Tactical Preparations for the Canadian Counterterrorist Raid

How a modern counter-terrorism force prepares for a raid upon a "broad strata" of society.

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The Toronto Globe and Mail describes how the Mounties got ready to arrest individuals from no particular segment of society who may have been planning to blow up the Canadian Parliament and maybe, decapitate the Prime Minister.

Before the raids came the sensitivity training: Tactical-squad Mounties learned how to properly handle Korans prior to arresting 17 terrorism suspects on the weekend. And that's not all. The RCMP also made sure there were clean prayer mats on hand for their suspects when they were sent to jail cells. Then, after everything wrapped up, authorities met with a number of Muslim leaders to impress upon them that officers were going after specific individuals, not the community as a whole. "Our officers need to be respectful," said RCMP spokeswoman Corporal Michele Paradis. "We want to make sure the investigation is pristine."

Commentary

 "We want to make sure the investigation is pristine." This must surely refer to the need to keep the investigation politically viable; to ensure that the officers don't get the tables switched on them and find themselves doing hard labor for acts of racism after their case gets thrown out. Though how that could be, given the suspects came from no particular section of society is hard to imagine. But in all fairness, none of the suspects were directly responsible for the need to take these precautions. That was accomplished by others, who though they belong to no segment of society themselves, are obsessively apologetic, self-hating and relentlessly hostile to themselves. Though of course their self-hatred for their own broad strata of society does not extend to members of the broad strata of society who may have been arrested. Those treacherous waters navigated, one problem remained to vex the Mounties.

The  Toronto Globe and Mail reported that the RCMP consulted the Spanish Police on what they should do if the suspects blew themselves up. "There is a precedent for this: Al-Qaeda suspects in the deadly Madrid train bombings blew themselves up in an apartment rather than let themselves be caught by police." The reply of the Spanish cops is not recorded. But it's safe to say that the prayer mats had to be kept clean.