Canada Holds 17 In Alleged Bomb Plot

The seriousness of the threat became clearer to authorities when the two men from Georgia traveled to Toronto in March 2005 and met with other Muslims to discuss bombing targets, according to the FBI.

The two men, Syed Ahmed, 21, and Ehsanul Sadequee, 19, were arrested in March and April and face charges of giving material support to terrorism.

According to an FBI affidavit filed in a federal court in Atlanta at the time of the arrests, Ahmed and Sadequee discussed "strategic locations in the United States suitable for a terrorist strike. They also plotted how to disable the global positioning system in an effort to disrupt military and commercial communications and traffic."

Three of the Canadian men they met were already under official suspicion here, according to the affidavit. An FBI official in Washington, Special Agent Richard Kolko, confirmed Saturday that "some of the Canadian subjects may have had limited contact with the two people recently arrested from Georgia."

In announcing the raids, however, Mike McDonell, assistant commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, said the group was "planning to commit a series of terrorist attacks against solely Canadian targets in southern Ontario," the province that includes Toronto.

McDonell indicated that the raids were undertaken as the group prepared to carry out an attack, but he said more specific information would have to emerge from court proceedings. He denied rumors that the targets included Toronto's subway system.

"This group posed a real and serious threat," he said. "They had the capacity and the intent to carry out these attacks."

Officials said they had dismantled the group but that further arrests were possible. They also warned that this was not the only group threatening Canada's security.

"Everybody is concerned about what we don't know," McDonell said. "We were able to stop this. It's what we don't know that's got us worried."

Portelance, of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said the agency would be "negligent if we said there were no other threats in Canada."

"For some time CSIS has been communicating to the public there is a real threat," he said at a news conference Saturday. "I don't want to be alarmist and have people think there are numerous other threats out there, but clearly law enforcement are investigating others here in Canada."

Prime Minister Harper, speaking to military recruits Saturday, said: "Their target, their alleged target, was Canada -- Canada's institutions, Canada's economy, Canada's people.

"We are targeted because of who we are and the way we live," he said. "Because of our society, our diversity and our values."