The 24/7 Noos

The day after Canada day which should have been restricted to the mundane back to work stuff - reports of weekend drownings, accidents, miracles and drunk-driving charges etc, was thoroughly upset when the BC division of the RCMP clomped into a press conference to announce they nabbed two 'self-radicalized' Al Qaeda-inspired terrorists who had planned to 'Boston Marathonize'  the Canada Day party in front of the BC legislature. Yeppers, Dudley and the Doowrights had nabbed the pair after they had planted three explosive pressure cookers lined with rusted nails and some inert explosive. Canada's proud domain was safe for all the fun and festivus.

Who were the dastards and how did the good guys know?  Well, it seems the male half of the terroristic duo had self-actualized himself into a rabid bout of muslimania. Somebody - probably somebody who was being paid to point out the bad guys- fingered him to CSIS who set the investigatory wheels in motion. That was back in  February.

 Using a "variety of surveillance techniques" the RCMP was able to infiltrate the operation. They found out about the discussion of explosive devices and all the research being done. It only took 6 short months for the plan to come together with a holiday whammy and bloodbath for the People of Victoria. The surveillance techniques included an interesting one that ensured the bomb was as much a dummy as the guy who was planting it. I wouldn't be surprised to find out a surveillance expert went with them to make sure they didn't get lost.

Commenting on it all was the paid informant who helped put the Toronto 16 behind bars. Apparently he feels safe enough from Toronto's peaceful Muslim community to be wandering around the city looking like he'd just come out of the mosque. I guess they don't have fatwas in Toronto. Any way he said it was highly unlikely that a no hope, devil-worshiping white supremacist would be affiliated with Al Qaeda, So that's all good.

And who was the perp? Well he was known to police. According to authorities, he was a lowlife, methadone user who lived in a welfare rental pigsty. Somebody who figured the world owed him a living or at least a career in anarchy rock. In other words, a hopeless loser ex-con with a mad-on about civilization, who liked to spout-off his crazed isms in public. He was aided and abetted by a girlfriend who, it can be hoped, will turn crown witness and tell all.

All that excitement lasted a couple of days to be blasted off the front pages by chapter 12 of the Senate trough scandal.

In counterpoint comes the tragedy of Megantic, a 'natural disaster' the good guys couldn't stop. Seems somebody parked a train with 100 cars loaded with 'volatile' crude oil (volatile?) at the top of a hill for the night. Seems the brakes let go, or were tampered with (terror!!!!). The train, unmanned, rolled downhill into the town of Megantic (in Quebec's eastern townships), derailed, exploded and burned-out the centre of the town.

Apparently railroads full of crude oil wending their way to 'the home of the brave land o' the free etc' are commonplace these days, what with us not building pipelines to safely move the 'prawduct' to its rightful market. This stuff is shipped on the same old railways a former Tory government was all set to scrap. I'm wondering why the guys who need our oil don't ship it across country themselves? That has to cost less than refining it, which they  seem to prefer to do. In actuality I'm wondering why they just don't get oil from where they've always gotten it, their 'real' friends. But then it wouldn't be cheap.

It will be interesting to see what comes out of this.

It is reported that one of the 4 locomotives driving the train had a fire extinguished earlier in the evening before the accident. Whether that was the one the engineer left running to power the brakes when he 'turned in' for the night is still undetermined. That he did 'turn-in', leaving the train unattended until the replacement engineer came on duty the next morning, seems to be standard operating procedure. Apparently one-man trains are a new 'norm' - saves money.

Four More Years

You have to pity poor politicians. You vote on something one day, and the next day you find out it's really something else. But being as since you 'put yourself on the line' you don't want to appear stupid by calling for a reconsideration. So you just 'suck it up, put on a brave face, and these days, soldier on.' And that's just what happened in Ottawa last week.

Canada's House of Commons passed legislation extending Canada's role in Afghanistan for another three years. The bill was based on Mr. Manley's report on the Afghan situation which, though hopeful indicated some areas that needed to be addressed before Canada recommitted itself. Three salient points were to be considered.

The first was a requirement for more NATO involvement. The US has deployed a battle group of Marines to assist the Canadians in Khandahar and Helmand provinces. Whether this will satisfy the requirement remains to be seen. The Foreign Minister claimed to have been promised NATO troops. France has indicated an interest and last week Albania signaled an interest.

The second point was in regard to air resources. Helicopters are in great demand and Canada had hoped to jump the queue in getting a few more Chinooks. To date the best America can do is to provide a number of refurbished Blackhawks. It seems the new helicopters might be available to help remove Canadian military equipment if its withdrawn in 2011. Everybody's screaming for them in Afghanistan. The other item was drones - they're not available either.

The third requirement was a 'switch' in roles, over the period, to concentrate on training the Afghan police and army to take over the combat role. However that would be precluded by the necessity of security, without which training would be difficult. They have Mounties training the police - what does that tell us?

The first glimmer that anything was amiss happened the day before the vote when it was announced that military expenditure had gone a billion dollars over budget. The military budget was significantly increased, but not enough obviously to pay for keeping 5 000 pairs of Canadian boots in Afghanistan over a year. Nobody was prepared to ask about this so it was ignored and the vote went on.

The second glimmer of something amiss came two days after the vote, when it was bruited in the news that the Army was toying with the notion of extending the 6 month deployment period. Nobody had thought to bring this up during debate. One would have thought the Army's ability to sustain the mission would have been up there with the need for drone aircraft. It apparently wasn't.

But all is not gloomy, not by a darn darn sight. To-day, to celebrate with the troops, the foreign minister, the C-in-C, and a bunch of superannuated hockey stars, flew in with the Stanley Cup for a pick-up game of floor hockey. The hockey stars won, but it wasn't lost on anybody, that the Afghan mission is as much a sure thing as the Toronto Maple Leafs getting into next year's slot on the trophy. It would take a miracle - and so will Afghanistan - given the Marines, no helicopters, no drones and Taliban who haven't yet realized that Canadians are only there to help.

Sometimes, in politics, you just have to keep on keeping on, making the best of a bad situation. Good thing there aren't 'Talies' in the Press Gallery.

Update: The Poles have come up with a flight of Mil Helicopters to assist the Canucks. The Albanian and French commitments didn't materialize - at least in Khandahar. And the security situation has certainly not improved, with the Taliban summer offensive being a lot more robust than last summer's version.