CSIS uses torture information: SIRC

This is hardly news. What would be news is if anyone were disciplined for doing this. The situation is even worse since somehow damaging false "information" manages to get leaked to the press in a way that destroys the reputation of anyone accused of terrorism no matter how inoccent. Arar's case is a perfect example of this. No one has even been punished for these leaks because no one is ever found. Consider this from the Star:
"The judge points to a story published by the Ottawa Citizen and picked up by other papers, which relied upon a leaked intelligence file, provided to the reporter by an unnamed "security source." According to the dossier, Arar had been to a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan, an allegation that O'Connor concludes was absolutely false.
O'Connor documents another media report, published by the National Post, which quoted an unnamed "senior Canadian intelligence source," who said Arar "is not a virgin," and that "there is more than meets the eye here." Anonymous "Canadian and U.S. intelligence officials," were said to be "100 per cent sure" that Arar had been to a terrorist training camp. "

We now know this "information" was wrong. This article is from news1130.



CSIS uses torture information: spy watchdog
February 12, 2008 - 3:59 pm By: Jim Bronskill, THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA - An investigation by the watchdog over the Canadian Security Intelligence Service concludes the spy agency "uses information obtained by torture" - perhaps its bluntest assessment of CSIS's intelligence-gathering practices to date.
The Security Intelligence Review Committee, which began looking into the issue two years ago, stops short of accepting Toronto lawyer Paul Copeland's assertion that CSIS had shown a "total lack of concern" about evidence possibly gathered through coercive means.
But it finds that CSIS's concern has focused on the impact that torture might have on the reliability of information it uses, rather than obligations under the Charter of Rights, the Criminal Code and international treaties "that absolutely reject torture."
Questions about Canadian reliance on information extracted from suspected terrorists through brutal methods have arisen in several high-profile cases.
Copeland's complaint to the review committee, which reports to Parliament, stemmed from evidence CSIS entered in the case of client Mohamed Harkat who is slated for deportation to his native Algeria under a national security certificate.
CSIS contends Harkat, a former pizza delivery man, is an Islamic extremist and collaborator with Osama bin Laden's terrorist network - a charge he denies.
During bail proceedings for Harkat in 2005, Copeland questioned a senior CSIS analyst, identified only as P.G., whether he ever asked if information he handled was obtained through torture.
P.G. insisted he would usually try to corroborate such material through independent sources.
Copeland was left with the impression the spy service made no effort to determine whether information was extracted by torture.
In its report, recently delivered to Copeland, committee member Aldea Landry noted CSIS is required, before entering a foreign liaison arrangement, to address the country's human rights record. That includes possible abuses by its security or intelligence organizations.
In addition, arrangements with countries that do not share Canada's respect for human rights are to be considered only when contact is necessary to protect the security of Canada.
"Based on these facts, I find CSIS is concerned with human rights, but nevertheless uses information obtained by torture."
In an interview, Copeland said Tuesday he does not take much comfort from the review committee's finding: "It's nice to have them say it, but what are they doing to try and prevent CSIS from (using such information)?"
Landry called on CSIS to promptly implement the recommendations of the federal inquiry into the case of Maher Arar.
Landry said the changes - and any that might flow from an ongoing inquiry into the foreign imprisonment of three other Arab-Canadians - would ensure the use of information obtained from other countries does not violate Canadian law or treaty obligations.
Justice Dennis O'Connor, who led an inquiry into Arar's case, made a number of recommendations in September 2006 intended to guard against Canadian complicity in torture and to safeguard the rights of those confronted with evidence that may have been gathered using extreme methods.
Arar, an Ottawa engineer, was sent to Syria and imprisoned in Damascus after being detained at a U.S. airport in September 2002. O'Connor concluded false information the RCMP provided to American officials likely led to Arar's deportation.
In committee report, Landry said CSIS had made some strides toward ensuring compliance with O'Connor's recommendations but that "it will take some time" to fully do so.
Manon Berube, a CSIS spokeswoman, said the intelligence service would "closely evaluate" the new review committee report as part of "its ongoing efforts to improve how it deals with this difficult issue."
Former Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci is currently probing the actions of Canadian officials in the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin.
The trio maintain they were tortured in Syria - and in the case of El Maati in Egypt as well - due to flawed information from Canadian security agencies.

Air India Inquiry: Watchdog reviewed only some of the tapes

This inquiry has revealed that there were constant turf battles between the CSIS and the RCMP. This portion reveals that in effect the oversight body SIRC was probably mislead or perhaps the body itself did not report the facts correctly. Only fifty tapes of several hundred were reviewed. One wonders too why on earth normal protocol of erasing tapes would be followed given that the main suspect in the case was recorded. There are all kinds of weird aspects to the case that show that in some areas the intelligence agencies were uncoordinated and uncooperative and at times incompetent.


AIR INDIA INQUIRY

Watchdog reviewed only part of the tapes
BILL CURRY

November 8, 2007

OTTAWA -- The oft-cited 1992 report exonerating Canada's spy agency for erasing key tapes related to the Air India bombing got it wrong, a retired Mountie testified yesterday.

