Boo-who?!

Well, I'll be dipped in a big vat o' poutine! Looks like not everyone in Canada is a total imbecile, like Mushy...some of them are taking the threats from Al qaeda seriously, at least.

Of course, Mushy is also fond of blaming Bush, for not reacting quickly and forcefully enough to the pre-9/11 threats from Osama's Gang. Wonder what he'll do, when the sheet hits the fan in Canada?

Wait...I know! He'll blame the USA!

SSDD.

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Canada Called a Terror Target ['Genuine Threat' from al-Qaeda]
CanWest News Service ^ | STEWART BELL
November 22, 2004

A new Canadian intelligence report says terrorists might attack Canada in retaliation for the arrests of suspected Al-Qa'ida associates who are being deported for reasons of national security.

In the report, titled Al-Qa'ida: Potential Threats to North American Targets, the federal government's threat analysis unit said Canada's efforts to deport Al-Qa'ida suspects could trigger a violent response.

"Canadian agencies have aggressively pursued removal proceedings against inadmissible classes of foreign nationals associated with Al-Qa'ida constituents, which may also provide extremists with an impetus to attack Canadian interests."

The report by the Integrated National Security Assessment Centre (INSAC) was labelled Restricted Distribution because of its "sensitive nature," but a copy was disclosed to the National Post under the Access to Information Act.

It is the latest signal to emerge from Ottawa that there might be a genuine Al-Qa'ida threat to Canada, even if many Canadians do not consider their country to be in the sights of the global jihadist terror network.

Canadian authorities have captured several alleged Al-Qa'ida associates in Ontario and Quebec, notably Egyptians Mahmoud Jaballah and Mohamed Mahjoub, Adil Charkaoui of Morocco and Algerian Mohammed Harkat.

Several others, such as Algerians Samir Air Mohamed of Vancouver and Abdellah Ouzghar of Hamilton, were arrested for extradition to stand trial in the United States and France respectively.

Last March, Canadian police arrested an Ottawa computer expert on charges he was part of a radical cell that was plotting a bombing in Britain. He is alleged to have used his computer skills to help build a bomb using ammonium nitrate.

The report notes that Al-Qa'ida ranked Canada as "the fifth most important Christian country to be targeted, following the U.S., the U.K., Spain and Australia." Of those, Canada is the only one to not have suffered an attack.

Canadian security agencies say they have found indicators terrorists might be in the planning stages of an attack, including incidents involving the videotaping of possible targets in Toronto. Last year, Pakistani authorities found a list of Canadian targets in the pocket of a captured Al-Qa'ida operative.

Although the Liberals opposed the invasion of Iraq, Al-Qa'ida considers Canada a legitimate target because of the Canadian troop presence in Afghanistan and Ottawa's participation in the U.S.-led war on terror.

One of Canada's main counterterrorism tools is a section of the immigration law that allows the government to deport non-Canadians suspected of involvement in terrorist groups.

INSAC is based at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and is composed of federal security agencies including CSIS, RCMP, national defence, foreign affairs and immigration.
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Ottawa's selective deportation policy (Al-Qaeda sheltered in Canada)
National Post ^ | November 22, 2004



The federal government is practising a dangerous double standard regarding unsuccessful refugee claimants from the Middle East. Both the refugee determination board and the immigration department routinely refuse to deport back to the region failed claimants -- including suspected terrorists -- who face torture in their countries of origin. Syrians, Lebanese, Tunisians, Iranians and others, even some with suspected connections to al-Qaeda, have all been granted safe haven here. There is one exception: former members of the South Lebanon Army, Israel's ally in the fight against the Shiite terror organization Hezbollah along Israel's northern border.

Last week, another seven former SLA soldiers were ordered out of Canada as soon as possible, even though they face certain arrest by Hezbollah, almost certain torture and possible death if they are returned to Lebanon. The excuse for this duplicitous treatment seems to be a highly subjective ruling by the refugee board that Israel committed "crimes against humanity" in South Lebanon. Since the SLA helped them, SLA veterans are "war criminals" according to the board, and handing them over to their enemies -- even to an outlawed, anti-Western terror organization such as Hezbollah -- is of no concern to Canada.

There were no angels in the Lebanese civil war. The SLA, for instance, ran the al-Khiam Detention Centre where Amnesty International insisted, year after year, there was "systematic torture and ill-treatment."

But the SLA was not a participant in the infamous Sabra and Shatila refugee camp massacres in 1982 that killed between 35 and 100 Palestinian women and children (and 200 to 300 PLO terrorists). The Israeli public inquiry into the incident determined the SLA was nowhere near the camps at the time. The Christian Phalange militia were the culprits. Still, the SLA could hardly be confused with the Boy Scouts.

It disbanded after Israel withdrew its own troops from southern Lebanon in 2000.

But if Ottawa were applying its deportation policies consistently, the SLA's misbehaviour should be beside the point. The federal government and its arms-length refugee board have both repeatedly made clear their determination not to give up deportees to brutal governments with records of prisoner abuse. Just last November, Hassan Almrei was spared deportation to Syria because of "undisputed evidence" of that country's poor human rights record. Almrei is an alleged member of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.

He is one of a handful of Syrians whose applications to remain in Canada as refugees were rejected after the alleged suffering of Maher Arar was made public, but who were permitted to stay anyway to shelter them from abuse in their home country.

Why do the rights of SLA veterans in Canada seem to matter far less to federal immigration functionaries than those of suspected terrorists, or even of Romanian strippers? Israel has never been convicted of crimes against humanity for its neglect in the Sabra and Shatila massacre, nor for any other of its actions in South Lebanon, or those of its proxies such as the SLA. So how can Ottawa act as though it has when dealing with refugees from the SLA? And even if Israel and the SLA were guilty of war crimes, that should not make SLA refugees any less worthy of protection against deportation to regimes that are likely to torture and kill them than claimants with likely ties to terrorist organizations.