Canada: Hezbollah; Very Well Organized

"The changes in the Middle East subsequent to the Arab Spring have not delivered a death blow to al-Qaeda or the larger Islamist Extremist movement. Extremists have gained ground over the last few months in North Africa and the Middle East. Extremists see the Arab Spring countries as legitimate theatres for jihad."
Canadian Security Intelligence Service report

Europe and North America have developed internal sieves that trickle through newly recruited operatives anxious and eager to do their part in the global battle launched by fanatical Islamists against the forces of evil represented by the countries that embraced them and their families as immigrants. The flow of citizens from Canada and Europe into Islamic war zones is seen as alarming by national security and intelligence agencies tasked with the protection of their countries and populations.

The Netherlands was recently concerned enough to raise its terrorism threat level to "substantial", arising out of fears that among the one hundred Dutch citizens that have trickled through to Syria to fight as mujahadeen there against the Shia-led regime of Alawite-Baath President Bashar al-Assad will be some who plan to return, bringing their newly-acquired fighting skills with them, to acquaint the Netherlands further with what it feels like to be targeted by jihad.

Funnily enough, in this context, the Netherlands was among a number of disparate countries -- European, Latin American and Middle Eastern -- that took Canada to task on its human rights records before the UN's Human Rights Council a few days earlier, stating its concern over charitable status regulations interfering with the ability of non-governmental organizations to carry out human rights activities in Canada....

The international police organization EUROPOL reported from its perspective this week the appearance of a "distinct rise" in the numbers of EU citizens arming themselves among "groups associated with religiously inspired terrorism". "Syria emerged as the destination of choice for foreign fighters in 2012", states the EUROPOL report.

CSIS's assistant director of intelligence, Michael Peirce, informed a Canadian parliamentary immigration committee last month that it remained "extremely difficult" to fully understand what motivates Canadians leaving for Syria. "I should also point out that we see movement at times. An individual may go over and begin activities with the Free Syrian Army and move over and end up fighting for or with the Al Nustra Front, for example. It's very difficult to track", he said.

Extremist Islamists, skilled in fighting elsewhere, like Iraq or Algeria, Libya or Mali, and well armed, thanks to the proliferation of weapons that resulted from pillaging the weapons caches left behind by the Libyan military when they were routed by their own opposing militias in Libya, have joined the violent free-for-all now raging in Syria. Many under the guidance of al-Qaeda in Iraq.

Where they are determined to take advantage of the Syrian armed opposition, disparate militias, uncoordinated, unskilled, in possession of fewer and less potent weaponry. To, in effect, highjack the revolution to make it over into a true Islamist revolution, one where fundamentalist Islam will take charge of the country under strict Sharia law; yet another country to fall to the Sunni Muslim tide of extremism.

"The extent to which the Syrian conflict has mobilized Muslims across the world is significant and may be compared to the conflicts in Iraq in the 2000s, Bosnia in the 1990s and Afghanistan in the 1980s. Based on the sheer scale of recruitment that is currently taking place, European security services are well advised to monitor the situation closely",  informs a recent study by the London-based International Centre for the Study of Radicalization.

They state that others have also been radicalized; converts to Islam. Reckoning that between 7% to 11% of jihadists, Muslim-born but European-domiciled recruits to jihad have moved into the theatres of conflict in the Middle East.  The Netherlands is well represented with up to 107 citizens fighting; France estimated with up to 90, Belgium up to 80, Denmark up to 78 and Germany up to 40 citizens departed to take part in jihad.

The Syrian regime itself has not been idle in importing fighters from Iraq, Iran and Lebanon. Sectarian divides aid in impulsive declarations of support from either Sunnis or Shia Muslims to join the battle on one side or the other. Hezbollah is a religious, ideological fit for allying itself with Syria under the auspices of its mentoring state, Iran, whose own al Quds portion of the Revolutionary Guard is heavily involved in fighting for the regime. Hamas, another creature of Iran, proved less compliant through sectarian strains.

A Syrian Canadian Council spokesman explains that other than for humanitarian purposes he and his group do not advise anyone to travel to Syria, though he knows personally of two Canadians who have departed to fight, one of whom may be dead. "The whole world is seeing what is happening in Syria and there is this huge sense of desperation. We are being let down, the world is seeing what's happening and they are letting it happen. Red line after red line is being crossed. This is what is drawing people."

As for his estimation of how many Canadians were there, fighting in Syria, he responds: "I don't think it would surpass ten with the rebels. On the other side, it's more doubtful but I know for a fact that Hezbollah has a lot of people in Canada. I know this. I live in Montreal and I see them here and they're very well organized."

Isn't that brilliantly reassuring?