More Terrorist Arrests Seen in Canada
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.
TORONTO – Police said yesterday that more arrests are likely in an alleged plot to bomb buildings in Canada, while intelligence officers sought ties between the 17 suspects and Islamic terror cells in America and five other nations.
A court said authorities had charged all 12 adults arrested over the weekend with participating in a terrorist group. Other charges included importing weapons and planning a bombing.
The Parliament of Canada, in Ottawa, is believed to be among targets the group discussed.
A Muslim prayer leader who knew the oldest suspect, 43-year-old Qayyum Abdul Jamal, told the Associated Press yesterday that Mr. Jamal’s sermons at a storefront mosque were “filled with hate” against Canada.
Authorities said more arrests were expected, possibly this week, as police pursue leads about a group they say was inspired by the violent ideology of the Al Qaeda terror network.
“We’ve by no means finished this investigation,” the deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, Mike McDonell, told AP. “In fact, you might look at it that, really, we’re just starting with the arrests. We have a responsibility to follow every lead.”
Although both Canadian and American officials said over the weekend that there was no indication the purported terror group had targets outside Ontario, Mr. McDonell said yesterday that there are “foreign connections,” but he would not elaborate.
An American law enforcement official said investigators were looking for connections between those detained in Canada and suspected Islamic militants held in America, Britain, Bangladesh, Bosnia, Denmark, and Sweden.
American authorities have established that two men from Georgia who were charged this year in a terrorism case had been in contact with some of the Canadian suspects via computer, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.
Prosecutors have said the Georgia men, Ehsanul Islam Sadequee and Syed Haris Ahmed, traveled to Washington to shoot “casing videos” of the Capitol and other potential targets.
