TORONTO - Canadian officials are trying to deport a highly trained Sikh terrorist assigned to kill senior Indian government officials, including a Cabinet minister, but the government's effort has been hampered by fears the assassin might be tortured.

The man, who goes by the name Bachan Singh Sogi and many other aliases, is a member of the Babbar Khalsa International, the violent Sikh separatist group believed responsible for the 1985 Air-India bombing that killed 329 people, most of them Canadians.

Mr. Sogi, 43, flew to Toronto seeking refugee status and lived in Montreal for more than a year before he was arrested in August, 2002. Intelligence and Immigration officials had determined he was a terrorist better known as Gurnham Singh and Piare.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) said it had corroborated reports that Mr. Sogi was a trained explosives and weapons expert who was planning to assassinate Prakash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab, and his son Sikhbir Singh Badal.

Also on his target list was K.P.S. Gill, the former Punjab police chief, who led India's anti-terrorism campaign against such Sikh extremist factions as the Babbar Khalsa and who is credited with bringing an end to separatist violence in the western state. [. . . . ]

The Immigration and Refugee Board, however, which was privy to secret intelligence information, ruled he should be deported on grounds of national security, and the Federal Court of Canada upheld the decision. But the case has become the latest challenge for the Canadian immigration system, which critics contend is unable to get rid of even known terrorists because it allows refugee lawyers to fend off deportation by filing repeated court appeals.

The Supreme Court of Canada ruled in 2002 that terrorists caught in Canada who fear they might be tortured in their homelands can only be deported if they pose a significant threat to Canadians, a ruling that some say cemented Canada's role as a safe haven. [. . . . ]

VANCOUVER - A group claiming to be a new version of the banned Babbar Khalsa terrorists is recruiting on the Internet.

An e-mail on a chat room hosted by Waheguroo is inviting anyone over 18 to apply with their phone number and home country to join the "Younger Babbar Khalsa (Shaheed Talwinder Singh Parmar branch)."

Mr. Parmar, a former Burnaby. B.C., resident who founded the Babbar Khalsa, was a suspect in the Air-India bombing when he was killed in the custody of Punjab police in 1992.

The e-mail writer, who identifies himself as Harmanjit Singh Khalsa, said it is difficult to fire up the Sikh separatist movement again because the India Congress party government has appointed a Sikh, Manmohan Singh, as President. [. . . . ]

The Babbar Khalsa was banned several years ago in the United States and Britain, but was outlawed just last year in Canada despite the fact that leading members were suspects in the 1985 Air India bombing.

Mr. Parmar was believed to be the mastermind of the 1985 blast that killed 329 people and a bombing the same day at Tokyo's Narita Airport.

Mr. Parmar's right-hand man in Babbar Khalsa was Kamloops, B.C., resident Ajaib Singh Bagri, one of two men on trial for the bombings.

The report of the 9/11 Commission is out (link here, searchable version here), and its bottom line conclusion seems about right to me. The Commission reports: "We Believe We Are Safer. But We Are Not Safe."

I've been quite critical of the Bush Administration's approach to Homeland Security over the past couple of years. You can read some of my criticisms here, here, here and here, and some suggestions about what to do better here, here and here. [There are loads of links to information on this site.]

Americans were reminded of just how serious this stuff can be with a report last week by Annie Jacobsen in Women's Wall Street entitled Terror in the Skies, Again? In the article, Jacobsen recounted the suspicious behavior of 14 Syrian men who said they were musicians traveling together on her Northwest Airlines flight, and the rather inadequate security response.

Jacobsen's story got a lot of attention this week, and I saw her and her husband describe their experience on MSNBC's Scarborough Country Monday night. (Video here and here.)

They seemed credible to me, and they turn out to have been telling the truth, although the immediate threat appears to have been nonexistent. [. . . . ]

[. . . . ] "After seeing 14 Middle Eastern men board separately (six together and eight individually) and then act as a group, watching their unusual glances, observing their bizarre bathroom activities, watching them congregate in small groups, knowing that the flight attendants and the pilots were seriously concerned and now knowing that federal air marshals were on board, I was officially terrified," Mrs. Jacobsen said.

"One by one, they went into the two lavatories, each spending about four minutes inside. Right in front of us, two men stood up against the emergency exit door, waiting for the lavatory to become available. The men spoke in Arabic among themselves one of the men took his camera into the lavatory. Another took his cell phone. Again, no one approached the men. Not one of the flight attendants asked them to sit down."

In an interview on July 21 with The Washington Times, Mrs. Jacobsen said she was surprised to learn afterward that flight attendants are not trained to handle terrorist attacks or the situation that happened on her flight.

