by Jim Bronskill (CP)
Source: The Winnipeg Free Press
URL: [link]
Date: May 25, 2010



OTTAWA - The ministerial watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence Service has warned the government of "deeply concerning" inaccuracies in CSIS's work — errors that could have serious "negative consequences" for people the spy agency investigates.

In her latest top-secret report card on CSIS to the public safety minister, Eva Plunkett reveals a "notable increase" in errors spotted in the spy service's records and a "substantially larger number" of cases of policy breaches.

Plunkett uncovered dozens of instances of failure to adhere to CSIS policy and 43 errors in operational reporting.



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by "The People's Commission Network" Source: The People's Commission Network URL: [link] Date: May 19, 2010 [ PDF format here. Download it and print it. ] Please post and forward WIDELY -- [français: [link] [Arabic: [link] [español: [link] If CSIS comes knocking A community advisory from the People's Commission Network Updated May 2010, MONTREAL [web link: [link]

Since the fall of 2009 there have been ongoing visits by members of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) to various local social justice organizers and activists. These visits are in addition to CSIS’ ongoing harassment of targeted communities. This community advisory is in response to those visits. Visits by CSIS and the RCMP to activists are nothing new; they have taken place before around specific events or projects. In general, these visits can have different purposes: they are not only about information-gathering but can also be attempts to create or exploit divisions between activists, plant misinformation, intimidate, develop psychological profiles, and recruit informers. If CSIS comes knocking, we strongly encourage total and complete non-cooperation. A CSIS visit to your home or workplace will be a surprise, but we encourage you to be ready to not cooperate with them in any way, which means not speaking with them or listening to them. If you are in a precarious position -- due to your immigration status, pending criminal charges, probation, parole, or any other reason – we strongly encourage you to NEVER EVER talk to CSIS alone. Instead, tell them to contact a trusted lawyer that you have chosen, and then refuse to say anything else. You can contact the People's Commission Network for references to lawyers who can act diligently against CSIS intimidation tactics. If you are comfortable doing so, ask for the names, telephone numbers and cards of the CSIS agents who want to talk to you. Insist they provide their names, and don't say, or listen to, anything else. You are under no legal obligation, ever, to confirm your identity with CSIS. Sometimes CSIS agents might begin speaking to you and only later identify themselves. In that case, if you are taken by surprise, we encourage you to refuse to continue speaking with CSIS. You can always default back to being silent. In dealing with security services, silence is the golden rule. In all cases, you are encouraged to tell CSIS to leave your home or workplace or cease following you. Tell CSIS clearly to leave, in whatever fashion you feel is appropriate. You can insist they leave, to the point of closing doors in their face. Remember, although CSIS can act in very ugly ways, it has no arrest or policing powers. We encourage you to get in touch with the People's Commission Network to report any CSIS visits or related incidents. These visits can be de-stabilizing and stressful. That’s why it is important to not remain isolated in this situation; and the People’s Commission Network would like to offer concrete support to overcome the feeling of isolation these visits can create. Your correspondence with the People's Commission Network will be considered confidential. Consider any unannounced CSIS visit to be harassment against you. If possible, we encourage you to write down your experience so that you have the facts clearly noted. The People’s Commission Network can support you in documenting this harassment with the aid of a lawyer. CSIS' job is to gather information for the state and to disrupt movements of social justice. Their broad mandate includes monitoring any activities they deem to threaten the current political and economic order. Their intimidation focuses on indigenous peoples, immigrants, racialized communities, radical political organizations, labour unions, as well as the allies of these groups. CSIS' actions, which show clear evidence of gross incompetence, racism, as well as complicity in torture, are all the more reason why they deserve no cooperation whatsoever by anyone involved in movements for social justice. Total non-cooperation with CSIS and other security agencies by the entire social justice community - broadly and inclusively defined - is our best way of maintaining unity and solidarity, as well as keeping our focus on our important day-to-day organizing and activism. To recap: Do not talk to CSIS or share any information with them, no matter how harmless you think it is. Do not listen to CSIS agents. Do consider reporting the visit to the People's Commission Network.

Please share this community advisory within your networks, and with members of your organizations and groups, so we can encourage collective non-cooperation with CSIS. In solidarity, The People's Commission Network (Montreal) 514-848-7583 - [email] - [link] ----------

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by Tracey Tyler, legal affairs reporter
Source: The Toronto Star
URL: [link]
Date: April 9, 2010

Lawyers representing low-income Ontarians found out by chance this week the province’s legal aid plan has stopped funding civil cases and is urging lawyers to take cases for free in the hope their fees will come from any money a court awards to clients.

The development comes during a time of upheaval at Legal Aid Ontario, with tensions also escalating over the future of Ontario’s 80 legal clinics, which serve the disabled, the elderly, immigrants and aboriginals, among others.

