More Arrests Expected in Homegrown Terror Plot

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June 05, 2006 7:00 PM

Canadian police say more arrests are likely as they seek to unravel what they describe as a homegrown terror cell that got its inspiration from Osama bin Laden and was intent on striking as soon as it could until police moved in over the weekend.

The plot was designed to inflict mass casualties with truck bombs made of fertilizer, according to police in Toronto.

The targets included Toronto's stock exchange and the Parliament building in Ottawa.

"This was a real terror plot. They had the intent and capability, and we no longer felt that we could manage the risk," said Mike McDonell, Assistant Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police .

The arrests in Canada led U.S. officials today to plan a show of force along the border.

Some local officials have complained that the government had shifted too many resources to the border with Mexico.

"There's 30 roads between Minnesota and Canada that don't even have checkpoints," said Randall Larsen, a Homeland Security analyst

Now additional Customs agents will be assigned to the northern border, and there will be an increase in random checks for weapons of mass destruction.

David Aguilar, of U.S. Customs and Border Protection, said, "There is definitely a ramp up of operations specific to this past weekend due to the activities we did see."

A recent State Department terrorism report concluded terrorists have capitalized on liberal Canadian immigration policies in order to plan terrorist attacks.

In this case, all of those arrested are Canadian citizens, most of whom live in tree-lined suburbs just outside Toronto, including the alleged ringleader, a 43-year-old school bus driver with four children named Qayyum Abdul Jamal.

Authorities say he was active at a storefront mosque where he helped to radicalize and recruit others in their teens and early 20's.

Jamal's neighbors are stunned, "Our borders are open like yours are. We welcome everybody, and they dump on us."

Canadian intelligence first detected members of the suspected cell two years ago by monitoring internet chat rooms, trying to draw out people who seem intent on violence.

"They were following the dogma and preachings of al Qaeda and had bought completely into it," says McDonell.

In fact, authorities in Toronto say every time Osama bin Laden posted a message, they were encouraged and energized.

Read the Royal Canadian document with a list of the suspects and the charges against them.