Is It Domestic Terrorism (In Canada)?

For John, BLUF:  .  Nothing to see here; just move along.

On Canada Day (1 July 2013) the Royal Canadian Mounted Police arrested two individuals who were suspected of planting "pressure cooker" bombs.  Here is the lede and following paragraphs from Fox News:

John Stewart Nuttall and Amanda Marie Korody were inspired by Al Qaeda ideology but were self-radicalized, Royal Canadian Mounted Police Assistant Commissioner James Malizia said Tuesday.  He called it a domestic threat without international connections.

Malizia told a news conference there was no evidence or indication to suggest a connection to the deadly Boston Marathon bombings in April, which used bombs made from pressure cookers.

RCMP Supt. Wayne Rideout said the public was never at risk, and the threat was detected early.

Congratulations to the Mounties for uncovering this plot and picking up the suspects before anything untoward happened.

However, in explaining this incident to the public the Mounties seem to be tongue-tied.  This can be seen in the news report, linked above, and in an edited video of a Press Conference, found here.  One gets the impression that the police want to put this down to "domestic terrorism", as we have the Boston Marathon Bombing earlier this year.  However, in the video of the Press Conference once can sense frustration on the part of the Reporters.

From the paranoid anti-Muslim side one gets the impression that what is happening in this case is the police are unwilling to draw a line from the two bombers to al Qaeda's understanding of Islam.  The video linked to above is edited and put up on YouTube by someone who refers to himself as Mecalecahi Mecahinyho.  I have no idea who that is.

Let us not confuse ourselves.  This isn't a terror attack orchestrated by the Iranian Revolutionary Guards.  Nor is it a terror attack from some Sunni fringe group.  That said, the effort to say it is "inspired" by al Qaeda but isn't al Qaeda ignores the fact that the al Qaeda franchise is changing its method of operation and moving to a more decentralized and distributed approach to bombings.  For those in al Qaeda pushing this new concept of operation it doesn't matter if NSA can trace communications from the bomber to al Qaeda Central.  What works for al Qaeda Central is that bombers used Inspire Magazine or other al Qaeda publicans to learn about the mission and how to execute it.

To continue to think this is just isolated incidents of anarchist domestic terrorists is to ignore the broader possibilities.

You cannot defeat what you don't understand and can not articulate to your public.

UPDATE:  Edited for typos.

Regards  —  Cliff