The chain of events began two years ago, sparked by local teenagers roving through Internet sites, reading and espousing anti-Western sentiments and vowing to attack at home, in the name of oppressed Muslims here and abroad.
Their words were sometimes encrypted, the Internet sites where they communicated allegedly restricted by passwords, but Canadian spies back in 2004 were reading them. And as the youths' words turned into actions, they began watching them.
According to sources close to the investigation, the suspects are teenagers and men in their 20s who had a relatively typical Canadian upbringing, but — allegedly spurred on by images of conflict in Iraq and Afghanistan and angered by what they saw as the mistreatment of Muslims at home — became increasingly violent.
Police say they acquired weapons, picked targets and made detailed plans.
They travelled north to a "training camp" and made propaganda videos imitating jihadists who had battled in Afghanistan. At night, they washed up at a Tim Hortons nearby.
They had a burning hatred of Canada.
Let me say that again. They had a burning hatred of Canada.
Will you half wits out there who insist that jihadis hate America because of what we do pay attention!
They had a burning hatred of Canada.
They who won't fight in Iraq. They who only fight in the "good" Afghanistan war.
Canada.
The country some Americans abroad pretend to be from in order to avoid being hassled.
Canada.
The terrorists had a burning hatred of Canada.
Really.
So will the Canadians begin their handwringing cries of "why do they hate us?" over this?
Let's get out there and kill those jihadis and stop worrying about what we did to cause their hatred. Canadians earned their hatred for Pete's sake.
Kill the jihadis. Don't look back.
We are all Canadians, now.
UPDATE: More so than I thought. The Canada arrest were one part of a global counter-terror operation (via Powerline blog):
A Canadian counter-terrorism investigation that led to the arrests of 17 people accused of plotting bombings in Ontario is linked to probes in a half-dozen countries, the National Post has learned.
Well before police tactical teams began their sweeps around Toronto on Friday, at least 18 related arrests had already taken place in Canada, the United States, Britain, Bosnia, Denmark, Sweden, and Bangladesh.
The six-month RCMP investigation, called Project OSage, is one of several overlapping probes that include an FBI case called Operation Northern Exposure and a British probe known as Operation Mazhar.
But listen to this, ACLU:
The intricate web of connections between Toronto, London, Atlanta, Sarajevo, Dhaka, and elsewhere illustrates the challenge confronting counter-terrorism investigators almost five years after 9/11.
Linking the international probes are online communications, phone calls and in particular videotapes that authorities allege show some of the targets the young extremists considered blowing up.
Did we just connect dots by listening in on their conversations and reading their email? Horrors!
Perhaps the war isn't a sinister Bush/Cheney/Rove plan to instill fear for the purpose of forging the Bushtatorship, after all.
UPDATE: Lileks writes that the Left can explain away even hatred of Canada if it really tries:
You're an enlightened world citizen. Your T-shirt says "9/11 was an inside
job." You're pretty sure we're living in a fascist state, that President Bush taps the Dixie Chicks' phones, Christian abortion clinic bombers outnumber jihadis, and the war on "terror" is a distraction from the real threats: carbon emissions and Pat Robertson. Then you learn that 17 people were arrested in a terrorist bomb plot. How do you process the information? Let's take it step by step.
One step back and then two steps forward, as the saying goes. Oh, our Left will try. Of that I have no doubt.
