EXPLAINER TAKES A TRIP TO "MONTREALISTAN."

1 This is the new book by Fabrice de Pierrebourg, a journalist with the Journal de Montréal. Titled Montréalistan: Enquête sur la mouvance islamiste, its claim that potential terrorists are being tracked in Montreal made the front page of the Journal on March 16. The result was a flurry of French media coverage for de Pierrebourg and his first book. Some may recall him as the journalist who snuck his way into restricted areas of Trudeau airport for a story unveiled on Sept. 11, 2006. (He was reportedly able to "walk onto the tarmac by the international flights, touch aircraft, visit hangars, get into a subcontractor's vehicle and play around with the food carts being prepared for flights.") In the book, he profiles 20 of the 30 so-called suspects, some of whom he has met and interviewed, and others whose lives he has pieced together using documents obtained via Access to Information laws and other sources. He told the Journal that "Montreal is a harbour, a logistic base to plan, prepare and to finance terrorist attacks."

2 De Pierrebourg says he first became interested in terrorism when he was in France in the 1980s. He arrived in Montreal in 1998 and his journalistic interest in terrorism was sparked again by the December 1999 arrest of Montrealer Ahmed Ressam in connection with a plot to blow up Los Angeles International Airport on New Year's Eve. De Pierrebourg says some of the suspects in the book were already part of radial Islamic groups before coming to Montreal, while others, like Ressam, were recruited while here. In addition to concerns in the Muslim community that this book paints their faith in a bad light, de Pierrebourg says some police officers aren't pleased he has revealed so much information. "Some people are starting to be angry," he says. "It's normal. Some people say I am against Muslims, but I'm not." How should Montrealers react to his claim about terrorists in our midst? "Just be careful but don't be afraid," he says. "Be a realist, not an alarmist."

 
 

