'Canadian terror plot modelled on 9/11'

TORONTO: The 17 men accused of plotting terror attacks on the Canadian government contemplated using an airplane to hit targets, like the 9/11 attackers in the US and possessed cell phone bomb detonators similar to the ones used by the 2004 Madrid bombers, according to court documents.

An eight page synopsis of the charges against the group submitted to the Canadian court and obtained by CBS News says the plotters considered using an airplane as a weapon, though exactly what kind of plane and how it would be used was not indicated.

The document says one of the suspects Amin Durrani, 19, enrolled in flight training at Centennial College but withdrew so as not to draw attention to him.

It describes in detail the targets the suspects allegedly considered and their paramilitary activities in an improvised training camp north of Toronto. The suspects had planned to
storm the Canadian Parliament and take hostages to demand that Muslim prisoners be freed and that Canada withdraw troops from Afghanistan.

The document, according to CBS News, also clarifies the links between the Canadian suspects and two men detained in the US for their alleged terrorist schemes.

Canadian prosecutors allege suspects Fahim Ahmad, 21, and Zakaria Amara, 20, were the ringleaders who quoted Al-Qaeda's statements admonishing followers to seek out big targets in the US and Canada. Their homegrown plot would be called ‘Operation Badr,’ it said.

Amara allegedly devised a remote control detonator and acquired US-made devices, which could function as a triggering device activated from unlimited range using a cell phone, like the ones used by the Madrid bombers, it said.