Police detectives investigating Tuesday’s bold firebombing of a Glebe bank have now identified suspects, all of whom live in Ottawa and are linked to an anti-establishment network.

The firebombing by anarchist group FFFC-Ottawa, which was filmed and posted online, was an unsophisticated attack and detectives have collected trace evidence from the burned-out Royal Bank of Canada branch at Bank Street and First Avenue.

The police department has also secured security video from storefronts along Bank Street and First Avenue, including high-definition images.

The homegrown terrorists, who attacked the bank because it sponsored the Vancouver Olympics, made their getaway in an SUV.

The bandits, believed to be a group of at least four people, are linked to an online independent media site and an anti-establishment network that organizes protests against G8 and G20 Summits, unfair trade and government cuts to welfare.

Some of the network’s meetings are held at a coffee and juice shop in Chinatown.

Thursday, employees and patrons of the coffee shop spoke openly about the firebombing, and were quick to condemn it. The coffee shop, once a co-op, used to attract a small group of self-proclaimed anarchists who often spoke of taking action against the establishment, but their talk was dismissed as just that.

They were considered misguided “kids” and they severed their ties to the coffee shop a few months ago after strained relations with staff and patrons. They didn’t fit in with the so-called hippie and poetry scene, which is thriving at the friendly café.

The police are confident that evidence will yield arrests. Detectives are in overdrive, prompted in part by the brazen “catch-me-if-you-can” online video.

In their pursuit of the suspects, detectives are exhausting solid leads gained from video of the culprits and their getaway vehicle. They have not been overwhelmed with tips from a concerned public because the firebombing happened around 3:30 a.m., when normally busy Bank Street is quiet.

Police expect to use search warrants in the firebombing case and have enlisted help from the RCMP and the Ontario Provincial Police.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been briefed about the case because the firebombers posted an online statement saying they will be at the upcoming G8 summit in Huntsville and the G20 meeting in Toronto.

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 limited to vandalism. Several anarchist websites are threatening confrontations at next month’s summit. Police have enlisted top security experts to stop protesters’ from disrupting the meetings.

As police continue to investigate, some users of the website that hosted the firebombing video have already alleged harassment by law-enforcement and have taken steps to preserve their anonymity.

The site is indymedia.org and is described as “a network of collectively run media outlets.”

John Hollingsworth, part of the “editorial collective” of the Ottawa Indymedia page, said editors provide a “janitorial” service by dealing with inflammatory or inappropriate postings as necessary.

“Being an ‘open publishing’ model, users of the site typically post content themselves without us knowing much about it,” he wrote in an e-mail. “We take no ‘editorial’ position on (the firebombing) as that is not what we do.

“We’re pretty much a passive but secure vehicle for activists of various stripes to post their news and views. … it is not a specifically ‘anarchist’ website by any means.”

The editorial policy of a sister site, Indymedia Quebec, stressed that the “collective will work to preserve the anonymity of the website’s users. … Indymedia Quebec does not keep a log of connections or IP addresses of its submissions.”

A British-based affiliate of the website’s host confirmed that Ottawa’s Indymedia site does not keep IP address logs either.

An IP address is a unique set of numbers assigned to any computer connecting to the Internet, and many websites allow anyone to search a specific IP address to reveal the approximate location of that computer.

There are several ways to skirt this, for instance by funnelling a computer’s request for Internet information through a so-called proxy server. Proxy servers act as intermediaries that relay information on behalf of the Internet user, like an auction in which an anonymous bidder uses a telephone to direct a person who’s physically present in the auction room to express bidding intentions.

But there are limits to web anonymity.

Det. Andrew Thompson of the Ottawa police high-tech crime unit said, however, that investigative techniques are a closely guarded secret, and police do not like to discuss ways Internet users attempt to conceal their identity.

When testifying in court cases, suspects perk up when Thompson reveals how they were nabbed, he said.

“People think they’re anonymous, but they’re not,” Thompson added.

Meanwhile the People’s Commission Network — which monitors and opposes “the national security agenda” — posted a note to the Quebec Indymedia site explaining what to do “if CSIS comes knocking.”

“Since the fall of 2009 there have been ongoing visits by members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service to various local social justice organizers and activists.”

The post advises targets to refer agent inquiries to lawyers and non-compliance with CSIS requests “which means not speaking with them or listening to them.”

A representative of the Network reached through e-mail declined to elaborate on CSIS “harassment.”

CSIS does not confirm or deny involvement in particular cases.

Ottawa’s Indymedia site is topped by a logo for the Independent Media Centre in Montebello, Que., with a link to a dead website. This, according to Hollingsworth has been on the site for about three years. Repeated attempts to call the listed phone number — which traces back to an address on Notre-Dame Street in Montebello — have been unsuccessful.

There is also a dead link to a file on Montreal radio station CKUT’s website.

The Indymedia network was founded in 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organization protests in Seattle. It has links to dozens of local sites throughout the world, though many are broken, including a link to an Ontario Indymedia site.

Indymedia.org is registered to “IMC” on Aldo Oliveira Barbosa Road in Sao Paulo, Brazil, according to a domain name search.