December
7, 2007 Air India Plot
Warning Claim Rubbished By Gurmukh Singh
Toronto
The public inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing has turned
curiouser with a Canadian spy countering the claim of former Ontario
Lt. Governor James Bartleman that he saw a secret intercept about
the plot a week before the plane was blown up.
If the intercept had been acted upon, Bartleman had testified at the
inquiry in May, the Air India tragedy could have been averted. All
329 people on board were killed when Flight 182 from Toronto to New
Delhi was blown off the Irish coast June 23, 1985.
Testifying that Bartleman had "fabricated" his claim, Pierre
Lacompte, who in 1985 worked with the then secret Communication
Security Establishment, said Thursday that what Bartleman claimed in
his testimony actually never happened. No intercept about Air India
ever existed, and Bartleman was lying.
Bartleman, who served as an intelligence officer in the department
of foreign affairs when Air India was bombed, had testified in May
before he retired as the Lt Governor of Ontario.
Lacompte, now with the Canadian Intelligence Security Service (CSIS),
wondered how Bartleman could have kept this a secret for 22 years if
it had actually happened.
Since the turf war between Canada's top spy agency (CSIS) and the
top police body (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP) is blamed
for the botched Air India investigation, their bosses testified
Thursday, describing their complicated relationship and how they
could share intelligence inputs without jeopardizing national
interest.
CSIS has been blamed for not sharing information about the Air India
plot with the RCMP and erasing tapes of secret conversations of the
plot mastermind that led to acquittal of suspects.
Testifying before the inquiry, CSIS director Jim Judd said the spy
agency's prime aim was to secure conviction of a terrorist. For
this, CSIS was ready to give inputs for criminal prosecutions. He
said CSIS now consulted the RCMP before mounting surveillance
against suspects.
For his part, RCMP chief William Elliott told the inquiry that CSIS
was justified in keeping some information secret for reasons of
national security. "There needs to be some room for appropriate
levels of discretion to be appropriately exercised," he said.
He feared that if the law was changed to make it mandatory for CSIS
to share intelligence with the RCMP, that information could reach
defendants under court-ordered disclosure of police files to defence
lawyers. "It's hard to be definitive with respect to all potential
future events or situations," he said.
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