The National Post of 29-Oct-2004 passes along the following CSIS warning of terrorist attacks on Canada:

Canada will face an increased terrorist threat in the coming months as it battles al-Qaeda, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said yesterday in a sober report that said "unrelenting vigilance" will be required to avert catastrophe. "In the coming year, it is expected that al-Qaeda will continue to conduct sporadic, co-ordinated, multiple suicide bombing attacks, with the aim of inflicting sizeable destruction and fatalities," CSIS said in its annual report to Parliament. "Canada is not immune from acts of terrorism.  As Canada continues to be an active player in the international struggle against terrorism, it will face increasing threats from transnational terrorist organizations." The report is the latest indication that the government is bracing for a possible terrorist strike.  In the past two weeks, Anne McLellan, the Public Safety Minister, and Robert Wright, the Prime Minister's National Security Advisor, have warned that Canada is on Osama bin Laden's list of targets. Stewart Bell, Guard against al-Qaeda, CSIS report warns Canada, National Post, 29-Oct-2004, p. A4.

The above statement, however, does Canadians a disservice in failing to disclose the causes of terrorism, and by calling for only the inaction of "vigilance," and by leaving unspecified the preventative measures that could be effective.

The above National Post story fails to identify the reasons that Canada might attract an al-Qaeda attack

Ahmed Ressam lived in Montreal for four years, trained in Afghanistan for nearly a year, and when he returned to Montreal, did not attack any target in Montreal, as would be expected if he merely hated capitalist democracy, religious freedom, and gender equality.  Rather, he went to Vancouver for several weeks � but did not attack Vancouver either, despite Vancouver's approximately equalling Montreal in its embrace of capitalist democracy, religious freedom, and gender equality.  Instead, Ahmed Ressam took the risk of crossing the border so as to be able to attack the United States, and was arrested on 14-Dec-1999 at the Port Angeles, Washington, border crossing with explosives in the spare-tire well of his rented car.  Ahmed Ressam, then, appeared to give Canada immunity from attack.  He prepared his explosives in Vancouver, but for some reason did not set them off in Vancouver.  No case of any American resident preparing his explosives in the United States, and then taking the trouble to cross the border to attack Canada, is known or can be imagined.

Similarly, the 911 attackers lived and planned their attack in Germany, but did not attack Germany, whose commitment to capitalist democracy, religious freedom, and gender equality is approximately the same as America's or Canada's.  If these plotters had found Germany an unsuitable target, they could have headed for nearby France, or nearby Denmark � equally democratic � but they did not.  If for some reason they needed to cross the Atlantic, they could have targetted Canada � but they did not.  No, the 911 attackers travelled to the United States to attack it, just as Ahmed Ressam had.  No case of terrorists plotting within America and then attacking Germany is known or can be imagined.

From these two leading examples, it can be inferred that terrorists do not aim to attack capitalist democracy (and so on) else they would attack the targets at hand, or would distribute their attacks more evenly over targets that exhibited equivalent commitment to democracy.  However, this does not happen.  Almost all countries enjoy immunity from attack, and the terrorists go to considerable trouble to trek across them and around them to get at those few countries that have some unique attribute, and that unique attribute is that they are perceived by the attackers to be the cause of certain grievances:

Bin Laden insists that Israel's repression of Palestinians is the principal reason for his war against America.  He argues U.S. foreign policy is totally controlled by the pro-Israel lobby, whose first priority, he says, is Israel, not America.  [...]  Bin Laden's second reason for fighting America is the punishment the U.S. has inflicted on Iraq at, he alleges, Israel's behest: he claims the U.S. killed one million Iraqis.  U.S. troops stationed in Saudi Arabia, Islam's holy land, come third on bin Laden's hate list. Eric Margolis, The use of media as a weapon, Toronto Sun, 21-Oct-2001 as reproduced at www.commondreams.org/views01/1021-10.htm

As Canada has never had troops in either Iraq or Saudi Arabia, that leaves support for Israel as the only conceivable provocation for an al-Qaeda attack, and such Canadian support for Israel is embodied chiefly in three Canadians: Irwin Cotler, Leonard Asper, and Paul Martin.

(1)  First Reason Why al-Qaeda Might Attack Canada: Minister of Justice and Attorney General Irwin Cotler.  President John Fitzgerald Kennedy elaborated at length, and often repeated, that his Catholicism was a private matter that had no influence on his government: "Whatever one's religion in his private life may be, for the officeholder, nothing takes precedence over his oath to uphold the Constitution and all its parts � including the First Amendment and the strict separation of church and state" (Interview, Look, 03-Mar-1959 at www.geocities.com/peterroberts.geo/Relig-Politics/JFK.html).  Irwin Cotler, in startling contrast, assumed office flaunting his Jewishness and broadcasting at every opportunity his intention to put his office at the service of a Zionist agenda.  Although Irwin Cotler aggrieves several ethnic groups within Canada, from the al-Qaeda point of view, his leading sin may be to work relentlessly toward suppressing criticism of Israel.

