[JURIST] Canadian security authorities said Saturday that a major terrorist attack on Canadian targets had been thwarted by the arrests of twelve men and five youths [RCMP press release] in Ontario Friday. A spokesman for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) [official website] told a news conference [prepared text] that the suspects, charged under the terrorism provisions of Section 83 [text] of the Canadian Criminal Code, were part of a terrorist cell that had intended to bomb targets in southern Ontario and Toronto, including the headquarters of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) [official website]. The men are also suspected of having attended a terrorist training camp north of Toronto. Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper [official website] released a statement [text] saying the individuals were "allegedly intent on committing acts of terrorism against their own country and their own people." CSIS Assistant Director Luc Portelance said [CSIS statement] that those arrested "appear to have become adherents of a violent ideology inspired by Al Qaida," and described the security operation as "the largest counter-terrorism operation and arrests in Canada since the creation of the Anti-Terrorism Act and the amendment of the Criminal Code to better define terrorism."

Canada's Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET) [RCMP backgrounder] and the RCMP worked together in the security operation, which also uncovered three tons of ammonium nitrate fertilizer, an ingredient commonly used in makeshift bombs. One ton of ammonium nitrate fertilizer was used in the 1995 bombing of the Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that killed 168 people. A CSIS spokesman said the individuals lived in Canada and are from different backgrounds. The men were expected to appear in court later Saturday. The names of the younger suspects will not be released due to the Youth Criminal Justice Act [Canadian Department of Justice backgrounder]. Canadian Press has more.

8:15 PM ET - Fifteen of the seventeen detainees appeared in court in Brampton, Ontario, late Saturday afternoon under high security, where a justice of the peace remanded them into police custody until June 6. A number complained of the conditions in which they had been held after arrest their treatment Friday, and the Toronto Star quoted a lawyer for several as saying "I think they (the police) cast their net far too wide. We’ve been talking several lawsuits as a result of this action." The Toronto Star has more. FBI officials said Saturday that at least 3 of the men arrested in the Canadian security sweep had met with two US terror suspects from Georgia who traveled to Toronto last year but who have since been arrested by American authorities. CBC News has more.

[JURIST] In his weekly radio address Saturday, President George W. Bush voiced his support for a constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage [radio address, text] which is scheduled for a vote in the US Senate [JURIST report] in the coming week. Bush promoted the Marriage Protection Amendment [PDF text] that would formally define marriage as between a man and woman saying, "Ages of experience have taught us that the commitment of a husband and a wife to love and to serve one another promotes the welfare of children and the stability of society." He also said pushing for the amendment is necessary because of "activist" judges who have already rejected same-sex marriage [JURIST news archive] bans in California, Maryland, New York, Nebraska, and Washington [JURIST reports].

Republicans in Congress do not actually have enough votes to pass such an amendment, since two-thirds of both the US Senate [official website] and the House of Representatives [official website] must vote yes to approve constitutional amendments prior to state ratification. But Republican strategists are hoping a formal roll call will boost their popular support ahead of the upcoming November congressional elections. Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) [official website] criticized [press release] Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-MD) [official website] for insisting on a gay marriage ban vote, saying more pressing issues are at hand, such as the war in Iraq and increasing energy costs. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Denmark's parliament [official website] has adopted two new anti-terror measures conceived in the aftermath of the July 2005 London terrorist attacks [JURIST report]. The new laws give the Danish Security Intelligence Service (PET) [official website] broader access to the financial and medical records of suspects and to communications made by suspected terrorists and details of airplane passenger lists without a warrant. They also allow expanded use of video monitoring in public areas like those employed in the UK.

The measures garnered support from the country's majority Liberal, Conservative and Danish People's parties and the main opposition party; however, some opposition leaders claim the new laws will violate civil liberties. AFP has more.

[JURIST] Irish President Mary McAleese [official website] signed an emergency bill [PDF] into law Friday authorizing jail sentences for persons convicted of for having sex with minors, but allowing them to use mistake of age as a defense. The bill was hurriedly passed through the Irish Parliament [official website] after the Irish Supreme Court [official website] last week ruled a 1935 statutory rape law unconstitutional [judgment text] because it did not permit defendants to claim they thought a girl under the age of 15 was older. The new sexual offense law makes it a crime to have sex or attempt to engage in a sexual act with a child under 15 years of age, but it will still allow men to testify that they thought their victims were of the consenting age of 17.

