15:58 15th Oct 2004  
Directeur Intellfrance <directeur@intellfrance.info>   
Terrorisme: 'Dangers for Canada are real'  

'Dangers for Canada are real'
'Absurd' not to fear attacks, PM's security advisor says
  
Stewart Bell 
National Post 


Friday, October 15, 2004


OTTAWA - The Prime Minister's national security advisor told a 
major security and intelligence conference yesterday it would be
"absurd" to believe terrorists will not attack Canada.

"Osama bin Laden has publicly identified Canada as a country he 
believes his followers should attack," Robert Wright said. "He 
ranked Canada as fifth out of seven countries and every other 
country on that list has already been attacked.

"The Bali and Madrid bombings are examples," he said.

"So this is not someone else's problem. And experience shows 
that it's absurd to think that these attacks could not happen 
here. The Air-India and Ressam cases demonstrate that the 
dangers within Canada are real."

Ahmed Ressam was the al-Qaeda-trained Montreal resident who 
built a massive bomb in Vancouver and tried to smuggle it into 
the United States to blow up Los Angeles International Airport. 
He was caught by a U.S. Customs officer.

Mr. Wright made his comments at the opening of the annual 
conference of the Canadian Association of Security and 
Intelligence Studies, which brings together academics, 
government officials and security professionals.

Unlike their allies in the United States and United Kingdom, 
officials in Ottawa have traditionally been reluctant to discuss
the terrorist threat to Canada, but Mr. Wright's speech comes at
a time of unprecedented fears that terrorists may be preparing 
to strike.

Bin Laden named Canada as a target in November, 2002, and an al-
Qaeda manual posted on the Internet in March called for attacks 
on Canadians.

Documents uncovered from Afghanistan show al-Qaeda ordered an 
operative to study possible targets in Canada, primarily Israeli
and Jewish community buildings.

Last year, police in Pakistan found a list of potential targets 
in Ontario, including Toronto's Union Station, in the pocket of 
a senior al-Qaeda member. Recently, Canadian police have been 
investigating incidents they fear might be examples of terrorist
scouting.

Following his speech, Mr. Wright would not elaborate on the 
threat to Canada, but repeated his claim that the country was at
risk.

"What I exactly said was it would be absurd to believe that it 
couldn't happen here."

The theme of the conference is "Peace, Order and Public Safety 
Post 9/11: Are We Getting it Right?" and Mr. Wright responded in
the affirmative.

The Liberal's new national security policy has set the 
government on the right path, he argued.

But several security experts identified shortcomings in Ottawa's
response to the terrorist threat. Martin Rudner, director of the
Canadian Centre of Intelligence and Security Studies, said the 
government was not paying enough attention to protecting 
Canada's infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector.

He also said the problem of terrorist financing had not been 
adequately addressed. While mounting a terrorist attack may not 
be overly costly -- the 9/11 attacks are said to have cost only 
US$500,000 -- terrorists need money to support their global 
networks, he said.

Ottawa has made it illegal to raise money for terrorism, but no 
charges have been laid and several groups known to raise large 
amounts of cash in Canada -- such as the Tamil Tigers of Sri 
Lanka -- have not been outlawed by the Cabinet.

Canadian officials estimate tens of millions in suspected 
terrorist financing takes place in Canada annually. The response
 to terrorist financing, both in Canada and abroad, has been 
modest, the Carleton University professor said.

Mr. Rudner also urged the government to be more open about 
terrorist and counterterrorist activities in Canada in order to 
build public knowledge and confidence in national security. He 
said governments in other Western countries had found ways of 
keeping the public informed without compromising the 
requirements of national security.

Intelligence historian Wesley Wark, an associate professor at 
the University of Toronto, also raised concerns about the lack 
of government transparency on security and intelligence matters.
He cited the example of a research project he had launched, only
to find that, after almost four months, the government had still
not disclosed any of the documents he was seeking.

© National Post 2004