(2)  Second Reason Why al-Qaeda Might Attack Canada: Media Lord Leonard Asper.  Leonard Asper works to undermine the foundations of Canadian society by denying Canadians a free press.  Without a free press, grievance goes unredressed, corruption compounds, and democracy fails.  On such a vital question as Canada's safety from terrorist attack, Leonard Asper's National Post above obscures underlying causes, and recommends the inaction of "vigilance."  Leonard Asper's newspapers attempt to mislead Canadians into thinking that Canada attracts attack because "it is an active player in the international struggle against terrorism" when it would be closer to the truth to say that Canada attracts attack for such reasons as that Leonard Asper plays a preponderant role in selling Canadians on Zionism.

(3)  Third Reason Why al-Qaeda Might Attack Canada: Prime Minister Paul Martin.  It would appear that your government condones the murder and oppression of Palestinians, as is attested in a thousand pieces of evidence, of which the following letter to you from Hanna Kawas, Chairperson of the Canada Palestine Association, is one:

Letter by Hanna Kawas to Prime Minister Paul Martin Subject: Silence On Israeli Terrorism Is COMPLICITY The Right Honourable Paul Martin Prime Minister of Canada Dear Prime Minister: Over the past ten days, 112 Palestinians were killed, including five just today.  So far we did not hear any condemnation from Canada, as a party to the Fourth Geneva Convention, regarding this Israeli terrorism directed against the civilian population of the Palestinian territories.  However, during the same period, we did hear threats from the Canadian foreign Minister against UNRWA for employing Hamas members. In an article in the Israeli paper Ha'aretz, Israeli reporter Amira Hass points out how the Canadian government is more concerned about this subject than even the Israeli government: "Peter Hansen, the commissioner-general of the UN Relief and Works Agency in the territories, is being persecuted for having spoken the truth: Members of Hamas work in UNRWA.  The Canadian Foreign Affairs Department is concerned and the Israeli Foreign Ministry is not upset over the 'revelation.'" (What would Israel do without UNRWA?  www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/485500.html) Amira Hass sent the following advice to your government. "If the Canadian Foreign Affairs Department wishes to understand the phenomenon, it ought to consult sociologists and historians of occupying, colonial regimes rather than rely on superficial intelligence reports." Not only are you giving a cover to the Israeli atrocities, your government's silence on Israeli war crimes amounts to complicity in them. You are not serving the strategic interests of the Canadian people, the same way George W. Bush is not serving the the strategic interests of the American people. Following is a report by Christian Peace Makers Teams, which include Canadian and American citizens, who are truly working for Human Rights, Justice and Peace as well as for the strategic interests of the Canadian and American peoples. Yours Truly Hanna Kawas Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association www.cpavancouver.org -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]]On Behalf Of CPTnet editor, Webster, NY Sent: October 9, 2004 10:12 AM To: [email protected] Subject: HEBRON URGENT ACTION: Tell Israeli government to stop settler attacks on Palestinian schoolchildren, CPTers and other international accompaniers CPTnet October 9, 2004 HEBRON URGENT ACTION: Tell Israeli government to stop settler attacks on Palestinian schoolchildren, CPTers and other international accompaniers. For the second time in ten days, masked men from the Ma'on settlement have attacked internationals who have accompanied Palestinians to and from school.  The September 30, 2004 attack resulted in a broken knee and arm for CPTer Kim Lamberty and a punctured lung for CPTer Chris Brown.  This afternoon, settlers attacked CPTers Diane Janzen and Diana Zimmerman and Amnesty International field researcher Donatella Rovera with wooden sticks and then attacked a volunteer from Operation Dove, an Italian peace group, breaking his arm (he was videotaping the assault.) Settlers from Ma'on have been trying to drive out the Palestinian residents of this remote area in the Hebron District for years, physically assaulting them, killing their livestock and burning their crops.  Because settler harassment of Palestinian children on their way to school in al-Tuwani had become progressively more vicious, CPT, along with Operation Dove and Taayush, an Israeli peace group, set up an accompaniment project, beginning on September 12, 2004. CPT is asking its supporters to fax or call the Israeli ambassadors to Canada and the U.S., saying they are aware of the attacks on the CPTers. (Canadians, note that Diane Janzen is a Canadian citizen.)  Ask the following questions: Why are the Israeli police not protecting Palestinian children traveling to school in al-Tuwani?  Note that harassment of the children has been ongoing and that the police appear to be choosing not to prevent further settler attacks on international volunteers What steps is the Israeli government taking to prevent these attacks? Why do the soldiers and settler security personnel prevent the children from walking on the road near Ma'on settlement to get to school, ignoring the permission the children have received from the Israeli District Coordinating Officer and the Israeli police to walk on that road? Does the Ambassador understand how allowing settlers to attack schoolchildren and internationals committed to nonviolence damages Israel's reputation? [...] www.cpavancouver.org/statements_letterToPaulMartin_1.html

