant commissioner Mike McDonell told a news conference in Toronto.

“If I can put this in context for you, the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people was completed with only one tonne of ammonium nitrate.”

“This group posed a real and serious threat,” he added. “It had the capacity and intent to carry out these acts.”

A source who asked not to be named said information provided by U.S. officials played a part in the Canadian arrests.

An FBI affidavit alleges Amercians Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both from the Atlanta region, travelled to Toronto in March 2005, meeting with others of interest to U.S. authorities. The men supposedly discussed terrorist training and bomb plots against military facilities and oil refineries.

Maybe this document from Canadian intelligence might explain what's going on north of the border. (ht LGF)