Terrorism Light?

This weekend 17 men were arrested in Canada for allegedly planning attacks and attempting to secure bomb materials for said attacks. Apparently they support Al Quaeda and its goals (but are not members) and they were willing to commit acts of violence against Canada. The Parliament Buildings in Ottawa were apparently targeted, as well as other government/police buildings. So yes, many Canadians are breathing a sigh of relief that these individuals were caught. Reading American news reports including the New York Times, one might be led to believe that the "real" targets were of course in America. Why is it so hard to believe after the London and Madrid bombings that Canada wouldn't be a target?

On September 11th 2001, I had to return my rental car at the airport here in Houston. I had just moved down from Canada the Friday before and the drive to the airport was surreal. There was no traffic heading to the airport (something I perhaps didn't truly appreciate at the time) and I drove by myself up a three lane toll road while wondering if Houston was still possibly a target. An individual from HR was kind enough to come and pick me up after I dropped off the car and we drove past a crowd of hundreds waiting for cars to arrive so that they could leave.

The HR individual said the following after I stated that I was worried about Canada being attacked. "Why would anyone attack Canada?" Why indeed? Could it be that Canada is still perceived to be the US's closest economic and political partner?

Why not? Because Canada's involvement with NATO, NORAD, and NAFTA link us politically and militarily. Because Canadian soldiers are dying in Afghanistan supporting the mission of this American government. Because Canada has sent special forces to fight in Iraq without the bluster and bragging like other allies.

The fact is, we share the longest continuous border and this does make Canada an obvious entry point but another fact is that not one of the September 11th terrorists snuck in from Canada despite the impression that this is the case amongst Americans. The 9-11 terrorists were all in the United States legally and many of them had been granted visas. The alledged terrorists captured this weekend in Canada are also legal residents and if they had been successful in their plans we may have suffered the consequences of our close alliance with the United States.

This was a key sentence in the June 4 New York Times article. "In the United States, the arrests reignited fears among American counterterrorism officials about the porous northern border." Perhaps instead of trying to create the impression that somehow harm was intended to American targets and the border is leaking Al Quaeda members, they could have focussed on the fact that harm was averted and that Canadian security forces prevented anything from occurring regardless of location. The porous nature of our border means that terrorism doesn't stop to determine exactly how intermingled Canada and the United States are. It just means that we are all vulnerable to those who use terror as a weapon.