If anyone in Canada doubted the threat of a terrorist strike in that country, today they doubt no more.
Canadian police foiled a homegrown terrorist attack by arresting 17 suspects, apparently inspired by al-Qaida, who obtained three times the amount of explosives used in the Oklahoma City bombing, officials said Saturday.
The FBI said the Canadian suspects may have had “limited contact” with two men recently arrested on terrorism charges in Georgia. About 400 regional police and federal agents participated in the arrests Friday and early Saturday.
“These individuals were allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement. “As we have said on many occasions, Canada is not immune to the threat of terrorism.”
Is there any place in the world that is immune to terrorism today? I happen to think there isn’t, and that’s why U.S. efforts around the world to squash al-Qaida groups and their imitators is so important. The more effort we put into combating terrorism, the more work other countries will do.
MORE: Internet monitoring helped bust the terrorists.