Canada's terror sieve

National Post ^ | August 28 2003

[knighthawk]

Some in Ottawa know that Western nations are at war with terrorism. Sadly, others do not. The RCMP and its Public Security and Anti-Terrorism Unit know, as do CSIS and elements within Customs and Immigration Canada. Thanks to all three, 19 foreign "students" living in Canada -- 18 from Pakistan, one from India -- holding allegedly bogus documents and attending apparently sham post-secondary schools, have been detained. Authorities allege that several of them have connections to the al-Qaeda terror network and to false-front relief agencies that the United Nations has identified as financing conduits to terrorist groups in Pakistan and Afghanistan. Some of the 19 are said to have been scoping out high-profile Canadian targets such as the CN Tower, assembling explosives in their apartments and training to fly multi-engine commercial jets. One even allegedly flew his trainer over the Pickering Nuclear Generating Station just east of Toronto.

Nothing has yet been proven, and all of the detainees are innocent until judged guilty. But it is quite possible these three federal agencies prevented a terror strike in Canada or the United States -- one with eerie similarities to the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, right down to the number of suspects.

But not all federal departments are geared up to take on terrorism. While the RCMP and CSIS were tipped off to the first of the 19 suspects by a keen-eyed visa officer at our immigration office in Mexico City, the refugee wing of Citizenship and Immigration Canada (CIC) seems to have learned little in the last two years. The flow of approved refugees from terror-incubating countries such as Pakistan, Algeria, Syria and Iran has barely slowed since September, 2001. While many of the newcomers are no doubt legitimate asylum seekers, precedent shows a significant minority likely pose a threat to national security. Indeed, most suspected terrorists believed to be currently residing in Canada entered as refugees. Unless and until this hole is plugged, Canada will be a weak link in the West's fight against terrorism.

And while the arrest of 19 terror suspects two weeks ago is a reassuring sign, one fact in this case illuminates another large hole in our security: Each member of the group reportedly entered Canada before 9/11. That means Ottawa has not seen fit in the two years since to conduct a wholesale audit of foreign persons in this country on student visas. (The U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service has, as have British immigration officials.) Had the aforementioned Mexico City visa officer not spotted irregularities in one of the suspects' application for permanent residency, it is possible the alleged cell would have gone undetected until it had carried out an attack, if that was its purpose.

It cannot be that CIC is unaware of the threat, particularly from Pakistan and other countries with large, militant Muslim populations. Several high-profile Canadian terror suspects -- including four members of Toronto's Khadr family and Mohammed Harkat -- lived and trained in Pakistan. A variety of Muslim front-charities are known to send most of the money they raise in Canada to suspected terrorist groups in Pakistan. Some intelligence agencies think Osama bin Laden is hiding there; the Pakistani government seized his chief lieutenant and 9/11 mastermind, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, in March. The Pakistani secret service created, trained and funded the Taliban, Afghanistan's former Islamic fundamentalist government. For CIC officials to turn a blind eye to all this and still neither suspend refugee claims from Pakistan nor systematically examine the activities of Pakistani nationals already here amounts to woeful negligence.

Canada could be doing more in other respects too. This week, it was reported that liquor, illegal migrant, gun and cigarette smuggling remains rampant in Canada, especially through the Akwesasne and Kahnawake reserves in Ontario and Quebec. Sources say the Lebanese-based group Hezbollah is involved, and the RCMP believes some of the profits go to Middle Eastern terrorists. A "disturbing amount" of explosives and military-style weapons are also coming in. But -- putting multiculturalism and political correctness ahead of national security -- Ottawa refuses to subject aboriginals living on these two reserves to the same customs inspections faced by non-aboriginal Canadians.

It was also alleged last week that a terror suspect arrested in Montreal in May, Adil Charkaoui, had trained at an al-Qaeda camp in Afghanistan in the summer of 1998 with convicted bomber Ahmed Ressam. There could be scores of "sleeper" terrorists in Canada, many implanted here before 9/11.

The capper, though, came Tuesday with the announcement by John Manley, the Finance Minister, that he would be taking $1-billion from a variety of federal operating budgets to pay for relief from the recent SARS, mad cow, black out and B.C. forest fire disasters. Of the departments slated to take hits, five have significant national security duties. Defence is being asked to come up with $200-million in savings and the Solicitor General, which has responsibility for the RCMP, $21-million. Customs, which already has too few agents checking the people and goods coming across our borders, especially at our ports, will suffer a $22-million reduction, while Justice, which must prosecute terrorists, will dip $25-million and Immigration $14-million.

The bottom line: Much of official Ottawa still takes a lackadaisical attitude to securing our nation against terrorist groups and their supporters. With the Americans already angered by our refusal to join their coalition of the willing in Iraq, just imagine what would happen to cross-border trade if another 9/11 attack there were launched by terrorists operating in Canada. Bans of our beef and softwood lumber would be the least of our concerns.

[knighthawk]

Ping

[Diogenesis]

Canada knew they lied to the WHO about SARS, too.

[Mears]

Our friend(?)Canada is cutting back on security?What a surprise.

With our example on our southern border why on earth should Canada spend tons of money in the north?

We aren't setting much of an example.

[Dark Wing]

I told you that I thought this might come to pass.

Thank goodness that the Canadian security services take the terrorist threat more seriously than the Canadian Liberal government.