Canada Thwarts Al Qaeda Terror Plot Targeting U.S. Bound Train

Canadian authorities have arrested two men accused of planning to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against a passenger train traveling between Canada and the United States.

“As I understand it, it was a train going from Canada to the U.S.,” Rep. Peter King, R-New York, chairman of the counterterrorism and intelligence subcommittee, said.

The news follows an announcement earlier in the day by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that they had arrested Chiheb Esseghaier, 30, and Raed Jaser, 35.

The two men are charged with “receiving support from al Qaeda elements in Iran” to carry out an attack and conspiring to murder people on a VIA railway train in the greater Toronto area, Assistant Police Commissioner James Malizia said.

“When I speak about supported, I mean direction and guidance,” he said.

Despite the allegation of links to al Qaeda in Iran, there was no evidence to suggest the planned attacks were state-sponsored, Malizia said.

U.S. authorities say the plot involved detonating explosives on a train traveling from Toronto to Penn Station in New York.

Essenghaier, of Montreal, and Jaser, of Toronto, will make their first court appearance on Tuesday, police said.

“We are alleging these two individuals took steps and conducted activities to conduct a terrorist attack,” Jennifer Strachan of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police told reporters.

“They watched trains and railways in the greater Toronto area.”

The alleged attack included a plan to derail a passenger train, she said.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation quoted “highly placed sources” as saying the suspects were under surveillance for more than a year.

The CBC reported that the investigation was “part of a cross-border operation involving Canadian law enforcement agencies, the FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.”