Irish Justice Minister Michael McDowell [official website] has cautioned that the new law will now allow for harsh questioning of minors by defense lawyers. The law also does not criminalize girls who have sex under the age of 17 because the government did not want to stigmatize teenage mothers. AP has more.

[JURIST] US District Judge Reggie B. Walton ruled [PDF] Friday that most of the government documents sought by former Vice-Presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby [defense profile] and his defense team were not closely tied to the narrow issue of his case and would not be released to him. Libby has pleaded not guilty [JURIST report] to obstruction of justice and perjury charges [PDF indictment; JURIST report] in connection with the investigation into the leak of covert CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity [JURIST news archive] to the media. The judge denied Libby access to information about a CIA fact-finding trip Plame's husband, former Ambassador Joseph C. Wilson, made to Niger in 2002 to determine whether Iraq was seeking nuclear weapons material there. Walton also blocked Libby from obtaining information about what US officials may have known at the time or told others about the CIA position Plame held.

Walton said the trial would not turn into a "forum for debating the accuracy of Ambassador Wilson's statements, the propriety of the Iraq war or related matters leading up to the war" but would focus on the limited issue of whether Libby lied to both a grand jury and federal agents about his conversations with journalists about Plame. The New York Times has more.

[JURIST] Adnan al-Kazimi, an aide to new Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki [BBC profile], said Saturday that the Iraqi government would open its own investigation into the deaths of Iraq civilians in Ishaqi [JURIST report] after an official statement [text; recorded video] by a US military spokesman Saturday cleared US troops from all wrongdoing in the deaths. Kazimi told Reuters, "We have from more than one source that the Ishaqi killings were carried out under questionable circumstances. More than one child was killed. This report was not fair for the Iraqi people and the children who were killed." Kazimi also said the Iraqi government would demand an apology from the US and would seek compensation for the victims' families in several cases of alleged civilian murders by US troops, including the deaths of 24 unarmed Iraqi citizens [JURIST news archive] in Haditha last year. Iraqi Human Rights Minister Wijdan Michael said a commission would be sent to Ishaqi to investigate the deaths in the next few days.

US officials are also currently investigating the Haditha killings and have indicated that US Marines could face murder charges [JURIST report] after the probe is completed. Prime Minister Maliki called the Haditha deaths a "terrible crime" earlier this week and called on the US to hand over its files on the investigation. In Baghdad Friday, Maliki met with US Ambassador to Iraq Zalmay Khalilzad [official profile] and US Army Gen. George Casey [official profile], chief US commander in Iraq, who plan to release the information to the Iraqis, according to White House spokesman Tony Snow. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] A three-judge panel of the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit [official website] ruled [opinion text, PDF] Friday that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission [official website] must examine the risk of a terrorist attack when it considers the environmental effect of a proposed expansion project at California's Diablo Canyon Power Plant [backgrounder]. The Commission had found that the possibility of a terror attack on the plant was "remote and highly speculative" and chose not to include the threat in its environmental assessment but the court found this viewpoint to be at odds with the Commission's plan for a "top to bottom" security review for the plant.

The expansion involves the building of a spent-fuel site that would allow Diablo Canyon to add storage capacity on its premises. Plaintiffs San Luis Obispo Mothers for Peace [advocacy website] and the Sierra Club [advocacy website] having been pushing for more stringent environmental review at the plant. Reuters has more.

[JURIST] Judge Robert W. Pratt, chief judge of the US District Court for the Southern District of Iowa, ruled [PDF] Friday that a religious prison organization receiving government funds violated the US Constitution because it was used to rehabilitate prison inmates by advocating the tenets of Christianity. He found that inmates who voluntarily entered the program benefited through improved living conditions, and pointed out that alternative secular or non-Christian programs were not provided to prisoners. Pratt called the InnerChange Freedom Initiative [advocacy website] program run by the Prison Fellowship [advocacy website] ministry of Watergate convict-turned-evangelist Charles Colson [Washington Post profile] "pervasively sectarian" but added that he was not making a decision based on the effectiveness of such programs in rehabilitating inmates or "the ultimate truthfulness about religion."

The case [AUSCS backgrounder] was brought [AUSCS press release] three years ago by Americans United for Separation of Church and State [advocacy website] and is seen by many as a part of a broader challenge to the White House's faith-based initiatives [official website]. InnerChange is expected to appeal the decision to the US Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. The New York Times has more.