[Mb-civic] CBC News - CSIS HEAD SAYS IRAQ WAR 'SERIOUS CONCERN' FOR CANADA'S SAFETY

Tue Nov 1 05:20:02 PST 2005

This email has been sent to you by harry.sifton at sympatico.ca
The following is a news item posted on CBC NEWS ONLINE
at http://www.cbc.ca/news
____________________________________________________
CSIS HEAD SAYS IRAQ WAR 'SERIOUS CONCERN' FOR CANADA'S SAFETY
WebPosted Mon Oct 31 18:26:16 2005

--- Jim Judd, the director of Canada's spy agency, is speaking openly
about the way the war in Iraq is creating new dangers for Canada.

        Judd appeared before a Senate committee on Monday to answer
        questions about the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, or
        CSIS. He said the agency is experimenting with a new, more
        transparent approach. But his frank responses are also raising
        some touchy questions about the Iraq War.

        Although Canada didn't join the U.S.-led war in Iraq, Paul
        Martin's government has avoided publicly contradicting claims by
        U.S. President George W. Bush's administration that it is making
        the world safer.

         But 10 days ago Judd said the U.S. war in Iraq was creating "long-
         term problems" for other countries. And testifying before the
         Senate committee he said Iraq provides militants with both
         motive and opportunity.

        "It's been an issue in terms of providing individuals more of an
        opportunity to learn new techniques and expertise in this. And
        more generally, it may serve as a motivation. It's a serious
        concern," he said.

        Judd's assessment is nothing new in intelligence circles, says
        intelligence expert Wesley Wark of the University of Toronto.
        "We've created in Iraq, as many experts now recognize, a virtual
        failed state where one didn't exist before. A huge set of
        problems have been created there."

        Wark says spies and politicians increasingly don't agree. "It's a
        very acute problem, I think, this divide between the professional
        view and the political view, in terms of how we're really going
        to run a broad-based war on terror in the future."

        Judd says the main terror threat facing Canada comes from
        radicalized Canadians. And he says CSIS has seen Iraq cause that
        radicalization in real cases.