Terror watch

Oct. 26 - There's been a lot of strange symmetry this week with a round-up of terrorists in and from Canada in yesterday's National Post combined with (unofficial) allegations that Maher Arar gave names to Syrian interrogators and the rationale behind the re-routing of El Al flights away from Toronto Airport.

That there are people in Canada who have been trained by al Qaeda is hardly a surprise: after all, why would Canada be any different in this respect from France, the UK, Australia, Gemany, and the United States?

What bothers me most is government reluctance to publicly address the issue. Toronto Sun columnist Gary Dunford was more irritated than humourous today in his column Flying in the Dark:

REMAIN CALM: Like most, I say we should be told absolutely nothing about why Israeli jetliners have avoided Pearson airport for three days. Canadians, like mushrooms, grow best in the dark.

The story behind the diverted El Al flights from Toronto, according to this, was a telephone threat to an Israeli security agency to bring down an El Al airplane at Toronto Airport report. Officials are unsure if the phone call was made from a pay phone or a cell phone. (Airport security officials spoke on condition of anonymity. Sigh.)

The good news: somebody is apparently examining and seeing if dots connect:

Security officials are also trying to determine if a rocket launcher found in a postal shipment is linked to the threat.

The Mounties and CSIS are tracing the origins and destination of a German-made rocket launcher, found by Canada Customs officers among 14 caches of weapons, entering the country at a Mississauga postal plant from April 2001 to March 2003.

The weapon is designed to be fired from the shoulder and can be outfitted with heat-seeking missiles.

Meanwhile, B'nai Brith Canada is urging members of the Jewish community to be careful in light of the El Al alert.

According to this, Canada's Minister of Transport, David Collenette is considering re-routing more El Al flights destined for Toronto to other Canadian cities, which may seem to solve the problem in the short term but doesn't adddress security concerns. That's about as official a comment on the diversion we're likely to get.

Now this: Canadians warned to avoid travel to Saudia Arabia because intelligence reports indicate that terrorists are planning future terrorist attacks. The warnings specify that Americans, the British and Canadians should be especially vigilant around the upcoming Ramadan:

"It is the Embassy's assessment that terrorist groups may place special operational significance on the upcoming month of Ramadan and American citizens are therefore urged to be particularly vigilant during this time."

According to this, one reason the warning was issued was because explosive belts were found during a raid in Saudi Arabia.

An unusual warning was issued by the FBI to Muslims in the US:

On Friday, the FBI urged extra vigilance for possible terror attacks and violence against Muslims in the United States during Ramadan.

In its weekly bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI said it has no credible information that an attack is being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network or any other terror group during the month.

But attacks overseas have been timed in the past to coincide with symbolic dates, the FBI said, adding that "the possibility of such an attack in the United States cannot be discounted."

Is the FBI warning about attacks on Muslims from non-Muslims or Muslims? Al Qaeda certainly has no scruples about killing Muslims, as has been evidenced most recently in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, and it's no secret that many American Muslims are actively trying to root out terrorist cells within their own communities, something al Qaeda would want to punish. I'm just speculating, but when I see a non sequitur like the above my anteannae go hippity-hop.

Or maybe it's the persistant whispers from the Netherlands and Australia among other places that there is a quiet struggle within the Muslim communities that overtly seems to revolve around whether women should or not should wear headscarves, and more ominously, what to do about women who chose to forgo them, and this fairly well-circulated report by Theodore Dalrymple on the public housing ghettoes in France (ghetto is my terminology), and some further musings from Mark Steyn.

(If you follow only one link, make it the one to Mark Steyn. It may startle you.)

(NP and Dalrymple links via Right On!.)

UPDATE: MSNBC has an article on the harsh life of Muslim women in Paris, which is considerably more on target than the pathetic NY Times article A Crime of the Young Stalks France's Urban Wastelands.

UPDATE: The threat to El Al is officially over. Officials are remaining tight lipped.

Posted by: Debbye at 11:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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