The federal government had long cited the conclusions of the 1991-02 annual report from the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the civilian watchdog that oversees the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, in arguing that a full public inquiry was unnecessary.

However, retired RCMP Sergeant Terry Goral, who was involved with the Air India investigation and an 11-page RCMP memo assisting SIRC's Air India report, said SIRC's highly publicized conclusion was based on a misunderstanding.

"It is often said that there was nothing on the tapes and that we agree with that," Mr. Goral testified yesterday. "However, if you read further, they talk about 50 tapes that are reviewed and that there was no significant criminal information uncovered on these 50 tapes. Well, those were only 50 tapes out of a couple hundred tapes."
Mark Frieman, the inquiry's lead counsel, pounced on the comment.

"So am I to understand from that, that the message of [SIRC chairman John] Bassett may not have been entirely in alignment with the facts in the matter, on tape erasures?"

"On that issue, yes," Mr. Goral replied.

He said the police did get some leads out of the summaries of the tapes, which, he said, suggests the actual tapes would have been useful for the criminal investigation.

The decision by CSIS agents to erase audiotapes once they had been translated and summarized has long been a key point of concern for the families of Air India victims. The agency has said it was simply following normal protocol, but some former agents have testified they regret no one set the tapes aside once the bombing occurred.

Canada's spy agency had been taping the phone conversations of several individuals in British Columbia leading up to the bombing, including Talwinder Singh Parmar, who is widely believed to have been the mastermind behind the 1985 bombing that killed 329 people.

Spy Agency went too far.

So the CSIS violated rights and sent him to certain jail etc. in the US even though he was a Canadian citizen and under Canadian law was liable to no criminal prosecution here. Instead of waiting for some US extradition order the CSIS managed to get him to "voluntarily" go to the US where he confessed to terrorist activity and is waiting to be sentenced. The CSIS could care less that they violated his rights and did not give him legal counsel. Those responsible will go scot free and no one will complain since Jabarah is an admitted terrorist--although who knows how the admission came about. SIRC seems to have a bark but no bite.

Spy agency went too far, watchdog says
CSIS exceeded mandate and violated the rights of Canadian `terrorist,' review panel reports

Oct 31, 2007 04:30 AM
Jim Bronskill
THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA–The Canadian Security Intelligence Service violated the constitutional rights of a citizen and strayed beyond its security mandate into the realm of law enforcement, says a federal watchdog.

In its annual report tabled late yesterday, the Security Intelligence Review Committee said Canada's spy agency "arbitrarily detained" Mohammed Mansour Jabarah in contravention of the Charter of Rights.

Jabarah, a Canadian citizen, is an admitted Al Qaeda member and leader of a terrorist cell that plotted to bomb the American and Israeli embassies in Singapore and Manila. He was apprehended in Oman in March 2002 after the plan was derailed.

"Jabarah is a terrorist but also a Canadian citizen, and no matter how despicable his actions, the Charter conferred on him certain fundamental rights," the review committee says in the report to Parliament.

CSIS officials travelled to Oman and arranged for Jabarah's return to Canada and subsequent transfer to the United States on a government-owned aircraft, since he apparently could not be charged with a crime under Canadian law.

He pleaded guilty in the U.S. to a number of terrorism-related offences. Jabarah has not been sentenced and remains behind bars.

The review committee, which reports to Parliament, examined CSIS's investigation against service operational policy and procedures, ministerial direction and applicable Canadian law, including the CSIS Act and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The committee also obtained legal advice from Gerard LaForest, a former Supreme Court justice and Charter expert.

The report found Jabarah's decisions, made without the benefit of any independent legal advice, resulted in his self-incrimination and surrender to U.S. authorities.

"SIRC's review raised questions regarding CSIS's contention that Jabarah's decisions were made freely and voluntarily."

The committee said a court would also have considered various factors, including: Jabarah's age, his emotional state, whether his fear of the alternatives influenced his return to Canada from Oman, the length of time he spent in the company of CSIS officials while in Canada, and the circumstances surrounding his decision to surrender himself to a foreign jurisdiction.

A CSIS official told the committee Jabarah was not "read his rights" because CSIS isn't a police service. "This response, subsequently confirmed in writing by the service, demonstrates a misunderstanding of the application of the Charter to government representatives carrying out their official duties."

The committee found Jabarah could not be prosecuted for any crime in Canada, since his terrorist activities pre-dated Canada's Anti-terrorism Act. Therefore neither CSIS nor the police had any right to detain him. Based on these and other circumstances, the committee concluded Jabarah was "arbitrarily detained" by CSIS in violation of the Charter.

In addition, his rights to silence, to legal counsel and to remain in Canada were breached, the report says.

The review committee also concluded CSIS "strayed from its security intelligence mandate into the area of law enforcement."

CSIS did not immediately respond to the report.

A spokesperson for Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the government fully accepts the review committee's findings.