Adam,

The conjecture I referred to was the linkage of the Afghan students with the pipeline blast. Your linked articles did not touch on either subject.

The first:
....what shocked her on arrival in Canada was her discovery of circles of indoctrination where women are veiled even inside their own houses, with ramifications in the Middle East, Pakistan, Iran, Europe and the United States. Imams trained in fundamentalist ideology, sent on missions and paid by foreigners, spread a radical Islam aiming at isolating Muslims from their host society. Messages call for jihad and to hate the agnostics, Jews, moderate Muslims, and Christians.....
As an aside, I found it interesting that she links problems with the fundies to her perception of the rise of the evangelical right in the US and problems emerging from that issue.

In any case, problems within some immigrant communities (as well as some non-immigrant groups brought together simply by a shared radical ideology or other common bond) is an issue that also exists in certain communities here in the US, and has long been of concern to LE. And its not just radical Islam from whatever locus of origin - there's always the old example of the Irish-American community's support for the IRA, as well as current issues such as clots of White Supremacists and their militia camps in isolated areas, or certain Hispanic communities and the gang problem that migrates with them from state to state. Each is a unique security problem in its own context, but we always have to take care not to assume broader, more complex linkages and to look for the evidence.

The second linked story was simply a tale of a guy posting a rant on the 'net. The short story had a lot of alarmist spin, but little substantive context.

The final article, regarding the trial, was closer to the point - but the two year old disruption and rolling up of a terrorist cell is still not related to the incident of the Afghan students, nor does it support even a weak supposition that those students may be linked to terrorism.

Again, they crossed the border, reported to the Canadian authorities and were prepared to attend a detention review hearing before the Immigration Review Board. They didn't "disappear" - but they did know exactly what they were going to do prior to arriving in WA for their classes.

These five haven't been the only ones. Over the past couple of years it has become pretty obvious that young, educated Afghans are aware of the potential value of obtaining subsidized travel to the US on student visas, then bolting to Canada to take advantage of their more lenient policies. ACIE has lost a few out of host homes much farther from the border than WA. The ones that concern me aren't the ones that turn up in Canada looking to obtain refugee status (the majority), but the ones that just disappear off the radar entirely......

Regards,

Ted