"With perhaps the singular exception of the United States, there
are more international terrorist groups active in Canada than any
other country in the world."
-Ward Elcock, former director of the Canadian Intelligence Security
Service
On June 2, 2006, police tactical teams began a series of raids
in Canada''s largest city. Eighteen suspects were taken into
custody and charged with being part of an Al Qaeda-inspired
terrorist group that was plotting to storm the Parliament Buildings
and detonate truck bombs in downtown Toronto.
The world was shocked by the arrests, but to those in the know
they were simply a reminder of Canada''s recurring problem with
terrorism. Indeed, while 9/11 shook the world, until that infamous
day the worst terror attack in modern history was the work of
Canadians--the June 23, 1985 bombing of two passenger planes
that claimed 331 lives. And that is just one example of Canadian
terror.
For over two decades, international terrorist organizations have
operated on Canada''s soil--the Babbar Khalsa, Hezbollah, Hamas,
the Tamil Tigers, Algerian GIA, Al Jihad and Al Qaeda--raising
money, recruiting and planning acts of deadly violence. Although
Canadian security agencies are highly regarded internationally, the
threat posed by made-in-terror reamins a concern even to Western
allies, particularly the United States.
Why have terrorist networks been able to flourish in Canada? How
do they threaten Canada''s allies and neighbor? Who are the central
figures and what have they been up to? What are Canada''s
policy makers, and their security and intelligence forces, doing to
disrupt terrorist operations?
Award-winning investigative journalist Stewart Bell, who has
been writing about terrorism since the late 1980s, tackles these
questions and more in his hard-hitting, well-researched and
engaging book. Reporting from Canada''s multicultural cities
as well as Afghanistan, Pakistan, the Middle East, Europe, and the
United States, he goes deep inside the terrorist underworld that
operates in his native country.
His findings are disturbing and incontrovertible: terrorist
groups have long targeted Canada as a wealthy safe haven for their
operations. And now Canada, like other Western nations, is facing
the daunting threat of homegrown
terrroism.
This updated edition of the critically acclaimed best-seller
first published in 2004 is a must-read for anyone who wants to see
how terrorist networks can infiltrate, corrupt and exploit an
unguarded nation, and the carnage that results.