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Less than two years before the 9/11 attacks, an Algerian named Ahmed Ressam tried to cross from Canada into the United States to bomb the Los Angeles Airport. This is one of 15 stories the Citizen presents as part of its ongoing Canada 150 coverage.

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“The fire is on. And it’s coming.”

With those cryptic words, a plot to unleash a devastating terror attack on the United States was set in motion by a Canadian-based jihadist group.

At that moment, in December 1999, a short, slender Algerian named Ahmed Ressam was the most dangerous man on the continent: The trunk of his rented Chrysler sedan was packed with high explosives and powdered fertilizer. He was headed for a ferry terminal that would take him from Victoria to Washington State.

His plan was to detonate a massive explosion inside the Los Angeles International Airport as passengers travelled to welcome the new millennium.

The terror attack that would define the early 21st century, 9/11, was less than two years away.

Ressam, who never made it past U.S. customs, would end up providing U.S. officials with an early warning of the destruction to come – it went largely unheeded – while highlighting embarrassing security flaws in Canada.

The case would reverberate for years inside the Canadian security establishment, and contribute to the government’s overreaction to the 9/11 terror attacks. Six Canadian citizens, including Ottawa’s Maher Arar and Abdullah Almalki, would be tortured in other countries as Canadian security agents scrambled to identify potential threats – that is, more Ressams.