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From Afghanistan to Montrealistan     The key is to be aware and nit be an alarmist, true but after having disturbed some shit how could the author not be hated by some Muslims? The fact that some of their community are under constant surveillance shouldn't mean that their religion is being discredited. The fact that one guy has planed to blow up LA would have me wanting him to be checked where he goes and what he does. I couldn't care less what his religion was if his intent would be the destruction of a city and living here doesn't mean we have to forget what he is capable of doing. So my message is the same and it coincides with the their that this century will be a trying on where we either learn to work with faiths that are not part of the mainstream culture but are influential and worthy of consideration or we will invite the insidious planning that the author describes. Somehow a Montrealistan landscape seems far off!
Martin Dansky	{21 votes}	March 30th, 2007
*Explain This!!!*     30 Muslims considered "potential terrorists" are under constant surveillance by Montreal authorities? You know, I'm assuming here that when we say 'Montreal authorities' that they don't mean the police or any unit that uses the same dubious hiring policies as they do because if not, these 30 "potential terrorists" might as well be dead or in a coma right here and now. Criminals and terrorists are everywhere, that's today's reality--the real question we need to ask ourselves is how much are we willing to sacrifice to stop them.
Pedro Eggers	{1 vote}	May 13th, 2007
Allo Police!     Ok, a serious journalist this man is most certainly not - sensationalist, self-aggrandizing hacks like this are a dime a dozen and yet his exploitive brand of journalism definitely has found it's niche here amongst scores of people weened on 2nd rate Allo Police tabloid fodder.
Mark St Pierre	{1 vote}	April 6th, 2007
Fear-Mongering!     How the hell did he get these 30 individuals of Muslim faith to go along with such a preposterous book? I'm guessing they were complicit in his research - allowing themselves to be interviewed and seemingly disparaged because I can't help but think that this book is both incendiary and damning. Is it supposed to be informative, enlightening? Is it balanced? Is it accurate? Does it compromise the safety and privacy of it's subjects? I don't know about you but I'm guessing that de Pierrebourg ascribes to the "don't let the facts stand in the way of a good story" school of sensationalist thought!
David St Pierre		April 6th, 2007
False Security     This book will become a top seller but it will not make us safer. Those individuals under surveillance have been compromised and others will be secretly recruited to take their places. These terrorists will learn from their mistakes and be much harder to track down in the future. In any case the ringleaders have little to worry about. They have the means to make sure that nobody can get close to them.
Stephen Talko		April 4th, 2007
Scary     Whatever you may think about the lurid tactics of Mr. De Pierrebourg he may actually be on to something. The RCMP ( despite the maligning recently by upper brass clown criminals ) has been onto nefarious deeds of certain segments of the population here for awhile. While I do not imagine that the book is unbiased or even well researched for that matter. I do think that there is some validity to the title.
Reuven De Souza	{8 votes}	April 3rd, 2007
Terrorists Are Everywhere     Why should we be so afraid of something that is so obviously true? We didn't need a book to tell us that there are terrorists in our midsts. There are terrorist group cells in every major city in the world. For those Montrealers who were unaware that Islamic terrorists live in our city, that notion was shattered in 1999 when that Ahmed Ressam guy was arrested while trying to cross the B.C.-Washington State border. It was only fortunate (or unfortunate depending on your point of view) that a keen eyed female U.S. border patrol agent was suspicious about Ressam and his car (the trunk of which had explosives). Thus, avoiding a New Year's Eve 2000 bombing of LAX and what a way to usher in such a momentous moment in the world. Comedian Bill Maher recently said on TV "Of course, Islam is a religion of peace...to say it isn't would get in you getting cut up in pieces". To a certain extent his statement is correct. There are Muslim pundits who pop up on tv who denounce Muslims who commit acts of terror and say that the majority of Muslims are moderates and are peaceful people. If that's true then where are they? Why are they speaking with silent voices? Don't they realize that their silence is tantamount to complicity and, thus, earning the stares and the recent backlash that has been in the Quebec news over the last couple of months or so. About 250,000 people a year immigrate to Canada, so naturally some terrorists/terrorist sympathizers will be among them. What can we ordinary citizens do? Exactly what M. de Pierrebourg said " Just be careful but don't be afraid...be a realist, not an alarmist". Heaven help anyone, and all of us, if we should become friends with someone who turns out to be a terrorist because the dilemma of turning in a friend vs. preventing a tragedy that could affect many people could be more than any one person can bear.
Basil James	{31 votes}	March 29th, 2007
Why Should We Be Surprised?     Terrorists in our midst? How could this be possible? In Quebec of all places? Well yes! Terrorism is a global phenomena that is in clear expansion and being naive about it certainly doesn't solve anything. Without getting paranoid, I believe it's important to be concerned about security. A recent study indicated serious flaws in airport security. Last year, a French reporter and his crew showed how easy it was to walk into the Hydro Quebec installations. No guards, no surveillance systems. Anyone with bad intentions could stroll right in. There are also growing concerns about border security. Is De Pierrebourg trying to sell his book? This is North America. Of course he's trying to cash in on this. However, if the content of this book is legit then I don't care if these people are Muslims, Italians or des québecois de souche! we should know what is going on. Being naive or self-righteous won't cut it!
Gerald Vallee	{27 votes}	March 29th, 2007
To Sum Up     "Montreal is a harbour, a logistic base to plan, prepare and to finance terrorist attacks." This being said, De Pierrebourg goes on to conclude "don't be afraid [nor] an alarmist." Nice advice--I just wish he had taken it himself. What's next? "Believe everything you see on '24' but don't get nervous if you see foreigners gain access to the city's water supply"? Come on now, it's awfully easy (and lucrative, apparently) to scare citizens into believing that there are threats everywhere. I don't know if our police forces are right or wrong when they have certain "ethnics" on their watch lists, but I'm sure the same thing could be demonstrated with, say, quite a few pure laine Quebecers, as was indeed the case during the October Crisis. Oops, maybe I shouldn't have spoken up--now they're gonna put *me* under surveillance. Gotta go.
Charles Montpetit	{22 votes}	March 29th, 2007

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