"I absolutely empathize with the flight attendants. They are acting with no clear protocol," she said.

Other passengers were distraught and one woman was even crying as the events unfolded.

The plane was met by officials from the FBI, Los Angeles Police Department, Federal Air Marshal Service and Transportation Security Administration. The Syrians, who were traveling on one-way tickets, were taken into custody. [. . . . ]

CANADIAN VISA officers in Syria say one of every 10 immigration documents for this country is fake and the biggest maker of the phony travel papers are terrorist groups. "Fraudulent documents have been discovered in more than 10% of our applications," said the head of the Canadian visa office in Damascus. "The threat to the integrity of the program emerges from a variety of sources."

Police and Canadian officials said Syrian terrorist groups, like Hezbollah or even members of al-Qaida, can take advantage of lax laws there to obtain fake documents to enter Canada and then the U.S. to attack next week's U.S. Democratic convention in Boston.

Other producers of Canadian immigration documents in Syria are organized crime groups, people smugglers and unscrupulous and corrupt immigration consultants, the diplomat said.

DIRE WARNING

The dire warning and call for resources was obtained from the program manager's 2004 report to his Canadian bosses. All Canadian visa offices are required make annual reports to Ottawa. [. . . . ]

Officials with the team that lost the Sea King helicopter replacement contract yesterday are considering legal action against the federal government over a competition they charge was rigged.

Team Cormorant, the Anglo-Italian aerospace consortium, lost out yesterday to rival U.S. company Sikorsky in the competition to provide 28 naval helicopters for the Canadian Forces.

Over the past few years, Team Cormorant has alleged the competition was rigged against its chopper, a version of the EH-101 whose purchase was cancelled by then prime minister Jean Chretien in 1993.

The team points to a Defence Department report that concludes several hundred million dollars could have been saved if the government selected the same type of chopper for both search and rescue and shipboard operations. The Canadian air force already operates 15 Cormorant helicopters for search and rescue duties, and officials argue it would have made financial sense to pick the same aircraft for the Sea King replacement.

Team Cormorant has long alleged the government interfered in the process of finding a replacement for the Sea King to ensure their helicopter was not selected. They contend government officials were worried the selection of the Cormorant would embarrass the Liberals because of the $470-million in cancellation fees from the original contract. [. . . . ]

One of the lessons of the Walkerton tainted water tragedy was that governments can write all the rules and regulations they want, but if there is no one to enforce them, to catch mistakes, there is not much point.

[. . . . ] The judge [Justice Roland Haines ] also warned that the province does not have enough enforcement to detect and deter slaughterhouses, farmers or store owners who are determined to break food-safety laws.

To remedy this, Haines makes a number of recommendations, including bringing in "whistle-blower" protection for workers who expose violations, and launching an information system to track complaints, compliance violations and enforcement problems.

But his key recommendation calls for the creation of a new and powerful food safety division that would have its own investigators and be able to lay hefty fines against violators. The job is now handled by officials in the agriculture ministry. But Haines suggests the ministry staff may be too close to the industry, because he found "evidence of a reluctance to act decisively" when confronted with a safety issue. [. . . . ]

You will note NB protection applies only to criminal/unlawful behaviour, not to government waste. . . . . .

[. . . . ] Few of its viewers in the Arab world could mistake al-Jazeera's slant on the "War against Terror." In Egypt, one media commentator has dubbed it "al-Qaeda's satellite channel." Another calls it "the terrorists' mouthpiece." Though exaggerations, they contain a grain of truth.

Part of al-Jazeera's appeal is based on its direct access to important sources. Following U.S. action against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan in late 2001, blurry images of missile strikes were produced by the U.S. military. But only one voice emerged to tell the story from the targets' perspective. At the beginning of the war, al-Jazeera correspondent Tayseer Allouni was the sole international journalist reporting regularly from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan. Indeed, his face competed with prerecorded messages from Osama bin Laden for air time throughout the world.

Allouni reported on the mood in Kabul. Paula Zahn interviewed him on CNN. His demeanor was well-suited to a Western audience. But the question remains: Why was he the only reporter who the Taliban government allowed in the capital? It is curious that as soon as the Taliban left Kabul, Allouni left as well. Later, he was the subject of allegations connected to the Madrid bombings of March 11, and forbidden to leave Spain. Yet he continues to report for al-Jazeera to this day.

Allouni's access to the Taliban can only be compared to that of his colleague, Ahmed Mansour, who has access to the Zarqawi terrorist group in Iraq. Or his other colleague, Faisal al-Qasim, who, according to credible reports, worked for Iraqi intelligence under Saddam Hussein.

