CSIS

Original author: Bill Curry Source: The Globe and Mail URL: [link] Date: August 4, 2005

Spy agency rebuked for denying post to consul-general, citing national security

Ottawa - Canada's spy agency received a rebuke yesterday from its civilian watchdog, which concluded that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was wrong to block a diplomatic appointment to India over national security concerns. The Security Intelligence Review Committee confirmed yesterday that it had issued its report into the matter after a closed-door investigation that heard from the CSIS agents involved in the decision and former cabinet minister Herb Dhaliwal, who had lobbied for his friend Bhupinder Liddar to get the newly created position of consul-general to Chandigarh, India, in the fall of 2003. Mr. Dhaliwal, who has seen the report, said SIRC has delivered a "devastating" critique of the spy agency that should raise serious concerns about how Canadians can wrongly be listed as security threats without their knowledge. "This report is devastating to CSIS," he said. "It's extremely critical of the way they've conducted themselves, the way they did the evaluation, the conclusions they came to. "If I was in government now, I would have some very serious questions for CSIS and the way they operate. I think that it's really unbelievable if people knew the whole story about the conduct of CSIS."

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Original author: Riad Saloojee Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: June 9, 2005

Treatment of Muslims and Arabs by RCMP and CSIS raises troubling questions, says Riad Saloojee

Reports about RCMP and CSIS security visitations in the Canadian Muslim and Arab community have been circulating since Sept. 11, 2001. In many of these instances - some documented, some not - individuals who were visited by security officials complained they had been harassed or intimidated. Documenting this information has been difficult. People are afraid to identify themselves, they are concerned about reprisal and many hail from countries where reporting on abuse of power is a no-no. Even in Canada, experts in anti-discrimination advocacy recognize that only a small fraction of such activity is documented. Imagine then, the reticence about reporting when - whether correct or not - an individual ran the risk of being "linked" to terrorism in the public eye. The stigma of being labelled a terrorist packs a punch akin to being called a pedophile or serial killer. Not everyone has the guts and grit of Maher Arar to defend his or her rights.

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Original author: Colin Perkel and Canadian Press Source: CANOE CNEWS URL: [link] Date: April 9, 2005

TORONTO (CP) - Canada's spy agency admits it shared information it obtained from a Canadian teen being held as an enemy combatant at Guantanamo Bay with American intelligence services, documents show. The transcripts of a cross-examination obtained by The Canadian Press also show the agency did not ask for guarantees the United States would not use the information in any prosecution that could result in the death penalty for Omar Khadr. "We did not seek those assurances," William Hooper, assistant director of operations for the Canadian Intelligence Security Service, told Khadr's lawyer during the closed-door hearing last month.

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Original author: Tonda Maccharles Source: The Toronto Star URL: [link] Date: March 8, 2005 Mosques being monitored by agency Two top officials speak to senators

OTTAWA - A Canadian landed immigrant is a key commander affiliated with Al Qaeda in Iraq, a top CSIS official says. CSIS director Jim Judd told a Senate committee yesterday "the ranks of trained terrorist fighters in Iraq are bolstered by individuals from around the world, including from Europe and Canada."

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Original author: Nelson Wyatt
Source: Macleans.ca
URL: [link]
Date: February 22, 2005


MONTREAL (CP) - A suspected terrorist suggested Tuesday he's being set up by Canadian intelligence agents working behind the scenes with Moroccan authorities.

Adil Charkaoui criticized the Canadian Security Intelligence Service after federal government lawyers denied a Radio-Canada report that Moroccan authorities had issued an arrest warrant for the 31-year-old last September.

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Original author: Sue Montgomery Source: The Montreal Gazette URL: N/A Date: January 12, 2005 lawyer: Charkaoui should be freed after evidence destroyed

MONTREAL - Since Canada's spy agency destroyed what could be key evidence in the case against Adil Charkaoui, the security certificate keeping the Montrealer detained without charge should be quashed, his lawyer argued yesterday. Dominique Larochelle said the destruction of notes and transcripts of interviews the Canadian Security Intelligence Service conducted with Mr. Charkaoui in 2002 is a violation that could prejudice her client.

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Original author: Kevin Ma
Source: Centretown News (Ottawa)
Date: December 10, 2004

Abid Jan says he came to Canada to find peace and security. Instead, he found only fear and loathing. He blames Canada's intelligence services. Jan is a Pakistani journalist who fled his homeland in 2002 because of death threats from local intelligence agents. He was granted refugee status in Canada, and now works as a community development officer at the South-East Ottawa Centre for a Healthy Community.

He says that on April 20, 2004, when he went to the immigration department for what he thought was a routine meeting, he was instead interviewed by a man from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, his third interview with the agency since his arrival in Canada. "The truth is" Jan says of his experience with CSIS, "we suffered as much here as we did in Pakistan. We face the same fear here."

Community groups say some Muslim immigrants live in fear because of anti-terrorism investigations conducted by CSIS.

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From the CBC: "Marchessault claimed CSIS intelligence reports often leave out information because it doesn't fit the agency's agenda"

Mohamed's lawyer today questioned a former CSIS agent, Jean Luc Marchessault. His answers were revealing. They lend credence to the theory that when CSIS lawyers cry "national security" the security of the nation is not at all what they are trying to protect. It is the exposure of their own incompetence and wrongdoing that is being safe-guarded. Full CBC news item here: [link]

Original author: Andrew Duffy Source: The Ottawa Citizen URL: [link] Date: December 7,2004

Harkat's lawyer obtains information despite government's objections

The question of whether Canada's spy agency pays its sources for information led federal lawyers yesterday to suggest the answer to that question could imperil national security. A former Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent, Jean-Luc Marchessault, was asked the question as the lawyer for accused terrorist Mohamed Harkat sought to understand what motivates CSIS informants. CSIS is accusing Mr. Harkat of being an al-Qaeda operative, in part on the strength of unnamed sources. Before Mr. Marchessault could answer, however, a federal lawyer interjected, reminding Justice Eleanor Dawson of her duty to protect national security. James Mathieson suggested she should consider closing the court to the public in order to hear Mr. Marchessault's answer. That answer, he argued, falls within the ambit of the Security of Information Act, which became law in late 2001. The law makes it an offence to disclose any information about how the government uses, collects, deciphers, assesses, handles or reports security intelligence information. "CSIS needs to have their methodologies and operational methods protected," Mr. Mathieson said. "To reveal some would be injurious to national security." Mr. Harkat's lawyer, Paul Copeland, said the suggestion "boggled" his mind. "If it threatens our national security to find out whether or not CSIS pays its informants, then we're in real trouble in this country," he said.

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A report by Colin Freeze of The Globe and Mail HERE