Well, I hope those terrorists learned a lesson

The National Post proudly relates the story of Canadian federal police breaking up an al Queda-related bombing cell in Toronto:

Canadian counter- terrorism investigators have dismantled a suspected terrorist cell in Toronto whose members included an al-Qaeda-trained explosives expert, the National Post has learned.

The cell consisted of four Algerian refugee claimants who had lived in Canada for as long as six years and were alleged members of a radical Islamic terror faction called the Salafist Group for Call and Combat.
The central figure of the Toronto-area cell was a former al-Qaeda training camp instructor who studied bomb-making at Osama bin Laden’s Al Farooq and Khaldun training camps in eastern Afghanistan.

The group was watched by intelligence officers before being broken apart in an inter-agency operation involving the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Canada Border Services Agency and police.

Good story, eh? But wait! There’s more:

A senior CSIS counterterrorism official, Larry Brooks, announced the dismantling of the cell at a closed-door national security workshop held this week at a hotel north of Toronto.

Mr. Brooks told workshop delegates that three members of the group were deported this summer and the key figure left Canada voluntarily in March, 2004, after he was confronted by investigators.

The investigation was described as ongoing.

Seems a waste of time to keep the investigation going on doesn’t it? I mean, you had the goods on four terrorists in a secret cell and you scared ‘em off! Job well done, all the way around.

/irony

Read the rest, if you can stand it. Or let me summarize: Bureaucratic self-congratulation and detailed explication of what a terrible bunch the Salafists are. The three that were deported were sent to the US – where it is to be hoped (the article doesn’t say) their antecedents were briefed to customs officials. The bomb maker himself – the key guy with specialized knowledge, whose arrest or deportation to the waiting arms of American power would have prevented him, at least for a time, from re-joining the global jihad elsewhere – him they scare off. With “confrontation interviews.”

Sounds chilling: “Just you watch yourself, mister! Or I shall give you a vigorous confronting!”

Long time readers know that this space is not often given over to foul language, imprecations or anguished supplication to Higher Power. You may therefore use your imagination at this point: ________ ________! You have got to be ________ me!