Who knows? We have an unstable minority government that’s perpetually a couple votes away from being toppled. The PM has pledged to call an election after a comission investigating a political scandal releases its report. That would make for an election in late winter. RickJay believes that the PM will renege on his pledge and there won’t be an election for some time (there are 4 years left in the current Parliament’s mandate). I don’t think that - I think PM the PM will do as he’s said he will. But the fact of the matter is that the government could fall the day after Parliament resumes sitting in September after its summer break. If a local AQ cell wants to hit us just before the next election, they’d best be coming up with a flexible plan, because they’ll only have 40 days warning, just like the rest of us. It’s hard to imagine how they could possibly have an impact on the vote, though. Most of us will be voting for reasons that have absolutely nothing to do with foreign policy, and a terrorist attack would do very little to change that.
I agree, not nyc.
'Sama knows the difference between the color red and the color blue.
If the “next hit” is in America, it will be in Texas. (for so many good reasons, but proximity to Mexico is certainly one of them)
I think someone mentioned here about some citizens wanting bombings to happen? Who wished that? For me it was just a question if Canada is a next target after readin an article. I would never wish Canada to be bombed or any other country for that matter. I live in Vancouver, B.C. but the things I heard from people in this city are pretty disturbing. My best friend works for Canada customs and is part of the day to day operation of people entering the country and he said the screening is pretty weak. He is so pissed off at the lack of security that he quit his job a month ago because he feel his superiors are a bunch of idiots.
Now I am not saying Canada is weak overall when it comes to terrorism but it needs some improvement imo. I know CSIS is very watchful about arabs/muslims though. My friend’s (the person I just mentioned) sister two years ago married an Algerian. CSIS actually investigated him and asked him a bunch of question because he’s a muslim. On their wedding day party at the womans parents (they’re white) house cops showed up after complaints from neighbors that there were too many muslims/arabs in the vicinity so something must be up. lol pretty fucked up but its true. That was a few years ago.
Anyway my point is this. Canada is an easy target. It is close to the USA. Canada immigration laws are weak and needs changing.
There is a discussion (rumour?) going around that Canada Customs will raise the limit on purchases outside the country to $2000. Removing the far lower ones that exist now ($50 for a weekend and $750 for longer than a week, I think). The rational is instead of screening the nervous mom and pops who may have overspent their minimal limit, they can concentrate on those who are actually up to no good. Realistically, I wonder how effective any of these border checks actually are in stopping someone who wants to get through?
Probably not very. The amount of traffic crossing the border at places like Detroit-Windsor is just staggering, and there’s no way to screen it all closely enough to prevent the bad guys from getting through at least some of the time. At least, not without spending prohibitive amounts of money and simultaneously pissing off numerous major industries dependent on timely delivery of goods across the border. So far every time seriously tighter screening has been proposed, they’ve backed off due to the prospect of highway tractors backed up all the way down Huron Church Road to the 401, and what that would mean economically.
The same problem exists for shipping containers. The sad fact is, if someone wants to get a WMD into the U.S., the easiest way to do so is to simply ship it in. The odds of your container being inspected are very low. We simply can’t do it. Attempting to inspect every shipping container and truck that comes into the U.S. would simply shut down imports. Goods would be held at the borders for weeks. It’s simply not feasible.
You can’t beat terrorism by locking it out. The world is too interconnected and porous. We should be operating from the assumption that if a terrorist is determined to travel across borders or even take a weapon anywhere in the free world he wants to, he’s got a decent chance of doing it if he has a few resources to work with.
Yeah, it was a rhetorical question. Having to deal with Canada Customs every 5 weeks and security in general when I travel, I have to close my eyes and hope for the best sometimes.
Err, at the risk of hijacking this very good discussion: who says that the attackers need to be Muslim? Don’t most countries have nutballs (ie the cult in Japan that used nerve gas in a subway) within them that wish to end their government and are willing to die for said cause? What’s stopping Al Queda from getting on the terrorist hotline and out-sourcing?