A March 30 memo sent to clinics from the Association of Community Legal Clinics of Ontario said Bob Ward, chief executive officer of Legal Aid Ontario, has indicated it would “make more sense” if there were only 40 to 50 clinics and feels the clinic system has grown stale, with too much money spent on administration.

Kristian Justesen, a Legal Aid spokesperson, told the Star Friday there is “no plan or idea” to reduce the number of clinics, but noted mergers of some clinics, including two in northern Ontario, have improved services and reduced costs.


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by John Cross Source: Dawg's Blog URL: [link] Date: April 1, 2010 Mohamed Harkat's security certificate hearing took an...interesting turn yesterday:

The federal government case against Ottawa terror suspect Mohamed Harkat appears to have suffered a significant blow Wednesday when a document was introduced in court showing that Abu Zubaydah, once considered a master terrorist and 9/11 mastermind, actually had nothing to do with the attacks. Even more surprising, the document, which quotes U.S court filings declassified last week, shows that Zubaydah, once believed to be one of the top leaders in al-Qaeda, was not even a member of the terrorist group.

As I noted earlier:

Zubaydah, whose alleged importance to al-Qaeda is now in some dispute, was waterboarded 83 times by US officials. The suspect validity of his evidence had, I thought, already been acknowledged by Canadian officials. Judge [Simon] Noël has stated, in any case, that he will not accept evidence obtained through torture.

Sounds like the dispute about Zubaydah is now over. Water under the bridge, one might say. So much for the amazing fits of fantasy that prolonged torture evokes. Here's another:

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by Adrienne Ascah Source: 24HR Ottawa URL: [link] Date: March 29, 2010 The deportation hearing for Ottawa resident Mohamed Harkat, a terrorist suspect, continues on Tuesday (March 30) . The following is an edited interview with wife Sophie Harkat. 24HR > If Mohamed loses his trial he will be deported to his native Algeria, where he says he will face torture for his affiliation with an outlawed Islamist political party. How long will he have to wait for a verdict? SOPHIE > First of all, I would like to say that I will not accept a negative decision in his case. I don't think an innocent person should be sent back to face torture, death or imprisonment. It will take weeks before a decision comes down. It could take months. 24HR > Your husband was first arrested on Dec 10, 2002. Did you receive any community support in those early days? SOPHIE > I did right away, actually. Very quickly a group came together called DACO (Direct Action Casework Ottawa) and we organized our first rally (a few months later). Somebody from Toronto emailed me, saying "You are not alone" because there were three other cases in Toronto of security certificates, which I didn't even know existed.

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by Mohammed Adam Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: April 2, 2010 Zubaydah lawyer suggests U.S. info post-9/11 not reliable

[PHOTO: Mohamed Harkat attends a rally at the Human Rights Monument in Ottawa March 27, 2010.] The lawyer who forced the U.S. government to admit that Abu Zubaydah is not an al-Qaeda terrorist says the revelation could seriously jeopardize the federal government's case against Mohamed Harkat. "If Zubaydah wasn't a member of al-Qaeda, was never behind 9/11, had nothing to do with any terrorist operation and had no knowledge of them, wasn't involved in camps that were helping al-Qaeda, how can there be any basis for the allegation against Mr. Harkat?" Brent Mickum said in an interview Thursday. "The case is probably falling apart unless there is other information that will allow it to proceed." Mickum said his experience from the Zubaydah saga and others tells him that anyone relying on post-9/11 information from the U.S. to prosecute a case is walking on thin ice, because such information is unreliable. Anyone who uses such information does so "at their peril," he said. "The fact of the matter is, people have been relying on information provided by the Department of Defence and the Central Intelligence Agency forever and that evidence has almost uniformly proved to be worthless."

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by Mohammed Adam Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: April 1, 2010 U.S. report says his reputed al-Qaeda associate actually had no ties to terrorist group

OTTAWA - The federal government case against Ottawa terror suspect Mohamed Harkat appears to have suffered a significant blow Wednesday when a document was introduced in court showing that Abu Zubaydah, once considered a master terrorist and 9/11 mastermind, actually had nothing to do with the attacks. Even more surprising, the document, which quotes U.S court filings declassified last week, shows that Zubaydah, once believed to be one of the top leaders in al-Qaeda, was not even a member of the terrorist group. One of Harkat’s lawyers, Norm Boxall, said the information is significant because part of the government’s case against Harkat is that he is an associate of Zubaydah. If Zubaydah has no ties to al-Qaeda, as now appears to be the case, a large chunk of the case against Harkat is under question. The document, a report under the byline of Jason Leopold, quoted U.S. court documents, which say the American government now admits that Zubaydah did not have “any direct role in or advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,” and was neither a “member” of al-Qaeda nor “formally” identified with the terrorist organization.

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Source: Radio-Canada URL: [link] Date: 31 mars 2010 =============== Voir aussi: AUDIO: Un reportage de René Hardy.

