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Canadian media offers a shocking new development in the intelligence wars. This involves a honeypot security officer working for Canadian immigration. Her assignment was to romance an alleged Iranian spy. Sometime during their year-long romance, one night after having a few drinks too many, she told him an amazing story: that one of the 27 Mossad agents who assassinated Mahmoud al-Mabouh escaped from Dubai to Canada:

Passport Canada secretly supplied a new identity and passport to a Mossad agent living in Canada after the Israeli spy participated in the 2010 plot to kill a leader of terrorist group Hamas in a Dubai hotel…

I’ve confirmed that the story is accurate through my own Israeli source. When asked, he said it would be fruitless even to try to deny it since the story came straight from the horse’s mouth (Canadian intelligence).

There are many astonishing aspects of this story. First, in light of Israel cloning passports of dual citizens of nations like France, Ireland, Australia and the UK, it didn’t even have to take the trouble with Canada. That nation perpetrated the identity fraud on Israel’s behalf. Can you imagine a country creating a fake identity for an intelligence agent of a foreign country? It beggars belief. Second, this means that Canada doesn’t tolerate the presence of Mossad agents on its soil, it welcomes them. A country like the U.S. begrudgingly accepts that Israel is the third most intensive intelligence presence inside the U.S.. But not Canada. It’s motto is the old Monty Hall (himself Canadian) shout-out to the TV prize winner: “come on down!”

UPDATE: This Ottawa Citizen report suggests that just after the al-Mabouh assassination, Canada may actually have detained the Mossad agent in question. But in considering its options, Canadian intelligence services must’ve considered their best one would be to give the agent a new identity and so remove any potential for scandal or embarrassment. But they didn’t bargain for one of their own spilling the beans!

You’d think Canadians might have a few things to say about farming out their intelligence operations to a foreign country and allowing that country to become an unofficial arm of Canadian intelligence. Not to mention, the fact that it will arouse ire against Canadians of Muslims none too keen on Israel’s policy of erasing Arabs it finds objectionable or inconvenient.

Apparently, this far-right Canadian government believes becoming an appurtenance of the State of Israel is the way to win elections. Why else would a Harper minister have signed an extraordinary public security agreement with Israeli public security minister, Avi Dichter in 2008:

“The Declaration of Intent is an opportunity for Canada and Israel to strengthen their commitment to safeguarding their citizens and respective national interests from common threats,” said Minister Dichter.” …Public Safety Canada [the signatory of the agreement] works closely with several government agencies including the Canada Border Services Agency (CBSA), The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS)…and The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP). Officials from these agencies have no doubt been consulted regarding the terms of reference of the Israel-Canada declaration. The terms of reference of the Canada-Israel Declaration are extremely broad. They include issues of immigration and ethnic profiling, the management of borders, intelligence and the exchange of information, emergency preparedness, correctional services, prisons, law enforcement and counter-terrorism. …The agreement requires the two countries to “[b]uild on their shared commitment to facilitate and enhance cooperation to protect their respective countries’ population, assets and interests from common threats”. …The issue of “counter-terrorism” is not mentioned explicitly in the Declaration of Intent. The terms of reference, however, suggest that the “war on terrorism” is an integral part of the agreement.

Who’d have thought that one of the ways in which this agreement would be implemented on the ground would be in abetting an act of Israeli state terrorism?

Israeli intelligence isn’t the only one benefiting from Canada’s “generosity:”

Canada is today one of the world’s safest and most attractive environments for international spies, according to a former officer in the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS). Michel Juneau-Katsuya, who last September co-authored Nest of Spies with Montreal-based journalist Fabrice de Pierrebourg, says that Canada is doing little to combat increasing espionage activity within its borders by agents of friendly and adversary nations alike, including China, Iran, Israel, the United States, and France. Juneau-Katsuya suggests that international spying within Canada is encouraged by the country’s prosperity, its multicultural urban environment, advanced telecommunications infrastructure, as well as by its political or geographical proximity to major world powers, such as Russia and the United States. The former CSIS officer also warns that foreign spies operating in Canada are becoming increasingly daring in their activities, encouraged by Canada’s limited counterintelligence operations –the country has not prosecuted a single foreign spy in nearly two decades.

