Angry in the Great White North
Thinking about potential targets
Saturday, June 03, 2006 at 10:01 PM

Read other posts by Steve Janke published by the National Post
Leader

The authorities have been tight-lipped about the potential targets of the 17 terrorist suspects arrested in Toronto:

Police claimed the men had the means to make powerful bombs.

"This group took steps to acquire components necessary to create an explosive device using ammonium nitrate, which is a commonly used fertilizer," [RCMP Asst. Commissioner Mike McDonell] said.

"Three tonnes of ammonium nitrate was ordered by these individuals and delivered to them. It was their intent to use this for a terrorist attack."

"This group posed a real and serious threat. It had the capacity and intent to carry out these attacks," McDonnell said.

The RCMP would not name any of the suspected bombing targets, but said the Toronto Transit Commission -- a network of public buses, subways and streetcars in Canada's largest city -- was not seen as a potential target.

Can we infer what the targets might have been? We know from the FBI that these Canadians had contact with US citizens Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both from Atlanta, and both under arrest on terror-related charges. The American affidavit provides suggests government and economic targets:

Syed Haris Ahmed and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, both U.S. citizens who grew up in the Atlanta area, met with at least three other targets of ongoing FBI terrorism investigations during a trip to Canada in March 2005, the FBI agent's affidavit said.

The affidavit said the men discussed attacks against oil refineries and military bases and planned to travel to Pakistan to get military training at a terrorist camp, which authorities said Ahmed then tried to do.

The Imperial Refinery in Nanticoke refines crude oil from Western Canada. There are two refineries in Sarnia, Imperial and Sunoco. Shell has a refinery in Corunna. All these places are located in southern Ontario. Though there are plenty of military bases throughout Ontario (Trenton, Petawawa, Borden, etc), I would pick softer targets -- administrative buildings located in urban centres, or other high value targets not likely to be associated with a heavy military presence, such as Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, a part of the ECHELON program, a critical piece of the US-UK-Canadian surveillance effort against terrorists.

Then there are plenty of federal buildings, not to mention non-governmental targets like the Toronto Stock Exchange. And if you are going to target someplace in downtown Toronto, why not hit St Michael's Hospital to mess up the emergency response.

With three tonnes of fertilizer, these guys could make a lot of smaller bombs.

Donate to the AGWN Legal Fund
Main Story

Search for more opinions from Canadian bloggers on these related keywords