Our formal fighting presence is over as of 2011, despite the braying of the addled Liberal party of Canada.  I’m glad that Harper runs his government like an uncaring majority, at least on this one issue.  The radicalization of dissent in Canada has taken yet another turn as police have arrested a fourth suspect in the Ottawa bomb plot.

“But a police source told CBC News the individual arrested, who was identified as a man, is not likely to be charged. The source told CBC News there does not appear to be enough evidence for a charge and police are unlikely to hold the individual under anti-terrorism legislation.”

It sounds like the forth individual might have only been lightly colluding with the three other suspects in custody.  The other three men have been formally charged:

“Authorities have arrested and charged three Ontario men in what the RCMP is calling a conspiracy to commit “a violent terrorism attack.”  Earlier Friday, Khurram Sher, 28, of London, Ont., was remanded in custody until Sept. 1 after a brief court appearance. He was charged Thursday with conspiracy to knowingly facilitate a terrorist activity.      Two Ottawa men, Misbahuddin Ahmed, 26, and Hiva Alizadeh, 30, were arrested on Wednesday. They appeared in an Ottawa courtroom on Thursday facing the same charge.”

Like the 9/11 bombers, these people are mostly all upper middle class well educated citizens.  Educated does not necessarily mean smart though.

“During their investigation, Therriault said, police seized more than 50 electronic circuit boards they say were designed specifically to remotely detonate improvised explosive devices, or IEDs.

CBC News has learned that the RCMP’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team knew about the circuit boards some time ago — for perhaps months or at least many weeks.

The team obtained a warrant to enter Alizadeh’s apartment and surreptitiously removed the boards, replacing them with look-alikes that were duds. Therefore any attack would likely have failed.

Therriault said they also seized a vast quantity of terrorist literature, videos and manuals.”

Full marks for the RCMP and CSIS for actually getting a job done right for once.  I’m pretty sure this was because there was no tasering involved with the situation.

“Their profiles are likely to raise concerns about homegrown radicalism, said security expert Eric Margolis, who said the roots of the radicalism are likely triggered by anger over the involvement of Western governments in countries such as Afghanistan.”
Sad, but unsurprising.
The damage we wrought in Afghanistan is coming back to bite us.  The families we destroyed, intentionally or not, are crying for revenge and retribution by any means necessary.  Unfortunately, that usually means when the gun is pointed at us, instead of comfortably at someone else, a terrorist attack.   Canada got lucky with these individuals, they were stupid and relied on unencrypted email to plot their actions.
It is a lesson for Canada and the RCMP, but also a lesson for others who will learn from this groups mistakes.