Stewart Bell
A second search was underway in Ottawa on Wednesday afternoon, in connection with the arrests earlier in the day of two men — with suspected links to al-Qaida.
The men were arrested on terrorism charges.
This time, police were searching an address in the west end of the city.
Earlier Wednesday, the RCMP made two arrests in the nation’s capital without incident. The men are suspected of preparing a terrorist attack targeting Canada. The ringleader allegedly attended training camps in the Pakistan and Afghanistan region.
But the bomb plot was described as not well-defined and the arrests were apparently made because one of the suspects was preparing to travel abroad.
A news conference has been scheduled for Thursday afternoon. The RCMP, Ottawa Police Service and Canadian Security Intelligence Service were involved in the operation.
“At approximately 8:00 this morning, A Division’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (A-INSET) investigators arrested two Ottawa residents in relation to terrorist offences,” the RCMP said in a news release Wednesday afternoon.
“Search warrants are being executed in order to secure additional evidence. More arrests are anticipated.”
The suspects have not been named.
The case is considered the most significant counter-terrorism operation in Canada since Project Osage, the 2006 arrests of the Toronto 18, young al-Qaida-inspired extremists who plotted attacks in southern Ontario.
Although police have released little information, the case appears to fit the pattern of so-called homegrown terrorists, the term for Canadians who have become radicalized and adopted the al-Qaida ideology.
Public Safety Minister Vic Toews could not immediately be reached for comment, but a Public Safety spokesman said “the government of Canada monitors national security concerns and is vigilant in protecting against any threats.”
“As Minister Toews has said, it is clear that Canada is not immune from international or homegrown radicalization,” said Chris McCluskey. “Recent successful prosecutions in the Toronto 18, Momin Khawaja and Said Namouh cases demonstrate that the threat of terrorism is very real. Canada has disrupted terrorist plots, and has successively tried and convicted terrorists. And that work continues.”
The alleged plot could be the latest attempt by remnants and affiliates of al-Qaida to use Western recruits to strike inside North America.
“There is substantial evidence from cases in the U.K. and the E.U. that various so-called homegrown groups do demonstrate a connection to an al-Qaida centre in areas of doctrine, strategy, tactics and target selection,” said Prof. Martin Rudner, a Carleton University terrorism expert.
In a speech in Toronto on Aug. 9, Toews said he was increasingly concerned about the radicalization taking place in Canada.
“There are homegrown Islamists and other extremists here in Canada,” he said. “In this country, it is the right of all Canadians to hold and discuss a wide range of beliefs.
“But what we are seeing here is not about disagreement and debate. Our concern is with extremist ideologies that lead individuals to espouse or engage in violence. These individuals reject the values on which our country is based, and they must be stopped.”
He said indoctrination and radicalization are occurring partly on the Internet and the speed at which they were radicalizing was proving a challenge for police and intelligence agencies.
“While only a small fraction of a percentage of our population is engaged in activities that pose a security threat, we need to thwart such threats before they can be carried out,” he said.
