by Andrew Duffy
Source: The Ottawa Citizen
URL: [link]
Date: June 2, 2010


OTTAWA — Mohamed Harkat's lawyer told a Federal Court judge he cannot rely on the accuracy of 13 intercepted phone conversations summarized by Canada's spy agency.

The summaries potentially offer evidence that the Algerian-born Harkat lied to the court about his links to Islamic extremism.

But Harkat lawyer Matt Webber argued the summaries hold little evidentiary value since the spy agency destroyed the original recordings and translations of the alleged conversations.

"These summaries really have no place in a court of law," Webber said in his final argument Tuesday. "It doesn't deserve to be called evidence."

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) used to routinely destroy material since it considered evidence-gathering the job of the police, not an intelligence agency.

Two years ago, however, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered CSIS to stop destroying original notes and recordings.

In the Harkat case, Webber told Judge Simon Noel, CSIS already suffers from a serious credibility problem. Last year, it was revealed the agency did not disclose for years that one of its key informants in the Harkat case had failed a lie-detector test.Harkat came to Canada as a refugee in October 1995 after spending five years in Pakistan. He has worked in Ottawa as a pizza delivery man and gas station attendant.

The federal government alleges that while in Pakistan, Harkat worked at a Peshawar guest house run by Saudi-born jihadist, Ibn Khattab. CSIS contends Harkat was Khattab's chauffeur and arranged for jihadists to train in Afghanistan.

CSIS also alleges that Harkat did some work for a senior al-Qaida member — Egyptian-born Canadian Ahmed Said Khadr — while in Pakistan.

The federal government wants to deport him as a threat to national security.

The 13 conversations summarized by CSIS took place between September 1996 and September 1998.

In two of those conversations, according to the CSIS summaries, Harkat asks about Khattab and says that he met Khadr more than once in Canada.

In court, Harkat has denied any links to Khattab and has maintained that he met Khadr only once, sharing a ride to Toronto.

Webber said he was offended the summaries were being used to contradict Harkat's sworn testimony, especially when CSIS has made so many mistakes in the case.

"We have to keep CSIS in perspective here," Webber warned the judge.

Noel said he understands the summaries are "worth zero" as evidence on their own, but he suggested they hold more weight when other classified information supports them.

Webber told the judge the secret material is a mystery to him — a problem, he said, that highlights the fundamental injustice of the security certificate process.

Webber said it was extremely unfair for Harkat to have to defend himself against evidence that he cannot see and cannot test.

The defence is expected to wrap up its closing arguments Wednesday.

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