Canada +Bomb Plot Foiled+ Canadian police have arrested 17 suspects on terror chages, and foiled with that a major al Qaeda-inspired bomb plot against targets in and around Toronto. FBI said that suspects may have had ‘limited contact’ with a Georgia men.
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AN NYPD detective stationed in Toronto was briefed about the terror investigation in Canada even before the arrests were made and sent instant assurances to police brass in New York that the city was not a potential target.
“We continue to be informed of the developments there,” said Paul Browne, the NYPD’s chief spokesman. “But nothing in the investigation has caused the NYPD to change its counterterrorism practices in New York.”
The detective assigned in the Canadian city has been a liaison with the Toronto Metropolitan Police since 2002. NYPD officials said intelligence gathered in Canada could affect the way cops at home investigate homegrown terror threats.
A high-ranking New York police official said the fact that the Toronto suspects were all Canadian citizens underscores the importance of rooting out terrorist sympathizers at home – specifically in large cities.
The argument was a not-so-subtle jab at Homeland Security officials who announced last week they were hacking federal anti-terror grants to New York City by 40%.
The detective in Toronto is one of eight NYPD officers assigned around the globe to provide real-time intelligence information on terror threats. The other locations are Montreal, London, Tel Aviv, Singapore, Jordan, the Dominican Republic and Interpol’s headquarters in Lyon, France.
The NYPD’s global program is paid for by the Police Foundation and won’t be affected by any federal cutbacks, officials said.
New York City has more than 1,000 cops assigned to counterterrorism. The effort is supported by NYPD Shield, a partnership with private companies that urges companies to track suspicious activity.
That would include large shipments of commercially available products like ammonium nitrate, a chemical compound found in fertilizer that can be used to make [email protected]