Homegrown

I’m going to go out on a limb and stake out the ground with a few comments that are not usually to be found on the Last Amazon. No doubt it will put me in situation where I find that my politics are in opposition to most of the people I am politically comfortable around and enjoy associating with socially.

I haven’t gone and gotten hung up on this weekend’s arrest of the 17 “homegrown” terrorists. Homegrown seems to be the operative word here and then there is a nagging keystone cops quality to the whole affair that is giving me the feeling that reality has gone slightly surreal. Maybe it was the snipers on the courthouse roof that put me over the edge. For 17 allegedly homegrown terrorists; who were the authorities expecting to ride into Dodge to rescue these guys – the Taliban? Or maybe its today’s revelation that one of the possible targets was the CBC building – I mean the CBC! Other than the Summer of Love media hacks and their families - who would have noticed? And frankly, a significant portion of Canadian taxpayers might have been relieved to be relieved of that tax burden.

Perhaps, it's nothing more than the corrupting influence of spending a few years of my life as a criminal law clerk for two truly outstanding criminal defense lawyers. Call it the result of an occupational hazard but I seem to be a tad more suspicious than most of my contemporaries on the workings of law enforcement officials. I don’t doubt their sincerity, but a nudge or a shove to push someone over a line or two wouldn’t be unheard of either.

The authorities watched this alleged cell for approximately two years and when this group finally began to get their Jihadie act on the road - the authorities apprehended them in a rather extraordinarily timely fashion. Pity, they can't do for organized crime what they so obviously can do for Jihad in Canada. Frankly, it just seems a little too pat. I don’t think it would be entirely out of line to ask exactly who supplied the alleged Jihadists with the name of the fertilizer supplier or who helped draw up the plans.

I am reserving full judgment until the crown’s case is fully laid out, and until that day, I cannot speculate accurately as to the how serious the intentions of the alleged perpetrators were, nor can I realistically judge their commitment to Jihad in Canada. Let me direct – there is nothing like having an allegedly neutral undercover party cheering you on to higher highs or giving you a shove over the edge when you have been content to sit around with your buddies discussing how much Canadians/Christians/Jews sucks while playing extreme camper now and then. Really, it seems more like Boys club than Jihad.

Here’s another issue. They appear to be relatively nobodies. They have no ties to any known terrorist networks or even the Khadr family. I will concede that even Italy’s Red Brigade had to start somewhere and probably with a single cell, but I just don’t see it with our extreme camping homeboys here. Where’s the funding and how are they funding themselves?

I know the PLO are in Toronto and I had the misfortune of meeting one of their operatives in the mid-80’s in Riverdale of all places (for those not in the know, Riverdale is a relatively upscale gentrified neighborhood of Toronto). He had been sent to oversee business interests of his uncle’s and scout out new money making opportunities. He also had a booming business supplying the local hashish market. In the course of my life, I have run into many former members of the Lebanese Phalange militia, and it would not be unrealistic in Toronto’s Lebanese community to find that Hezbollah is operating here as well. Also, our homegrown homeboys seem to have extremely clean criminal records. I have yet to hear of a terrorist network that did not require their members to finance themselves with the proceeds of crime.

Perhaps, I would take these arrests far more seriously if anyone had serious connections to the any known terror groups currently operating, but these Al-Qaeda wannabe’s might never have gotten around past the talking the walk if not for the efforts of our own law enforcement officials. Jihad is real, and the consequences are terrifying and tragic for all who have the misfortune to cross the Jihadists’ path. I just am not feeling it here which is no doubt probably a good thing.

If anything, the CSIS and the RCMP appear to have managed to do what no other international law enforcement agency has done before which is to shut down a Jihad cell of this size. Who would have thought it possible? Certainly not I, and I bet that Maher Arar wouldn’t either. If my memory is not entirely on the fritz, the US’s department of Homeland Security largest single capture was a grand total of 6 in a single swoop in Buffalo.

Another thing that nags at me is the diverse backgrounds with these pre-dominantly young men. Jihad as it is practiced out in the wider world tends to operate cells based on a similarity of ethnic background. These young men do not share a common ethnic heritage and the bond that ties seems to be strictly their religion. But where Jihad is a way of life in such places as Bosnia, Chechnya, Afghanistan, Iraq or even Egypt; groups of Jihadists tend to co-operate in cells based on ethnic lines. It’s a trust issue. Saudis trust other Saudis before they will trust Syrians, Iranians or Palestinians etc. Who knows, maybe it is just another first for Canadian multiculturalism – our Jihadists cross ethnic/tribal lines.

Don’t get me wrong. Jihad is real and religious hatreds run deep and often explode with brutal but casual violence. Nor do I think there is very little that humans are not capable of doing to each other in the name of anything. After all, I’m the woman who has had to live with a Star of David craved in her door inscribed with the immortal phrase “Kill the Jew”.