The nation of Canada is reeling today from a brutal terrorist attack in the capital city of Ottawa that claimed the life of Canadian reservist Nathan Cirillo. The attacker has been identified as Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a 23-year-old convert to Islam, who was killed by authorities as he opened fire inside the Canadian Parliament. The incident comes just two days after two Canadian soldiers were deliberately struck by a speeding vehicle driven by another Islamic convert, leaving one soldier dead. The twin attacks have demonstrated that even the unassuming nation of Canada is not immune to the threat of Islamic terrorism, which once again has been allowed to flourish under a lax regime of global leadership.
Shortly before 10 a.m. Wednesday morning, Zehaf-Bibeau, using a keffiyeh to cover his face and brandishing a long-barreled rifle, approached the Canadian National War Memorial, dedicated to the memory of Canadian soldiers who have lost their lives in defense of the country. Corporal Cirillo was standing watch at the Tomb of the Unknown solider when he was shot in the abdomen by Zehaf-Bibeau at point-blank range. Zehaf-Bibeau then ran to the Canadian Parliament, where he was killed following a shoot-out with authorities.
Cpl. Cirillo, a 24-year-old father, was rushed to the hospital, but tragically succumbed to his injuries. A parliamentary guard sustained a gunshot wound to the leg during the attack and is said to be recovering.
Warning signs for Canadians have abounded in recent weeks. In early October, reports broke that an ISIS-connected terrorist plot had been thwarted by authorities. Two separate intelligence agencies warned Canadian law-makers that the threat of Islamic radicalism inside the country was growing. However, officials ultimately downplayed the idea that an any attack was imminent. Nonetheless, less than a week ago the government quietly raised the domestic terrorism threat level to medium for the first time in four years.
“This week’s events are a grim reminder that Canada is not immune to the types of terrorist attacks we have seen elsewhere around the world,” a visibly shaken Prime Minster Stephen Harper said in a statement to the nation. Harper vowed that the attack would lead Canada to “strengthen our resolve and redouble our efforts, and those of our national security agencies, to take all necessary steps to identify and counter threats and keep Canada safe here at home.”
Worried Canadians should not be heartened by Harper’s pronouncements given what we have learned about authorities’ dealing with Zehaf-Bibeau and other like-minded terrorists in the immediate aftermath of the attack. Zehaf-Bibeau, born Michael Joseph Hall, had a long criminal history of drug trafficking, credit-card forgery and robbery. Most disturbingly, however, Zehaf-Bibeau also had been known to Canadian authorities for his jihadist proclivities and potential for violence. He had recently been designated by the government as a “high-risk traveler” and had his passport seized out of fear that he was liable to commit acts of terrorism abroad.
These disconcerting facts surrounding Zehaf-Bibeau are eerily similar to those surrounding Martin Rouleau, a.k.a. “Ahmad LeConverti (Ahmad the Convert), a the Canadian Muslim convert who drove a car into two Canadian soldiers on Monday in the Quebec city of Saint-Jean-Sur-Richelieu, claiming the life of one. Rouleau was arrested in July when he attempted to fly to Turkey. Rouleau’s passport had also been seized in an attempt to prevent him from traveling abroad and taking up arms with fellow Islamic terrorists.
Ninety other individuals like Zehaf-Bibeau and Rouleau are reportedly on a Royal Canadian Mounted Police watch list due to suspicion that they have or are planning to participate in militant activities abroad. At least 80 individuals present in the country are believed by Canadian intelligence to have gone overseas to participate in terrorist activities.
The same is true in many Western countries. Approximately 100 individuals from the U.S. are believed by the National Counterterrorism Center to have attempted to leave the country to fight alongside ISIS jihadists. The FBI estimates that a dozen Americans are believed to be currently fighting in Iraq and Syria, while Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) reports that he was informed that some 40 U.S. citizens have been allowed re-entry into the country. According to the Obama administration, this is their right.
“Ultimately, an American citizen, unless their passport is revoked, is entitled to come back,” FBI Director James Comey declared earlier this month. “So, someone who’s fought with ISIL, with American passport wants to come back, we will track them very carefully.”
The events in Canada of the last several days have cast doubt on the reliability of the “careful tracking” strategy.
“If you want to go to Syria and Iraq, please go, but never come back,” Geert Wilders tells FrontPage’s Jamie Glazov on this week’s episode of The Glazov Gang. In this prophetic warning against the policy currently in effect in many Western countries of keeping known ISIS jihadists in their midst, Wilders pinpointed why Canadian soldiers like Cpl. Cirillo have to needlessly, and tragically, lose their lives at the hand of Jihad. By refusing to allow highly “motivated” jihadists to leave, Western governments have made, in Wilders’ words, “our own streets, our own airports, our own train stations, our own malls, very dangerous places to be.”
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Don’t miss Geert Wilders on this week’s Glazov Gang in which he explains precisely why terrorist attacks like the one that just happened in Canada occur — and what the West must do to preserve itself:
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