Canada has become a place where terrorists congregate. From the Globe and Mail, with thanks to Jean-Luc:
Canada has been branded a “favoured destination for terrorists and international criminals” by the research arm of the U.S. Congress.
Generous constitutional freedoms, weak law enforcement and lightly patrolled borders have made the country an inviting place for dangerous extremists to set up shop, says a new report by the Library of Congress in Washington.
“Canada has played a significant role as a base for both transnational criminal activity and terrorist activity,” the report says.
The report, titled Nations Hospitable to Organized Crime and Terrorism, was completed in October by the congressional library’s federal research division under an arrangement with the Central Intelligence, Crime and Narcotics Center. . . .
Numerous other countries, including leading industrialized nations like Britain, France and Germany, are also critiqued in the 234-page report, along with the likes of Algeria, Indonesia and Russia.
But only a handful of jurisdictions in the Western Hemisphere “” Canada, Colombia, Mexico and the notorious tri-border region of Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay “” are the focus of attention.
The report highlights the case of Ahmed Ressam, the Algerian-born Montrealer caught trying to slip across the border in 1999 to bomb Los Angeles International Airport. While planning the attack, Mr. Ressam supplemented his welfare payments by stealing cash and credit cards.