TCJN: Senior officials with two Jewish organizations were told that there was no indication the 17 alleged Islamic terrorist arrested in Ontario over the weekend were considering Jewish targets.? However, two terrorism experts suggested the Jewish community should be concerned about the alleged homegrown terrorism plot, since Islamic extremists often include Jews on their hit list.

Leo Adler, director of national affairs for the Canadian office of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, said he participated in an RCMP briefing in which it was made clear that �there has been no Jewish target.� Authorities investigating the terror plot found �nothing regarding Jews specifically. The target was not a synagogue or a Jewish community centre or anything like that,� he said.

The briefing took place at a meeting of the Cross-Cultural Roundtable on National Security, a multicultural group established 11/2 years ago to assess the Anti-Terrorism Act, which has been incorporated into the Criminal Code. The 15-member cross-cultural group was meeting in Ottawa when the weekend arrests were announced, and the group was briefed by the RCMP for more than an hour. The roundtable group was told there were no indications Jews or Jewish institutions were targeted. The RCMP official also discounted reports that the TTC or the Parliament Buildings were on the terrorists� hit list, Adler added.

Canadian Jewish Congress president Ed Morgan said, �Our contacts within Toronto police and the Ontario Provincial Police have assured us there was no particular Jewish community target on these individuals� lists. Obviously, the Jewish community is as concerned as are all other Canadians about safety of our community and protecting public buildings.�

More than 400 police and intelligence agents were involved in the arrests of 17 Islamic terrorism suspects � 12 men and five youths who cannot be identified � alleging they had plotted attacks in southern Ontario using bombs made with a chemical fertilizer.