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In a little-noticed news release from the North Pole, a jolly senior citizen has asked that his image not be co-opted this holiday season by the Canadian War Department and NORAD. In addition, the gentleman, who identified himself as Santa Claus, also refused the militarized escort that NORAD said would be tracking his annual flight around the world.

"I don't want war planes on my tail, and I don't want children to think I am in any way associated with the type of organization that plans for things like nuclear war and space warfare," Claus said in an exclusive telephone interview with rabble.ca. "Your War Department misrepresents me the same way the sales of war toys misrepresent me. I don't make machine guns and toy tanks, and I certainly do NOT want a warplane escort or to be tracked by an organization which is working to militarize the heavens."

Claus was particularly concerned that NORAD uses this annual opportunity to glorify warplanes and drones which are used to drop bombs on and mutilate children in countries like Afghanistan and Iraq, noting that last week, dozens of people in a Yemeni wedding party were massacred by a drone-fired Hellfire missile.

Santa says he is disturbed to again find himself the focus of the annual military public affairs operation, designed to normalize for children the idea that the military -- as well as military alliances which plan and constantly threaten life on the planet with nuclear warfare, pre-emptive invasions and environmental destruction -- is a benign outfit.

"I also don't need to be tracked," Claus says. "This is the era where we are learning that CSEC in Ottawa and the NSA are watching every move everybody makes, and it's getting ridiculous. Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer has gotten ulcers out of concern that every time he sneaks into the bushes to do his business, it winds up on some database somewhere and could be used to embarrass him in front of his fellow creatures."

NORAD deception about Claus

The NORAD Tracks Santa website is a paean to militarism, inviting young children to play at war and offering videos that are recruitment vehicles featuring martial music more akin to a 1980s Tom Cruise bomb-em-up flick than a period of peace and good will to all. Indeed, one four-minute video making the rounds of community newspaper websites around the globe opens with an image not of Santa but of bomber planes.

"One of the videos says I did a test flight in cooperation with NORAD, which is a total lie," Claus said, bemoaning the fact that the tracking site features numerous tributes to an organization that has the power, along with its other "northern command" partners, to commit the ultimate act of nuclear terrorism and obliterate the globe.

One video features a small child (perhaps the son of U.S. military personnel) stationed in Djibouti, one of over 700 U.S. bases occupying the globe and also the site of a command centre from which drones are launched in countries like Yemen and Somalia. (Djibouti troops do not, notably, maintain a military base protecting their own interests in Florida or Manitoba). While the child talks of going to the beach and riding his bike, the video does not mention that one month ago, the African Commission on Human and Peoples' Rights heard evidence on Djibouti's role in the U.S.-led (and Canadian-supported) rendition to torture and secret detention program.

The NORAD tracking site also features holiday songs performed by -- who else -- the Air Force Academy Band.

"In the same way the militaries of the world try to convince us that humanitarian aid cannot be delivered without sniper rifles or bombing the heck out of a village first, now they are trying to show that Christmas cannot happen without all of their firepower, and that Christmas carols cannot be sung unless by people who've been trained to kill," Claus said. "Well, I have news for them. The trillions spent on war are what deprive most children of happy holidays, regardless of when they celebrate them."

Meanwhile, a heavily redacted Access to Information request appears to reveal why NORAD is tracking Santa, and early indicators are it has nothing to do with his protection nor his mission of delivering joy.

CSIS names Santa security threat

According to the highly classified document from the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), "The Service has reasonable grounds to believe that [name blacked out, but clearly a reference to Claus] is a member of an inadmissible class of persons to Canada based on a variety of associations, travel patterns and other indicators which constitute a threat to the security of Canada."

Among those highly suspect findings, CSIS notes, is Santa's long beard ("worn in the traditional Muslim fashion that could inspire some radicalized youth to follow bearded individuals such as Osama bin Laden"), his visitation to countries throughout the Middle East and refusal to demonize anyone ("a disturbing inclination towards supporting the human rights of Palestinians,"), his large donations of gifts ("he may be transporting illicit materials that could place him on the United Nations 1267 list, thereby barring him from travelling with goods that could fall into the wrong hands"), past associations ("[subject] did attend at Robben Island prison compound and provide material aid to Nelson Mandela and other members of African National Congress, which Service maintains was, is, or could be a terrorist organization"), has signed petitions urging the release of immigration detainees (including children detained in refugee jails across Canada) and in support of environmental protections ("Service notes subject supports same causes as eco-terrorists trying to block oil sands development"), and his failure to carry a passport.

"Service also notes that Mr. Claus uses several aliases possibly as a means of avoiding detection, including Jolly St. Nick, Kris Kringle, and, in a special code with woman alleged to be Mrs. Claus, 'tubby old sock,' origin for which is still a mystery to Service but further investigation will reveal." Claus also appears to be under surveillance for carrying of "suspicious" sacks, studious avoidance of customs, and his "religious head gear," the last of particular concern to Quebec security services attempting to pre-emptively enforce their so-called Charter of Values.