Based upon the original question about Canada being the next to be bombed what other group currently in Canada would do such a thing? Shriners? Also, what evidence is there that AlQueda has outsourced to groups not Muslim? If there is evidence of such a thing you would do well to look at it, otherwise why not concentrate on those more likely to be involved in such activity.
According to this list, none to speak of.
Turkish and Moroccan muslims are the two largest groups.
Which makes me wonder: What is the connection with aQ and Morocco?:
The fundamentalist muslims over here are Moroccan.
Theo van Gogh’s murderer was a Moroccan
Moroccan message boards are filled with joyous posts over the London attacks.
Many of the Madrid bombers were from Morocco.
The UK is looking for a Moroccan Imam in connection with the bombings.
Does anyone know?
The implication that Osama prefers Democrats is pretty foul. Besides, NY isn’t in any danger of voting Republican for decades.
Any of the G-8 countries could be potential targets. You can’t predict the actions of madmen. Could be Canada, could be Japan, could be Germany,… etc. Personally, I think the US continues to be the target of choice.
Is there anything in aQ pronouncements you colud point that indicates UbL gives a rat’s ass about the distinctions between the Demicans and the Republicrats? Or is this just one of those things you figured out absent any sort of direct, reliable evidence using your “common sense”?
Not to mention the fact that al-Qaida attacked New York before, though it had gone Democrat in three or four straight Presidential elections, and was attacking the U.S. when there was a Democratic President.
That’s just a variation of Michael Moore’s noxious, “Why did they hit the WTC? It was full of Democrats!” (paraphasing)
What he said…
Didn’t Bin Laden say late last year that it didn’t matter who was elected? They don’t give a crap. Both parties support Israel and both supported the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq. You think he has an opinion on the estate tax?
I think alaric is correct about the proximity to Mexico issue. Maybe they’d go for Texas if they view it as Bush’s home, but that’s complete speculation.
Its the same instinctive reaction to attacks of “Rallying around the Leader”… but that won’t last too long. Blair got the UK into this mess and seems to be gaining little respect from the public or Bush for it.
Rashak, why would you say that Bush does not respect Blair? He’s always talking him up and Blair was even given the near-unprecdented privilege of addressing a joint session of Congress. Even people who disagree with him here tend to respect the guy and wish Bush had 1/10 his eloquence.
cckerberos, here’s one:
http://www.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/getarticle.pl5?nn20050505a1.htm
I was originally citing a BBC website article from March 2005, but I can’t seem to find it now. The one above is more specific anyways. Says the plan is to pull out by Dec 14.
The little I know about Morocco I learned from a decent friend I met while in Prague last spring, who was originally from Morocco. He was Muslim, had grown up there, and was currently studying in Paris for banking or some such rubbish and studying abroad in Prague. As best I can recall he said that Muslim populations all across North Africa and the ME were extremely different in worldview and levels of fundamentalism. He said this in part was due to the many various areas speaking different dialects of Arabic that while written the same were incompatible with one another. Just what he said.
Also, this guy partied harder than most of the Czech’s, which says quite a bit. He gave most of us the impression that Morocco was mostly secular, as well as willing to turn a blind eye to things like low key drug use.
Just my brief knowledge of Muslim fundamentalism in Morocco.
This is correct.
Depending, of course, on the individual or group in question, primarily they (the Islamic fundamentalists that are carrying out terror activities) are against ANYONE non-Islamic and ANYONE that supports Israel.
When the goal is to cleanse the Earth of any non-Islamic person/country, then just about any person/country becomes a target.
These groups have hit hundreds of times inside Saudi Arabia because they feel the royal family does not follow the religion closely enough.
They have done the same thing in Egypt and other countries.
Also, while the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq have probably had both positive and negative effects (w.r.t. terrorism), remember that this was all brewing well before either of those wars started. The movements within the middle east have been around for a long time internally, and the recent escalation against the non-Islamic world really started to take off in the early to mid 90’s.