The RCMP have arrested two people in connection with a homegrown terror plot to derail a New York-to-Toronto Via Rail passenger train on the Canadian side of the border.
The suspects, one in Montreal and one in Toronto, were arrested Monday morning and will face criminal charges in connection with the alleged plot.
RCMP say the two accused are: Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser.
The arrests were part of an ongoing investigation conducted by the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service — dubbed Project SMOOTH — which “had been going on for a considerable amount of time,” CTV’s Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife said.
The two “are linked somehow to al Qaeda,” Fife reported Monday afternoon.
Fife said it remains unclear how the two are connected to the international terror organization.
The two people arrested Monday are not linked with two men from London, Ont., who died in an al Qaeda-linked siege on a gas plant in Algeria last January. They are also not linked to the suspects in last week’s deadly Boston Marathon bombing.
The public was “never at risk,” security sources told Fife, because RCMP and CSIS were closely monitoring the suspects.
The suspects are described as being older, so “it does not appear to be a case of radicalization of youth,” Fife said.
Fife said police had planned to make the arrests three weeks ago, but for unknown reasons they picked up the suspects on Monday.
The arrests come as MPs debate an anti-terrorism bill that has been in the works for months but has taken on greater significance in the wake of the deadly bombings at the Boston Marathon last week.
Bill S-7, the Combating Terrorism Act, includes provisions that make it an offence to leave the country to participate in acts of terror. It also grants police the powers to pre-emptively arrest someone and hold them for three days without charge, and allows for imprisonment for up to 12 months for refusing to testify before a judge in an investigative hearing.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews issued a statement Monday afternoon commending the RCMP on its efforts, and also thanking the FBI for its assistance in the investigation.
“Today’s arrests demonstrate that terrorism continues to be a real threat in Canada,” Toews said.
‘Off with their heads!’
THIS is justice!
Connecticut, released, after 25 years, a man who sodomized, then butchered a young boy.
Is there ‘justice’ in America?
Interestingly, it was actually a Muslim cleric who snitched and informed the police about this.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/tip-from-imam-led-police-to-first-known-al-qaeda-plan-of-attack-that-weve-experienced/article11492749/
Thank you HaShem for sending the right shluchim just in time, to stop this cud’ve- been disaster!!
We are Proud of you for foiling yet another possible devastating hit by Muslim Terrorists… Canada’s law enforcement agencies, RCMP, CSIS and anti-terrorist depts. are one of the finest well honed machines in the world.
And yet the maintream media and all the so-called mevinim keep telling us that we should be worrying about “right-wing terrorism” that doesn’t exist. When you hear explosions, think Moslems, not Xians.
…we need good news to stop these mamzerim…we say in Kiddush levanah…Lo yuchlu kol oyvay lingoah bi loro’oh