Canada also serves as a safe harbor for many former Israeli intelligence agents. Jonathan Dahoach Halevi, a former Shin Bet agent, was the editor of a far-right Israeli site, Shalom Toronto. He used that cite and his perch at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs to expose journalists Anat Kamm and Uri Blau and get them arrested and convicted. Another former Israeli agent, Ari Ben-Menashe, plots mischief with rebel groups around the world from his Montreal base. Thanks to reader Oui, for this research. And British Columbia is where former Mossad agent, Michael Burrows (using the alias “Ross”) , calls home. Doron Horowitz, a proud member of Israel’s most brutal law enforcement unit, the Border Police, is director of national security infrastructure for the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA). This “initiative” would scare the bejesus out of me if I were a Canadian Jew:

Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA)

The Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) is looking for a few good men and women. It’s organizing a recruitment drive to find Jewish volunteers to train in the arts of passive observation and prevention to increase the sense of security in Canada’s major Jewish population centres. The initiative is called the “community security network” and is touted as being similar to a neighbourhood watch program, only on a national scale. “We will be less reliant on external [security] resources and will… complement law enforcement,” he [Horowitz] said. “This is the Jewish community taking an active role in [its own] security on a civilian level.” Horowitz will begin training 25 volunteers in Toronto starting next month before eventually recruiting members in Ottawa, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary and Vancouver, although not necessarily in that order.

The appointment of Israel’s first military attaché to Canada was also likely part of this “thickening” of the intelligence/military relationship with Israel. In 2012, Brig. Gen. Eden Attias, one of those named as part of the Mavi Marmara 200 potential war criminals (he commanded the Nevatim air base used during the helicopter assault on the ship), was named to fill this position. Here were some of his words of welcome on arriving in Canada:

“Due to the flourishing relationship between Canada and Israel, one of the recent discussions between our defence ministries involved looking for ways to get more people on the ground in each country. We have a lot of things we’re sharing,” he said.

Indeed. Let’s add that as military attaché he serves as a conduit to and from the IDF’s military intelligence unit, Aman. Attias added to his remarks:

“Israelis are starting to understand that Canada is a separate entity from the U.S.,” Attias said.

But not so separate from Israel, apparently. Attias pandered to Canada’s Christian evangelicals when he blessed their pro-Israel prayer breakfast:

He [Attias], more than most, has experienced the intensity of Israel’s enemies’ hatred firsthand. At the prayer gathering he said, “On behalf of…all the people of Israel, I would like to extend a sincere appreciation to you, the Evangelist community here in Canada for supporting Israel.

This is yet another example of Canada’s government jumping into bed with Israeli spies and generals with blood on their hands.

Just as you have the official basis for Canada hopping into bed with the Mossad, similarly the NSA signed an agreement with IDF Unit 8200 which dumped massive amounts of raw data, including personal information about U.S. citizens, into Israel’s lap. None of it was screened beforehand to remove references to Americans. After all, the NSA is only prevented from monitoring American citizens for its own purposes. I suppose this means it’s perfectly legal to transfer such data to foreign intelligence services.

That’s also in effect what Australian intelligence did in Indonesia. It bugged government offices there and monitored the Indonesia government’s discussions with a U.S. law firm that was aiding it in international trade negotiations with the U.S. government. In effect, Aussie intelligence was telling us what position the Indonesians would take in the talks, not to mention invading the attorney-client privilege of the U.S. firm.

In the old days it used to be that spies jealously guarded their secrets from foreign spies. Nowadays, the only people spies guard their secrets from are the victims on whom they’re spying. They share their trove of information with just about any allied intelligence agency that has a use for it.

This story comes on the heels of Stephen Harper’s recent pilgrimage to Israel in which he fawned over Bibi Netanyahu and even serenaded him with a musical concert. They used to call Tony Blair, Bush’s poodle in the British press. Now, Harper has become Bibi’s poodle.