Former CSIS boss had warned about domestic terrorism

Former Canadian Security Intelligence Service Director Jim Judd has warned the government not to underestimate the spectre of domestic terrorism.Photograph by: Chris Wattie/Reuters, NP

OTTAWA — The day after his unexpected resignation was announced last spring, Canada's former spy master warned the government not to underestimate the spectre of domestic terrorism."It has sometimes been suggested that the phenomenon of terrorism has been exaggerated in Canada in the course of this decade and especially in the post-9/11 period. In fact, a brief survey of our experience in this period might lead to a relatively different conclusion," CSIS director Jim Judd wrote in a "secret" April 15, 2009 memo to then-public safety minister Peter Van Loan.Five months later, RCMP and Ottawa police launched "Project Samossa," the massive probe into a suspected Ottawa-based Islamist terror cell plotting a bombing campaign, culminating in the recent arrests.
In a censored copy of the memo, obtained by Ottawa researcher Ken Rubin under the Access to Information Act, Judd summarizes how Canadian citizens and residents had been caught and prosecuted for terrorism in Canada, the United States and other countries."An additional number of individuals — the precise number cannot be accurately determined — have been killed in terrorist or 'insurgent' related activities outside of Canada."Within the country today, we have (word redacted) individuals currently under active investigation for terrorist or extremist-related activities." (CSIS has since said it is tracking more than 200 individuals in Canada with suspected links to as many as 50 terrorist groups.)Richard Fadden took over as head of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service six weeks later and wasted little time publicly reiterating Judd's concerns.Despite a history of domestic terrorism, from Air India to the Toronto 18, Canada has a "serious blind spot" acknowledging that violent extremism imperils our national security, Fadden said in his first public speech, to an Ottawa security-intelligence conference.The following day, RCMP Commissioner William Elliott, speaking at the same conference, warned that despite success thwarting the Toronto 18 and Momin Khawaja terrorism plots the current threat environment remains severe, from a resurgent al-Qaida and fugitive Tamil Tigers to nuclear technology smuggling and border concerns. Islamic radicalization of Canada's Somali community is becoming a particular national security concern, he said.Success in countering the dangers require police to take on more of a national security role and "put more terrorism cases before the courts and more terrorists in jail," he said. Arrests and prosecutions "would help send a strong message to the world that we are serious about prosecuting accomplices to terror."Canada hosts one of the largest Somali diaspora communities in the western world. Somali-Canadians are at risk of being radicalized and recruited to fight with Islamist al-Shabaab (the youth) extremist movement in Somalia's civil war, he said."The ranks of the Somali insurgency are attracting thousands of young men who have been radicalized by the harsh reality of depravation and civil war," said Elliott."The potential follow-on threat, from a Canadian and RCMP perspective, is Somali-Canadians who travel to Somalia to fight and then return, imbued with both extremist ideology and the skills necessary to translate it into direct action."Meanwhile, al-Qaida along with its offshoots, associates and hangers-on, and the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror groups remain highly virulent to Canada, he said.
"As far as al-Qaida is concerned, Canada is the enemy," he said, referring to Osama bin Laden's infamous 2002 communique placing Canada and five other U.S. allies on its global hit list.
"Since then, there has not been a single indicator to suggest that al-Qaida has changed its position in this regard. Sadly, as we have seen on a number of fronts, including Canadian casualties in Afghanistan, the role of AQ camps in training young Canadian militants, kidnappings of Canadians aboard and al-Qaida's role in Canadian terrorism cases, bin Laden's Canadian fatwa continues." The Ottawa Citizen