Fire investigators say this blaze in an RBC branch on Bank Street at First Avenue is 'suspicious'. Witnesses report seeing a group of men running from the scene just before the fire was reported.

Photograph by: Mike Carroccetto, The Ottawa Citizen

OTTAWA — Police detectives investigating the brazen firebombing of a Glebe bank are closing in on suspects who call themselves FFFC-Ottawa and expect to file search warrants in a case that has drawn global headlines, the Citizen has learned.

Police have been scouring the burned-out Royal Bank of Canada branch at Bank Street and First Avenue for forensic evidence and were reviewing security video and exploring tips from a concerned public Wednesday.

In a bold move, FFFC-Ottawa claimed responsibility for the firebombing in an online “catch-me-if-you-can” video that seasoned detectives have been reviewing since the Citizen alerted police about the video Tuesday afternoon.

Police also obtained RBC surveillance video on Wednesday. Officers are working to confirm the identities of the suspect firebombers.

The bank was set ablaze at about 3:30 a.m. Tuesday, causing about $300,000 in damage.

Police weren’t saying Wednesday evening how many individuals they believed were involved, nor were they clear on the gender. But at least three people are involved. Two are seen on video leaving the building just before the fireball exploded while a third person filmed the action that was eventually posted on a website.

Ottawa police and the RCMP are confident that the homegrown terrorists would be captured.

Chief Vern White said Wednesday night police have some good leads, but catching the suspects won’t be easy.

“I understand the public’s concern,” he said. “It’s as scary for us as it is for them. This is a city that is typically untouched by this type of activity.

I will argue these are domestic terrorists.”

The Mounties confirmed Wednesday afternoon that A Division’s Integrated National Security Enforcement Team is assisting with the investigation, led by Ottawa police.

INSETs share intelligence among various other law enforcement agencies, including the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service.

A CSIS spokeswoman said the organization does not confirm or deny involvement in particular cases as a matter of policy.

On Wednesday, police canvassed Bank Street businesses, requesting all security video footage that may have captured images of the firebombers, who may have made their escape in a SUV.

The firebombers’ video was posted to the Ottawa page of the Independent Media Centre. Attempts to contact the centre were unsuccessful.

Since 2007, RBC branches across Canada have been targeted in dozens of attacks by Canadian anarchists and other extremists who view the bank as a symbol of corporate greed. RBC’s major sponsorship of February’s Olympic Games in Vancouver brought the simmering hostility to a boil.

But until now, the actions have been largely limited to smashing windows and ABMs, and other relatively minor vandalism. RBC branches on Bank Street at First Avenue in the Glebe — the site of Tuesday’s early-morning firebombing — and Elgin and Lisgar streets have reportedly been hit at least five times by vandals claiming membership in protest and political movements, from anarchists and anti-capitalists to Olympic protesters.

A hint that more serious action might be coming surfaced during the Olympic torch relay through Montreal in mid-December. An anonymous “communiqué” posted on Anarchistnews.com. noted that two local RBCs had been attacked and suggested arson as a new weapon.

“F--- RBC and f--- the olympics — lets extinguish the colonizer’s flame and start some real fires!”

From the Winter Olympics to June’s G8 and G20 gatherings, 2010 promises to be a pivotal time for activists. Security officials are especially alert for signs of convergence between the extreme and secular left, and radical Islam. Canadian anti-capitalist, anti-globalization, anti-war and anti-free trade groups are now in common cause with pro-Hezbollah and pro-Palestinian groups.

A spokesman for Public Safety Minister Vic Toews — whose office is tasked with providing strategic advice and support in safety and security matters at the summits — said Wednesday that Toews and Prime Minister Stephen Harper had been briefed about the incident.

Security for the summits “has been developed by Canada’s best experts in the field,” Chris McCluskey wrote in an e-mailed statement condemning the violence.

Ottawa police lead investigator Sgt. David Christie confirmed at a midday press conference that an accelerant had been used to spark the blaze, which appears in the online video to have started as a massive fireball that scattered glass and debris across the sidewalk in front of the bank.

The Office of the Ontario Fire Marshal is also investigating to determine the blaze’s origin and cause, Christie said.

A Royal Bank spokeswoman said the bank would be stepping up security, but declined to go into details. Gillian McArdle said RBC would not respond to the “inflammatory” statements of the firebombers.

Glebites thronged Bank Street on a sunny Wednesday, but expressed some trepidation at the violent act.

“It’s terrifying,” Martha Heilig said as she pushed a stroller down Bank. “Thankfully they’re not (making their point) by killing people.”

The action Tuesday appears to be part of the build up to the meeting of the G8 and G20 in Huntsville, Ont. and in Toronto. Anarchist websites are threatening “militant and confrontational” action during the summits next month.

Andre Gerolymatos, a professor of international security at Simon Fraser University and an expert on anarchy, said it would not surprise him to see those involved in the firebombing appear at the upcoming summits.

“The G8 (summit) has always been a magnet for protest. These people want to ratchet it up a bit,” he said Wednesday.

Gerolymatos said the group of radicals is probably small, and will likely try to mix in with legitimate protesters and incite police. “It’s a favourite tactic of anarchists,” he said.

With files from Meghan Hurley

FFFC Ottawa bank attack fraud

·                                 Posted by Doctor on May 20, 2010 at 10:56am

·                                 View Doctor's blog

A group calling itself FFFC has taken credit for a firebomb attack on a RBC bank location in Ottawa May 19th 2010. This previously-unknown group shot and posted this video on the internet hours after the attack.
The first ten seconds of the video show a bank, some sort of fireball coming from the inside, then two men fleeing. How did these two men get access to a bank after hours? What was the bomb made of? Where on the internet did they upload and release the video they shot? How did they have it so organized that they pulled it off flawlessly, have someone shoot it without any sort of problem then release it somewhere on the internet claiming responsibility?

Before mentioning what happened at all, most mainstream news sources said outright police will have to update their security plans for G20 based on this. I personally think police want to legitimize even more draconian security measures, but need the public support behind it. So they get a couple guys to bomb the Royal Bank of Canada posing as a never before heard of big bad native rights group. They put the video in a file they already had prepared, and send it to media groups claiming it was discovered on the internet. Of course, they mentioned G20 protest and that they 'will be there', so to the public, if we don't have more cops, firebombings will happen at the G20.

When things like this happen, you have to look at the bottom-line beneficiaries. Who did these people hurt? The financial damage to the bank is insignificant, and they can use this as an excuse to hire more goons to monitor the plebs in line.

When the G20 security measures became public, they must have hit a ceiling and were ordered to not expand any further. But there was something they still needed at the protest, so they would have to get the go-ahead from somewhere else. Something like a bomb in a place like the nations capital in such a needed establishment like a bank, especially with the timing of the Olympics, would have the public demanding more security at G20....

It all just makes me very very nervous about what they are indeed planning... but we won't know that until the big kaboom.