Members of the anti-terrorism coalition should at least put al-Jazeera in perspective, as there are many other channels and audiences out there. After sifting through eight years of al-Jazeera broadcasts and scrutinizing the connections of its journalists, it is clear to me that al-Jazeera is not an objective news source, but rather a media arm and recruiting tool of al-Qaeda. It should be treated as such by all those who would permit it entry into Canada's media market. [. . . . ]

DUBAI—A group claiming to be the European wing of Al Qaeda yesterday threatened Australia and Italy with attacks if they did not pull troops out of Iraq.

"Australian people ... we call upon you to leave Iraq before your country turns to pools of blood," said a statement by "Islamic Tawhid Group, the Al Qaeda organization, Europe" posted on a website.

"If your government refuses to withdraw and respond to us we will shake the ground beneath your feet as we did in Indonesia and columns of rigged cars will not stop," it added, referring to the 2002 Bali bombing that killed 202 people, many of them Australian tourists.

"Italian people, we advise you accept our offer and if you refuse you will hear columns of rigged cars shaking your cities," it said.

[. . . . ] The U.S. said it was no use trying to appease Al Qaeda militants. "The terrorists have demonstrated that they want to attack those who are committed to helping the Iraqi people bring about a peaceful and prosperous future," said U.S. White House spokesperson Claire Buchan. "You cannot make a separate peace with terrorists." [. . . . ]

CAIRO, Egypt - An online statement by a group representing itself as al-Qaida's European branch threatened on Saturday to turn Australia into "pools of blood" if it doesn't withdraw its troops from Iraq.

It was the second statement in a week by the Tawhid Islamic Group, a previously unknown group which on Wednesday threatened attacks in Bulgaria and Poland if their troops remained in Iraq. [. . . . ]

Bulgaria has 480-strong infantry battalion in Iraq; Poland's 2,400 troops will be cut to between 1,000 and 1,500 next January.

19 Workers Suspended at Los Alamos

19 Workers Suspended at Los Alamos July 23, 2004, Barry Massey, AP

LOS ALAMOS, N.M. (AP) - Nineteen employees at Los Alamos National Laboratory were suspended with pay while officials investigate security and safety breaches, including the disappearance of two computer disks with classified information.

Lab Director Pete Nanos announced the actions Thursday as the lab and the University of California, which manages the facility for the Department of Energy, came under renewed criticism in Congress for the latest in a series of security problems.

"I am fed up with the careless way the laboratory has been run," said Sen. Wayne Allard, who introduced legislation to terminate the university's contract to run the lab.

"Clearly, after 60 years of managing Los Alamos for the federal government, the University of California has grown too comfortable, too arrogant to properly manage this national security asset," the Colorado Republican said in a statement.

Nanos said 15 of the workers were suspended because of the two computer disks that were discovered missing July 7. Of those 15, 11 had access to a safe where the classified material was stored. [. . . . ]

A fitting burial for Arafat

A fitting burial for Arafat July 23, 04

Israel is now making contingency plans for the death of Yasser Arafat, according to recent news reports.

One of the Jewish state's foremost concerns seems to be preventing a Jerusalem burial for the mass-murdering father of modern jihadist terrorism.

Frankly, I'd love to see Arafat buried as soon as possible – and I'm not at all sure Jerusalem wouldn't be a great place.

[. . . . ] Some people get squeamish about calling for violence against "foreign leaders." Arafat is no more a legitimate foreign leader than Adolf Hitler, Saddam Hussein or Osama bin Laden. If we got a chance to knock off one of those monsters, can anyone honestly say we shouldn't have done it?

Some people say we can't eliminate Arafat because to do so would only make him a martyr to his people. Would we hesitate for a moment to kill Osama bin Laden for the same reason? No way. Therefore, that argument holds no water.

12 to be deported to China, South Korea after trying to sneak into U.S. -- Of course, they were illegally in Canada; now, how did that happen?

12 to be deported to China, South Korea after trying to sneak into U.S. Gwendolyn Richards, CanWest, July 24, 2004

Eleven women and one man who tried to sneak into the United States illegally will be deported back to South Korea and China after admitting they entered Canada just to be smuggled into the United States. All will be deported back to their home countries as soon as possible. Experts say efforts to clamp down on South Koreans attempting to cross illegally into the United States from British Columbia are pushing them to try their luck in Alberta. RCMP Corporal Catherine Galliford said border officials in British Columbia have seen an increase in the number of South Koreans smuggling themselves into the United States moving through the province and into Alberta. [. . . . ]

# posted by News Junkie Canada at 12:09 AM

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