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Foreign spy agencies active in Canada: CSIS
Althia Raj, Postmedia News/June 13
http://www2.canada.com/story.html?id=4939379OTTAWA - Canada is a hotbed of activity for foreign intelligence agencies, the head of Canada's spy service said Monday.
"State-sponsored espionage against Canada is being conducted at levels equal to, or greater than, those witnessed during the Cold War," Canadian Security Intelligence Service director Richard Fadden warned in the CSIS annual report tabled in Parliament Monday.
"CSIS is aware that certain foreign agencies are conducting intelligence operations within Canada," Fadden wrote.
A number of foreign governments are covertly gathering political, economic and military information in this country, according to the report.Canada's participation in NATO and its strategic relationship with the United States make it an "attractive target" for foreign espionage. And "several countries" are also engaged in economic espionage against Canada, attracted by the country's advanced communications, telecommunications, biotechnology, aerospace and mining sectors, the report notes.
Foreign governments are using their diplomatic missions, infiltrating organizations and recruiting informants to steal jobs, assets, leading-edge technologies and confidential government reports as well as to coerce and manipulate ethnic communities, the CSIS report states.
"Foreign interference is also of concern," Fadden explained, noting that Canada has "traditionally been vulnerable" to foreign powers which monitor persons and groups deemed a concern to their own domestic security and political agendas, and try to influence Canadian public policy to their own benefit.
These activities - such as the intimidation of various communities - are designed to perpetuate domestic conflicts and grievances in diaspora communities and "will continue to pose national security challenges to this country," the report concludes.
Fadden's comments repeat some of the assertions he made a year ago in a CBC interview that caused an uproar among many ethnic groups, especially Chinese Canadians, and led to calls from opposition politicians for him to be fired.
The CSIS report notes, however, that the main threat to Canada continues to be terrorism, primarily Islamist violence.
"Canada is a tangible target for Islamist extremist-inspired violence," Fadden wrote.
al-Qaida "remains the most lethal terrorist movement in the world," according to the CSIS report, which identified domestic radicalization as key threat. CSIS officers are concerned about terrorist plots being planned by individuals or groups "we do not know about," Fadden noted.
Somalia, where some young Somali-Canadians are believed to have attended terrorist training camps, is also likely to attract more terrorist groups because of the "near-hopeless" situation in the Horn of Africa.
"Western citizens are particularly prized . . . for their easy access to potential targets in Europe and North America," the report states.
The CSIS report said the agency also fears that the incarceration of Islamist terrorists could give extremists an opening to promote their mission in prisons in Canada as they have in the United Kingdom, France and the U.S.
Domestically, "eco-extremists," "Aboriginal extremists" and other issue-motivated groups also threaten Canada's security, said the report.
CSIS notes that the Internet is central to the planning of terrorist activities although the cyber-related capacities of various extremists groups are limited at present.
Still, the service said it needs to keep tabs on how new technology is being used.
The report also notes that cyber espionage is now the "fastest growing form of espionage" and cyberattacks are one of the most complicated issues facing the public and private sectors in Canada.
"Attacks . . . have grown substantially and are becoming more complex and difficult to detect," the report states.
CSIS also mentioned it continued to investigate attempts by "certain foreign governments and groups" to procure the technology, materials and expertise for weapons of mass destruction within and through Canada last year.