Is Prancer a closet Muslim?

CSIS also notes with grave concern that at least two of Santa's reindeer (Prancer and Vixen) have been reading the Koran and allegedly discussed conversion to Islam.

It is not surprising that Claus would be the subject of concern to "security services," whose main goals tend toward monitoring outbreaks of democracy and free-thinking inquiry while harassing specific targeted communities using the same vague profiling against, for example, members of this country's Arab Muslim communities. Santa certainly does have a record of being involved in the same social justice causes that everyone from CSIS and the RCMP to the FBI and CIA have deemed threats to national security. For example, Santa was recently arrested with Walmart workers seeking a decent wage, while the busiest resident of the North Pole also managed to take an anti-drones message of Peace to the Australian military. Santa also performed a tripod action for 9 hours in Glasgow this week to protest immigration raids that break down doors and arrest and detain children simply because they are refugees.

While Santa is proud of involving himself in social justice activities, he does get weary of his image being used to glorify war, especially given that he annually views the painful reality that is a result of relying on military might to enforce injustice and resolve conflicts. "We see all the children of the world, the ones who have lost legs and arms and eyes to landmines and cluster bombs, the ones who have watched parents murdered with Canadian bullets and machine guns in Iraq and Afghanistan, the ones whose only wish for Christmas is peace on Earth, or the return of a parent or sibling killed by an aerial bombardment."

Claus has joined Homes not Bombs members on many occasions through the years as an ambassador of peace through justice and goodwill. As such, he has been arrested by Loblaws for helping distribute food he took from their shelves (to help pay back the tens of millions of dollars in unpaid taxes owed by Loblaws), protesting sanctions against the people of Iraq which killed over one million Iraqis (this with the aid of the Canadian military whose warplanes are set to tail Santa), the use of secret trial security certificates, the production of war toys, L-3 Wescam's production of drone technology in Burlington, Ont., the Hamilton War Show, and many others.

"There are so many causes for me to support, and I want to support them all, but half the time I'm busy trying to correct the false information about me and what I stand for that's presented by the military and the media," Claus said. "I barely have time to speak with you, much less all the other media outlets who request interviews."

Christ continues to be detained by CBSA

rabble.ca's interview with Claus was cut off when he received a call from one of Canada's top immigration lawyers, Barb Jackman, to discuss his travel options given the increasingly tight Canadian borders for refugees and the possibility that he may be on Canada's no-fly list. Indeed, it is unclear whether agents of the Canadian Border Services Agency -- a federal department with absolutely no independent oversight -- will allow Claus to enter Canada, and there are still many unresolved questions regarding its recent rejection of Jesus Christ, who was deemed a failed refugee claimant and a threat to national security.

Lawyers at the time had asked for information about CSIS interviews with Christ, but because CSIS does not record interviews nor make verbatim notes, there was little to go on. "The Service noted that Christ appeared unusually calm when pressed about his possible association with prostitutes, beggars and lepers," read a short half-page of notes which were eventually declassified. "Christ also seemed hesitant when asked whether an individual named Joseph was his father, a sign that he was withholding the true nature of his character." Christ's anti-government activities also raised a red flag for Canadian border officials.

Christ was also deemed to be a security threat because he allegedly uses a number of aliases, including Prince of Peace, Jesus of Nazareth and the Son of God. He had travelled to Canada, like most refugees, on a false passport, because if he had used his real name on travel documents, Roman authorities may have picked him up before he could have fled the country. Christ was also deemed inadmissible to Canada because of his criminal record; he, like all refugees coming to this country, are considered not worthy of being accepted even if those convictions have occurred in countries where there is no due process or internationally recognized legal system. Worse, refugees who have been convicted of minor offences which would be deemed "summary" (or lesser) offences if convicted here in Canada have their record interpreted as indictable (or more severe) upon their arrival here, regardless of the circumstances.

In another mark against Christ, CBSA points out one particular incident in which the refugee applicant was "particularly violent, overturning a table used by moneychangers in a temple frequented by Canadian money speculators." Canada's Criminal Code notes that a terrorist is anyone who "damages property outside of Canada because a person or entity with an interest in the property or occupying the property has a relationship with Canada or a province or is doing business with or on behalf of the Government of Canada or a province."

While Christ remains in detention with hundreds of never-charged immigration detainees in Lindsay (many of whom are again on hunger strike), Santa will no doubt be writing the phone number of his lawyer on his arm in the event he needs to make that call. If there's nothing under your tree December 25, you may want to consider posting bail for the latest in a long line of wrongly imprisoned migrants and travellers caught up in the nightmare of Canada's immigration regime.

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Matthew Behrens is a freelance writer and social justice advocate who co-ordinates the Homes not Bombs non-violent direct action network. He has worked closely with the targets of Canadian and U.S. 'national security' profiling for many years.

Photo: Matt and Cyndi Maxson/flickr