Thread: Arrests raising concerns at border

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Arrests raising concerns at border
Terrorists from Canada could use Mich. entry point
FREE PRESS NEWS SERVICES AND STAFF


June 6, 2006



Vehicles driving out of the tunnel from Canada into Detroit go to the border inspection point. After terrorism arrests in Canada, border stations adjoining Ontario are now on high alert, officials said Monday. (November 2005 photo by ERIC SEALS/Detroit Free Pre)

More arrests possible
Canadian authorities investigating the alleged plot to blow up buildings in Ontario said Monday more arrests are possible as part of a wider probe into terrorist cells in other nations, including the United States.



"We've by no means finished this investigation," said Mike McDonell, deputy commissioner for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.



The suspects: Seventeen people -- 12 adults and five minors -- were arrested Friday and Saturday.



The adults are scheduled to appear in court today for a bail hearing. The Ontario Court of Justice said they were charged with participating in a terrorist group. Some also face other charges, including importing weapons and planning a bombing.



The charges against five minors weren't released because of privacy laws.



Al Qaeda? Canadian police say there is no evidence the suspect group had ties to Al Qaeda. But Luc Portelance, the assistant director of operations for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada's spy agency, said the suspects followed "a violent ideology inspired by Al Qaeda."



Associated Press




Borderline issues

Police in Canada broke up a terror ring plotting attacks on facilities around Toronto.




Canadian authorities estimate 50 terror cells may be operating there.




The U.S.-Canada border is nearly 4,000 miles of relatively easy access.




Detroit is the busiest northern border crossing. More than 5.8 million vehicles crossed into Detroit during the first nine months of 2005.
The U.S. Senate has postponed to June 2009 a plan that would have required U.S. citizens to show a passport or ID to re-enter the country. The plan may be adjusted before that deadline.

The breakup of a terrorist bomb plot in Canada late last week has heightened concerns that the next terrorist attack in the United States could come from the north, through places such as southeast Michigan.

The border between the United States and Canada is twice as long as the one with Mexico but is guarded by fewer than 1,000 Border Patrol agents -- one-tenth of the force in the Southwest. Consequently, vast stretches of unpatrolled terrain offer an easily accessible gateway into the United States.

At Detroit's border crossings, which account for a quarter of U.S. trade with Canada, there was no increase in security measures in place, officials said Monday night.

"We have a strong posture at the border, and there are no plans to adjust that right now," said Cherise Miles, spokeswoman for U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Michigan and the Midwest region.

Miles said border officials were "working closely with our Canadian counterparts" and would add inspectors and increase inspections if and when any "identified threats" against Michigan's border crossings were discovered.

But in Washington, U.S. Border Patrol Chief David Aguilar said earlier Monday that stations along the 4,000-mile border -- especially those adjoining Ontario -- were on high alert because of the arrests. U.S. agents along the Canadian border will work overtime and some will be moved closer to the areas where the arrests occurred, Aguilar said.

The suspects -- 12 men and five juveniles who allegedly had stockpiled 3 tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer -- appeared to be targeting sites in Canada. But investigators say they fear the group had established a U.S. link with two people in Georgia who may have been plotting U.S. attacks.

National security experts in both nations say they fear that terrorist cells in the United States and Canada, often sharing an adherence to Al Qaeda, can dispatch emissaries to foment plots back and forth across the largely indefensible U.S.-Canadian border.

"We're aware that there is a terrorist infrastructure within Canada, no different than within the United States and other countries, that contains a variety of elements ranging from fund-raisers, ideological support, to direct membership," said Ben Venzke, who heads the IntelCenter, a contractor that does counterterrorism work for the U.S. government.

After the 9/11 attacks, U.S. officials more than doubled the number of inspectors at the 89 ports of entry, from 1,615 to 3,391, expanded cooperative operations with Canada and have increasingly employed sensors, cameras, aircraft and marine patrols.

Even so, law enforcement authorities acknowledge the challenges of patrolling a stretch of land that cuts along 12 states, traversing waterways, mountainous terrain and dense forests.

"I don't care how much technology you have up there, you'll still have trouble getting agents to respond in a timely fashion," said T.J. Bonner, a San Diego agent who is president of the National Border Patrol Council, the union that represents nonsupervisory agents.

Some illegal crossers have been known to enter the United States on snowmobiles. Others fly across or simply walk down deserted farm roads.

For the entire border, there are about 1,000 U.S. border patrol agents -- about a fourth of them on duty at any one time.

"You have 200 to 225 agents to protect 4,000 miles of border," said Bonner. "It's not the kind of stuff that makes you sleep well at night."

That isn't to say border officials aren't effective. In December 1999, authorities arrested Ahmed Ressam as he drove from Canada into Washington State in a rental car with a trunkload of explosives material he planned to use in an attack at Los Angeles International Airport. He was later sentenced to 22 years in prison.

Some analysts say, however, that the revelation of that plot shows the U.S. vulnerability.

"We got lucky," said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors tighter immigration controls. "We've got to move beyond sort of crossing our fingers and hoping for good luck."

Copyright © 2006 Detroit Free Press Inc.

jimpasz,

"We got lucky," said John Keeley, a spokesman for the Center for Immigration Studies, a Washington think tank that favors tighter immigration controls. "We've got to move beyond sort of crossing our fingers and hoping for good luck."

What national security?

'Course, remember the President's speech...border security is now "urgent'. 9/11 was in 2001.