More Than a Dozen Terrorists Try to Enter US Via Canada

The Head of the Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff, claims more than a dozen terrorists affliated with al Qaida, Hezballah, and other groups tried to enter the US through Canada.

OTTAWA - The top U.S. domestic counterterrorism official says more than a dozen people with suspected terrorist ties have attempted to enter the United States from Canada.

Under the headline: "Michael Chertoff's deepest fears: Terrorists entering U.S. from Canada," the New York Daily News says Mr. Chertoff, in a recent interview, said "much more than a dozen" individuals with links to al-Qaeda, Hezbollah and other extremist groups have been caught trying to enter the United States since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

The head of the Department of Homeland Security said the individuals were stopped for links to "a mix" of terrorist groups through finances, family or spy intercepts.

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"Do I know they were coming in on a mission as opposed to something else? That I can't necessarily tell you," he said.

The only reported incident of a terrorist attempting to enter the United States from Canada for an attack is the 1999 case of "millennium bomber" Ahmed Ressam.

Mr. Chertoff 's remarks, meanwhile, are the most specific yet to quantify the problem of cross-border terrorist traffic. But a department spokeswoman could not say how many of the cases occurred within the past year or what happened to the individuals stopped. A spokeswoman for Public Safety Minister Stock-well Day declined to comment on Mr. Chertoff's assertion.

"These are U.S. numbers," said Melisa Leclerc. But "Canada, like other Western democracies, including the U.S., is not immune from the threat of terrorism. We continue to work closely with our allies to effectively combat the threat of international terrorism, while maintaining the overall integrity of our shared borders."