This Is Funny: They Bought It Off An Undercover Mountie
When I read this, I had to laugh. Michael Tanji at GroupIntel had this to say about the recent arrests in Canada of the homegrown jihadists over the weekend:
(Hat-Tip: Pajamas Media)
It was a beautiful spring day at the Edina Art Fair. Some quite good and plenty of really bad “art” and the diet-blowing menu of brats, fried cheese curds, cherry lemonade, all ridiculously overpriced but oh-so delicious in the 84-degree sun. A perfect time to turn on my underused biological SIGINT capability and see what is on the minds of Joe and Jane Citizen.
Oddly enough, the discussion of the day wasn’t the recent terrorism arrest just a few hours north of here. Apparently a dozen Muslim half-wits (I’ll explain shortly) tried to buy 3 orders of the Tim McVeigh Special and got rolled up by the RCMP. The Mounties were helped by the CSIS (Go Beavers!) who not only snooped on the group’s communications; they broke the crypto they were using to hide their discussions. Shocker: you can intercept communications, find terrorists, and save lives without anyone getting up in arms about feeling “violated.” And in Canada of all places . . .
Why half-wits? Apparently they bought the ammonium nitrate they were going to use from an undercover Mountie. Dude shows up and says he’s got three tons of fertilizer bomb fixins’ in Calgary? Sure. Ontario? Please. That’s alarm number two. Alarm number one should have gone off about a month ago when the CSIS released a report starting that a terrorist attack against Canadian interest was probable. No specifics of course, and the focus leaned towards attacks overseas, but if you’re planning on doing something evil and you have half a brain you’ve got to be concerned about what the “opposition” is up to. As a Canadian with half a brain you would know that the CSIS is on the job at home and abroad; unlike south of the border where the work is split amongst many different agencies who would rather talk to Canadians than each other.
No, the talk of the day was on a lot of things, but it wasn’t on the pervasive threat of terrorism in the homeland. I say pervasive because frankly, the Ontario Twelve (did I just coin that?) are not an unusual bunch (Lackawanna Six, Portland Seven). At the risk of painting with too broad a brush let me say that the pool of potential recruits for groups who deal in violence is a lot larger than people like to imagine. Ever heard of the gang problem? The name Padilla ring any bells? Lindh? If I said, “Klebold and Harris” would you think I was talking about a law firm?
Dealing with preliminary reports is always dangerous but I think it is fairly safe to say that we’ll soon find out that none of these guys was a world-class bad-@$$. Their failure stems in part from the fact that they were the Jamaican Bobsled team of terrorists: they were motivated, they could perform the basic functions, but their lack of seasoning and pie-in-the-sky hopes doomed them to failure. The real problem is that in Canada (or the US) this is just one group of many, and every one that isn’t rolled up within the next few weeks knows two things: they’re not on anyone’s radar yet, and they need to re-assess their targeting strategy. While groups may get smaller as people get spooked from this weekends events the long-term implications are not all that encouraging; groups will be harder to ID and monitor, running stings will be more difficult, and the scope and scale of attacks will look a lot more like everyday Iraq than 7/7 London.
I disagree with the assessment that North America could look a lot more like Iraq than in London, or the United States on 9/11, for that matter. We were working on keeping an eye on these animals intent on doing us harm, as was evident by the raids in Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and four other countries. The Canadian ring showed that there were worldwide ties, and while these yay-hoos may not have had formal training at one of bin Laden's "exclusive" or "luxurious" training camps, Mr. Tanji is right to point out something very important:
"They were motivated," and "They could perform the basic functions."
Which should constantly serve as a reminder of what President Bush said about our enemies. We have to be right 100% of the time. They only have to be right once. And if they are right, disaster will follow. Thomas and I agree that the "Ontario Twelve" (and yes we do believe that Mr. Tanji did coin that phrase; it is the first time either of us have seen it) were planning on handing Canada it's own 9/11. They were targeting buildings and sites that were integral to the Canadian government, and how that government is working to keep such fanatics from accomplishing their blood-thirsty goals.
Simply put, these twelve may not have been mainline fighters int he war, but they were definitely intent on making a name for themselves in the annals of history. Just as Mohammed Atta and his eighteen co-conspirators did on 9/11. Had we stopped them prior to 9/11, they would have finished their lives out virtually unremarked. The "Ontario Twelve" had similar goals and ideals. They simply lacked the smarts to be as effective as the 9/11 hijackers. A guy shows up with 3 tons of amonium nitrate, looking to seel it, and they did not question him, his motivations, or even check him out?
With help like this for the Islamofascists, who needs an infidel enemy?
