On June 2 2006 Canadian police con ducted early-morning raids through out the Toronto area They arrested 13 adults and 4 teenagers all members of a Muslim terrorist cell that the press began calling The Toronto 17 The group planned to carry out a series of violent acts including bombing the Toronto Stock Exchange and several government buildings The police knew all about the group’s plans because they had a paid informant working in side the cell a devout Muslim named Mubin Shaikh Shaikh kept his role as a spy very well hidden He even helped the group get guns and taught members how to use the weapons After the ar rests Shaikh explained why he agreed to become a mole He didn’t want inno cent people to get hurt and he hoped to prevent Toronto’s peaceful Muslim community from being harshly criti cized because of the group’s actions Some Canadian Muslims saw Shaikh as a hero others considered him a trai tor to his people MOLE IN A CELL
TAKING on TERRORISTS W ITH THE COLLAPSE OF the Soviet Union in 1991 a long con flict known as the Cold War came to an end The Cold War had pitted the United States and its close allies against the Soviet Union as Russia was then known and its allies for more than 40 years It featured buildups of arms including nuclear weapons political chal lenges around the world and lots of spying and counterespionage After the Cold War ended there was a brief period of peace Then new types of conflicts began and new enemies emerged In the Middle East and Central Asia where most people practice Islam the Muslim religion groups of extremists began demanding that people follow stricter religious rules Some extremist groups such as the Taliban in Afghanistan took control over national governments Other groups carried out acts of violence against those they saw as enemies to The two towers struck by planes on September 11 were part of a seven-building complex
Islam One especially violent Islamic group known as al-Qaeda tar geted the U S and its institutions First al-Qaeda terrorists attacked U S embassies in Africa in 1998 killing more than 200 Americans and Africans Next they bombed a U S warship harbored in Yemen Then on September 11 2001 often called 9 11 a group of al-Qaeda trained terrorists hijacked three planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington D C They killed themselves and nearly 3,000 other people Another plane intended possibly for the White House crashed in Pennsylvania when passengers fought with the hijackers Nine days later U S pres ident George W Bush spoke before a joint session of Congress and de clared a war on terror He said the war would begin with al-Qaeda but would not end there The U S would use its military power and its intelligence networks to pursue nations that provide aid or safe haven to terrorism Fighting such a war would require using both modern espionage tools and old-fashioned spying techniques COVERT OPS ANIMAL SPIES In July 2007 Iranian security police announced they had captured 14 spies attempting to race across the border between Iraq and Iran The spies were squirrels The police claimed that listening devices had been implanted in the squirrels to enable them to eavesdrop in side Iran No other country claimed responsibility for sending in the squirrel spies and the police provided no other details This would not have been the first time animals were used for spying Pigeons carried messages during World War I and the U S Navy currently trains dolphins to sweep for mines and carry underwater cameras 0909
