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AROUND THE WORLD 3: Terrorists Arrested

Twelve men and five minors were arrested in Canada this weekend for allegedly plotting terrorist attacks.

The men and boys are all Muslim, but are also all Canadian residents or citizens. They are being called ‘Al Qaeda sympathizers.’ Al Qaeda is the terrorist group responsible for the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

About 400 Canadian police officers participated in the arrests.

In their possession, the suspects had three tons of a chemical called ammonium nitrate, which can be mixed with other chemicals to cause a big explosion. Charges filed on the men vary from trying to build bombs to training as terrorists.

Possible targets that the suspects may have been attempting to blow up are the CN Tower in Toronto and the Peace Tower of the Parliament building in Ottawa. One of the suspects also allegedly had a plan to harm Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Gary Batasar, a lawyer for one of the suspects, said that, after seeing the charges filed against his client and the other men, it seemed that the group allegedly had a plan to attack the Canadian parliament in Ottawa, take hostages, and then try and force the Canadian government to remove Canadian troops from Afghanistan.

Seven of the men attended the same mosque. Tariq Shah, the lawyer for the mosque management told Reuters, "We feel betrayed by the suspects. In hindsight management should have caught it. We had no prior knowledge of it."

The men are all being held separately, and are not allowed to see their family members or one another.

--Written by Jennifer Fox

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