http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/TorontoSun/News/2004/01/20/318488.html Tue, January 20, 2004
5 million on terrorism list
[Tubavil: Jews? Christians? Buddhists? or...muslims?
Canuck: U.S. on the lookout for 'potential problem'
By TOM GODFREY, TORONTO SUN
U.S. security agents have a master list of five million people worldwide thought to be potential terrorists or criminals, officials say. "The U.S. lookout index contains some five million names of known terrorists and other persons representing a potential problem," Brian Davis, a senior Canadian immigration official in Paris, said in a confidential document obtained by the Sun.
Names on the list are compared against those applying for visas or on flights travelling to the U.S.
Anyone whose name is on the list is questioned or banned from entering the U.S. -- as passengers were on two British Airways flights to Los Angeles two weeks ago.
The master list was revealed by U.S. embassy officials to a Canadian standing immigration committee in April 2002. Its existence was revealed in Davis' document, obtained by Montreal lawyer Richard Kurland through an Access to Information request.
Davis said Canadian visa officers abroad do not keep an extensive list like the U.S. because terrorists can use bogus documents and change their identities.
"We examine each application according to profiles," he said. "(We) apply experience and knowledge gained from a variety of sources. Canada's approach to identifying persons who may pose a danger was as sound as possible."
CSIS agents in Paris send a "brief" to Ottawa for cases that require more in-depth investigation.
Speaking of Canada.............
Nfld. stowaways in custody while immigration officials investigate arrivals
DENE MOORE
ST. JOHN'S, Nfld. (CP) - Immigration officials say they will review the case of three stowaways who arrived in Newfoundland aboard a cargo ship to see whether the island's busy shipping ports are a weak spot for illegal entry into Canada.
Two men were found shivering in the snow over the weekend after they were seen jumping from an Icelandic vessel docked in Argentia, Nfld. A third man was held by the crew of the Skogafoss until police arrived Saturday evening.
"They're being detained," Joan Walsh, spokeswoman for Citizenship and Immigration Canada in Newfoundland and Labrador, said Tuesday.
Walsh said Immigration officials were still gathering information.
"If there are indications that there are some areas of weakness anywhere . . . that's looked at when all of the information is gathered," she said. "It's a normal process. If a route opens up, it's investigated through intelligence and a decision is made as to what action is to be taken from there."
Canadian ports have come under increased scrutiny since the September 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States and the climate of fear that followed.
But the men - a 27-year-old from Iran, a 36-year-old from Eritrea and a 32-year-old from Iraq - are the first stowaways in the area in some time, if not the first ever, said Const. Raymond Jullien.
RCMP followed footprints in the snow to find the two men who jumped ship. Dressed in light summer clothing, they did not make it far.
The Eritrean man "was hiding in the snow under a trailer," said Jullien. "He had been in the snow for at least 45 minutes so he was a bit cold."
The other man, from Baghdad, was found more than two kilometres away about an hour and half after RCMP were called.
"He was in the snow in the ditch," Jullien said. "He could hardly walk."
The men were taken to the local health centre for examination and later released. All are in fairly good health, say Immigration officials.
Speaking in broken English, the men told police they hid in the engine hold of the cargo ship for a week.
"The man from Iraq told us that when they ran out of water on the boat, for them to get water they licked the side of the boat for the condensation," Jullien said.
The Iraqi man indicated that he left his country last May 18 and seemed surprised when told Saddam Hussein's regime had been toppled, police said.
"They jumped from boat to boat to arrive here in Newfoundland," Jullien said.
Although one or more of the stowaways indicated they have family in Canada, police do not believe they knew they were in Canada when they jumped ship.
"When we first got to him and helped him up from the ditch he looked at me and said, 'Canada? Canada?' like he was wondering if he was in Canada," Jullien said of the Iraqi stowaway.
"They just get put on a boat and just go on like that. Wherever they get, they get."
The men are not facing criminal charges.
Immigration officials would not say whether they have made refugee claims.
http://canadaeast.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040120/CPN/24728024