=============== Les avocats de Mohamed Harkat, soupçonné d'activités terroristes, ont déposé mercredi, en Cour fédérale, une requête demandant la suspension des procédures entreprises contre leur client. Cette mesure vise à mettre fin à toute la procédure portant sur la validité du certificat de sécurité délivré en 2002 contre ce résident d'Ottawa d'origine algérienne. La défense a rappelé au juge Simon Noël la série de bévues et d'erreurs commises par le service secret canadien dans cette affaire. Elle a évoqué des notes d'entrevues effacées et des faux-fuyants des agents du service, qui avaient omis de dire au juge que certains de leurs informateurs avaient échoué des tests de polygraphes. La direction du Service canadien du renseignement de sécurité (SCRS) avait jugé cette omission assez grave pour commander une enquête interne. La défense a aussi rappelé la perquisition illégale survenue au domicile de Mohamed Harkat en mai 2009, sans que la cour en soit informée. Selon l'avocat Matt Webber, cette série d'erreurs suffit à stopper la procédure contre son client. En matinée, les avocats du gouvernement ont contredit les allégations de la défense, faites mardi, voulant que les droits fondamentaux de Harkat aient été violés dans cette affaire. Ils allèguent que Mohamed Harkat et les avocats spéciaux nommés pour protéger ses droits connaissent bien la preuve contre lui, même si une partie de celle-ci demeure secrète. Le tribunal se penche depuis la fin janvier sur la validité du certificat de sécurité délivré à l'endroit de Mohamed Harkat. Les autorités canadiennes le soupçonnent d'être un agent dormant du réseau terroriste Al-Qaïda, ce que Harkat a toujours nié. TOUS DROITS RÉSERVÉS © CBC/RADIO-CANADA 2010

by Jason Leopold Source: Truthout.org URL: [link] Date: March 30, 2010 The Justice Department has quietly recanted nearly every major claim the Bush administration had made about "high-value" detainee Abu Zubaydah, a Guantanamo prisoner who at one time was said to have planned the 9/11 attacks and was the No. 2 and 3 person in al-Qaeda. Additionally, Justice has backed away from claims intelligence officials working in the Clinton administration had also leveled against Zubaydah, specifically, that he was directly involved in the planning of the 1998 embassy bombings in East Africa. Zubaydah's name is redacted throughout a 109-page court document the government filed in US District Court in Washington, DC in response to 213 discovery requests Zubaydah's attorneys made in connection with his habeas corpus case, which sought evidence to support, among other claims, the government's position that Zubaydah was a top al-Qaeda official and close confidant of Osama Bin Laden. But he is identified on the first page of the filing by his real name, Zayn Al Abidin Muhammad Husayn. He was the first detainee captured after 9/11 who was subjected to nearly a dozen brutal torture techniques, which included waterboarding, and was the catalyst, the public has been told, behind the Bush administration's "enhanced interrogation" program. Former Vice President Dick Cheney has publicly admitted that he personally approved of Zubaydah's waterboarding. Illustration courtesy of Mindfully.org

His torture was videotaped and the tapes later destroyed. The destruction of 90 videotapes of his interrogations is the focus of a high-level criminal investigation being conducted by John Durham, a federal prosecutor appointed special counsel in 2008 by then-Attorney General Michael Mukasey. In recent months, former Bush speechwriter Marc Thiessen has been on a public relations campaign promoting his book, "Courting Disaster," in which he defended the torture of Zubaydah, claiming that he reviewed classified intelligence that revealed Zubaydah's torture produced actionable intelligence that thwarted imminent plots against the United States. But court documents unclassified last week debunk Thiessen's assertions as well as those made by, among others, George W. Bush, who said Zubaydah was one of al-Qaeda's "top operatives plotting and planning death and destruction on the United States." For the first time, the government now officially admits that Zubaydah did not have "any direct role in or advance knowledge of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001," and was neither a "member" of al-Qaeda nor "formally" identified with the terrorist organization. The government now claims Zubaydah is being detained based on his "actions" as an "affiliate" of al-Qaeda.

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by The Canadian Press
Source: CTV News
URL: [link]
Date: Wednesday Mar. 31, 2010


OTTAWA — The security-certificate case against Mohamed Harkat should be tossed out because it violates the Ottawa man's constitutional rights, his lawyer says.

Details of the federal evidence remain cloaked in secrecy, making it impossible for Harkat to defend himself, Norm Boxall said during a Federal Court of Canada hearing Tuesday.

"In my submission, the summaries we've received are not sufficient for Mr. Harkat to meet the case," Boxall said.

Harkat's legal team began two days of arguments aimed at halting the proceedings on the basis they violate his guarantees of fundamental justice under the Charter of Rights.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service alleges Harkat, arrested in December 2002, is an al Qaeda sleeper agent with ties to several Islamic extremists.

The former gas-station employee and pizza delivery man denies any involvement with terrorism.

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