The Bunny ;)
When I read this, I had to laugh. Michael Tanji at GroupIntel had this to say about the recent arrests in Canada of the homegrown jihadists over the weekend:
(Hat-Tip: Pajamas Media)
It was a beautiful spring day at the Edina Art Fair. Some quite good and plenty of really bad “art” and the diet-blowing menu of brats, fried cheese curds, cherry lemonade, all ridiculously overpriced but oh-so delicious in the 84-degree sun. A perfect time to turn on my underused biological SIGINT capability and see what is on the minds of Joe and Jane Citizen.
Oddly enough, the discussion of the day wasn’t the recent terrorism arrest just a few hours north of here. Apparently a dozen Muslim half-wits (I’ll explain shortly) tried to buy 3 orders of the Tim McVeigh Special and got rolled up by the RCMP. The Mounties were helped by the CSIS (Go Beavers!) who not only snooped on the group’s communications; they broke the crypto they were using to hide their discussions. Shocker: you can intercept communications, find terrorists, and save lives without anyone getting up in arms about feeling “violated.” And in Canada of all places . . .
Why half-wits? Apparently they bought the ammonium nitrate they were going to use from an undercover Mountie. Dude shows up and says he’s got three tons of fertilizer bomb fixins’ in Calgary? Sure. Ontario? Please. That’s alarm number two. Alarm number one should have gone off about a month ago when the CSIS released a report starting that a terrorist attack against Canadian interest was probable. No specifics of course, and the focus leaned towards attacks overseas, but if you’re planning on doing something evil and you have half a brain you’ve got to be concerned about what the “opposition” is up to. As a Canadian with half a brain you would know that the CSIS is on the job at home and abroad; unlike south of the border where the work is split amongst many different agencies who would rather talk to Canadians than each other.
No, the talk of the day was on a lot of things, but it wasn’t on the pervasive threat of terrorism in the homeland. I say pervasive because frankly, the Ontario Twelve (did I just coin that?) are not an unusual bunch (Lackawanna Six, Portland Seven). At the risk of painting with too broad a brush let me say that the pool of potential recruits for groups who deal in violence is a lot larger than people like to imagine. Ever heard of the gang problem? The name Padilla ring any bells? Lindh? If I said, “Klebold and Harris” would you think I was talking about a law firm?
Dealing with preliminary reports is always dangerous but I think it is fairly safe to say that we’ll soon find out that none of these guys was a world-class bad-@$$. Their failure stems in part from the fact that they were the Jamaican Bobsled team of terrorists: they were motivated, they could perform the basic functions, but their lack of seasoning and pie-in-the-sky hopes doomed them to failure. The real problem is that in Canada (or the US) this is just one group of many, and every one that isn’t rolled up within the next few weeks knows two things: they’re not on anyone’s radar yet, and they need to re-assess their targeting strategy. While groups may get smaller as people get spooked from this weekends events the long-term implications are not all that encouraging; groups will be harder to ID and monitor, running stings will be more difficult, and the scope and scale of attacks will look a lot more like everyday Iraq than 7/7 London.
I disagree with the assessment that North America could look a lot more like Iraq than in London, or the United States on 9/11, for that matter. We were working on keeping an eye on these animals intent on doing us harm, as was evident by the raids in Canada, Great Britain, the United States, and four other countries. The Canadian ring showed that there were worldwide ties, and while these yay-hoos may not have had formal training at one of bin Laden's "exclusive" or "luxurious" training camps, Mr. Tanji is right to point out something very important:
"They were motivated," and "They could perform the basic functions."
Which should constantly serve as a reminder of what President Bush said about our enemies. We have to be right 100% of the time. They only have to be right once. And if they are right, disaster will follow. Thomas and I agree that the "Ontario Twelve" (and yes we do believe that Mr. Tanji did coin that phrase; it is the first time either of us have seen it) were planning on handing Canada it's own 9/11. They were targeting buildings and sites that were integral to the Canadian government, and how that government is working to keep such fanatics from accomplishing their blood-thirsty goals.
Simply put, these twelve may not have been mainline fighters int he war, but they were definitely intent on making a name for themselves in the annals of history. Just as Mohammed Atta and his eighteen co-conspirators did on 9/11. Had we stopped them prior to 9/11, they would have finished their lives out virtually unremarked. The "Ontario Twelve" had similar goals and ideals. They simply lacked the smarts to be as effective as the 9/11 hijackers. A guy shows up with 3 tons of amonium nitrate, looking to seel it, and they did not question him, his motivations, or even check him out?
With help like this for the Islamofascists, who needs an infidel enemy?
The Bunny ;)
posted by Syd And Vaughn | 1:11 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home