Leonard Asper's National Post hyperbolizes Canada's susceptibility to attack

Canada does not match either Israel or the United States in its provocation of the Arab world.  Canada plays no role in shooting children, crushing protestors under bulldozers, demolishing houses, torturing prisoners.  Therefore, in comparison to Israel and America, Canada can expect to be safe from the retribution that has come to be known as "terrorism," and the observation that attackers go out of their way to exempt Canada supports this expectation.  Leonard Asper's National Post offers no justification for the proposition that Canada is in the same danger as Israel or the United States.

Leonard Asper's National Post fails to recommend the steps needed to reduce the risk of an al-Qaeda attack

"Vigilance" is not the best that Canadians can do to protect themselves from terrorist attack.  The best that they can do is depose Irwin Cotler as Minister of Justice, unwrap Leonard Asper's stranglehold on Canadian information, and persuade Paul Martin to defend the interests of suffering Palestinians.  If Canada were the victim of a terrorist attack today, they would be able to point to three reasons why.  It can be hoped that these three reasons will be amended so as to remove the motivation for any attack tomorrow.

Americans and Israelis have mixed feelings about 911

When the WTC collapsed, some Americans had mixed feelings.  On the one hand, they did not like to see their country attacked.  On the other hand, they could see that the cloud had a silver lining.  Americans who sell missiles were uplifted somewhat by anticipation of their factories working at full capacity.  Americans who sell jet fighters, tanks, helicopters, helmets, boots, bandages, coffins � all were able to find some consolation from 911.  And not just the manufacturers and the retailers, but also the generals and the terrorism advisers and the providers of security services and the experts on Middle-Eastern affairs � all foresaw an expanded role in the governing of America, and all were relieved at seeing the possibility of under-employment removed.

Israelis reacted even more positively � some were observed to cheer.  What they foresaw is that they would be able to transform the United States into a copy of Israel, which they proceeded to do.  The United States acts today the way that only Israel acted three years ago.  Today, America daily bombs civilians, herds young men into concentration camps, abuses prisoners, denies legal rights, and slaughters human beings wholesale for getting in the way of their government's master plan.

And herein lies the greatest threat to Canada � that both Israel and the United States need to remove from the world stage the moral that Canada teaches � that virtue buys security.  America and Israel want Canada to abandon virtue, and join them as another target on the al-Qaeda firing range, which will happen in only one way � if Canada suffers a major terrorist attack.  For example, if the twin towers of the Toronto Dominion Centre on Bay street were brought down as the twin towers of the WTC were brought down, then Canada would undoubtedly ally with Israel and America, and become indistinguishable from them in its paranoia and in its readiness to murder and torture its way to security.

Thus, Canada should understand that if Israel or America were to learn of an al-Qaeda plan targetting Canada, then there might be some Israelis or Americans who would prefer to see the plan executed rather than warning Canadians so that the plan could be thwarted.  Some Israelis and Americans might even go so far as to facilitate such an attack.  In their mind, Canadian losses would be justified by the greater good of creating a committed and loyal Coalition of the Willing � America, Israel, Canada.  And after that, perhaps a major terrorist attack on the UK would upgrade it from Reluctantly Willing to Wholeheartedly Willing.

Thus, Canadians can do much more than the nothing of being "vigilant."  They can put a stop to Cotler-Asper-Martin continuing to incite an al-Qaeda attack.  And they can become aware that al-Qaeda may have hidden sympathizers promoting an attack on Canada � sympathizers within the American and Israeli administrations whose highest goal is inducting Canada into the Coalition of the Willing.

Such considerations as the above are not published by the Leonard Asper media empire.  Anne McLellan, as usual, is clueless.  CSIS fails to offer clarification.  Until Canadians learn to supplement their information by turning to alternative sources, they will fail to grasp the nature of the terrorist threat, and they will be helpless to prevent it.



Lubomyr Prytulak

cc:

Leonard ASPER, CEO CanWest Global, 3100 TD Centre, 201 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg MB  R3B 3L7
Hon. Irwin COTLER, Minister of Justice and Attorney General of Canada, 284 Wellington Street, Ottawa ON  K1A 0H8
Hon. Anne MCLELLAN, Hill Office, House of Commons, Ottawa ON  K1A 0A6