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While Mr. Morden thought it was unlikely CSIS had recruited the man, had he approached a Canadian embassy, staff would have listened to what he had to say. “I mean, never turn down a source of information.”

Another former senior CSIS official, who spoke on the condition he would not be named, said when he worked overseas people would walk in to the embassy “all the time” offering information.

He speculated Mr. Al-Rashad was embellishing his connection to Canadian intelligence because he had been arrested and was trying to find a way out.

“The guy may be fabricating to save himself and could have been interviewed by CSIS in the past,” said another former CSIS official, Jim Corcoran, who served as deputy director.

“On the other hand if I was still running operations at CSIS I would be trying to penetrate the groups, individuals and routes that are getting these so called fighters into Syria and Iraq.”

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Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS counter-terrorism chief, recalled when he worked overseas, people would come to the embassy offering to provide information. “And the next time he gets arrested, ‘I’m working for the Canadians,’ ” he said.

“I’ve had people when I was overseas during the Iraq war [say], ‘I know where Saddam is, I know where the weapons of mass destruction are.’ They walk into the embassy and want to speak to somebody.”

He also said intelligence officials sometimes deal with sources who rely on their own networks of sub-sources whose identities are unknown to the Canadians.