Thread: The first line of defence for democracies is INTELLIGENCE - Sir William Stephenson

Winston Churchill was close to Intrepid, and allowed him more freedom than the existing spy agencies, because he could trust his ability.

Wild Bill Donovan, who eventually established the CIA, required Little Bill who taught him a bit about the spy world in the war and connected him around the world, thought he deserved great honour.

The mainstream media in Canada do not honour our characters and heroes enough.

Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), Foreign Espionage, Bond — James Bond — Sir William S. Stephenson "The Quiet Canadian"...
http://onwardjames.blogspot.com/2011...e-service.html

After I posted the above link I had more hits in other countries in the world than Canada.

Another book well worth reading is 'The Quiet Canadian' by H. Montgomery Hyde which also tracks Stephenson's career.

SPYGAMES (In Canada)
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Feds willing to expand CSIS mandate - Peter Worthington
http://www.torontosun.com/2011/11/13...d-csis-mandate

What started as speculation a week or so ago, is now cemented as fact: The Harper government is willing (maybe eager) to expand the mandate of CSIS to include intelligence gathering in foreign countries.

The media has been exploring this possibility which the National Post’s(itls) John Ivison says will likely cause “great wailing and gnashing of teeth” from Canada’s Opposition parties, and from CSIS’ watchdog, the Security Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), which worries about CSIS dabbling in anything except domestic issues.

Now that SIRC’s boss, oncologist Dr. Arthur Porter, has resigned over his curious relations with a notorious international lobbyist and his ties with the President of Sierre Leone, the way is clear for change.

In fact, Canada needs to modernize its security service, which has had to evolve from mostly detecting and neutralizing Soviet espionage during the Cold War, to dealing with terrorism (which is an international phenomenon as well as a domestic concern) and increased intelligence (spying) activities of China.

The record of CSIS has not been without controversy.

Until CSIS came into being in 1984, after the McDonald Commission lambasted the RCMP Security Service and recommended that intelligence and police work be separate and independent entities.

Until CSIS, RCMP Security had been pretty effective at keeping track of KGB and GRU elements intent on spying and subverting Canada. RCMP Security was always crippled because successive governments in the 1950s through the 1970s (mostly Liberal) were reluctant to prosecute spies.

Instead, Soviet spies were usually sent back to the USSR -- a policy that frustrated RCMP counter-intelligence officers, who were more effective than people realized, had only politicians not interfered.

Things turned sour for the RCMP during the Trudeau years, when the PM declared the Soviet Union was a “friend,” and that the KGB performed duties similar to those of the RCMP. Nonsense, but that was Trudeau.

Arguably the biggest gaffe the RCMP made in the ‘70s was removing the country’s most experienced counter-intelligence chief -- civilian Jim Bennett -- as a suspect Soviet “mole.”

For the next 20 years Bennett was under a cloud, until cleared and given an apology in Parliament and modest financial compensation for the error. The “real” mole turned out to be the late Sgt. Gilles Brunet, son of deputy RCMP Commissioner J.J. Brunet (the first head of Security and Intelligence) and therefore above suspicion. Brunet’s tombstone is decorated with a carved martini glass.

CSIS was mostly a collection of amateurs when it took over security obligations from the RCMP. It notably screwed up in the inquiry into Air India bombing that killed 329 (280 of them Canadian citizens), when CSIS inexplicably destroyed some interview tapes. The RCMP complained that CSIS gathered information by illegal means that could not be used in court.

That was then, this is now.

CSIS is still essentially a defensive intelligence organization, even though it is popularly (and misleadingly) referred to as a “spy” agency.

One of the problems RCMP Security always had with allies, was that it had no espionage service. The British had MI6 (spying) and MI5 (Security), while the U.S. had the CIA (overseas spying) and the FBI (domestic security). The RCMP was a one-armed security intelligence service – no spying or espionage, so little to trade for information.

Contrary to some views, the CSIS Act enables the agency to collect security intelligence anywhere in the world that threatens Canada. It is not supposed to dabble in “foreign” intelligence – political or economic activities -- that don’t threaten or apply to Canada.

This may be changing. Already CSIS has tried, with limited success, to alert the government to Chinese intelligence gathering and subversive activities within Canada – and has been publicly criticized for warning that some Chinese-Canadians in government jobs may be controlled by Beijing.

Also, Chinese subversion among Chinese communities in Canada worry CSIS, but tend to be ignored by government -- especially vulnerable minority governments. Falun Gong supporters (practicing non-political, benign meditation) routinely document China’s subversion in their ranks. With a majority government, perhaps Conservatives will now take heed.

Former diplomat Charles Burton has remarked on suspicions that Chinese employees of the Canadian embassy in Beijing work for the Chinese security forces. Wow! That’s news? Of course they do!

When the RCMP was in charge of security, they not only caught Soviet diplomats indulging in espionage, but periodically caught Canadian staff at our embassies being coerced, blackmailed or bribed into espionage.

Today, terrorism is the greatest international threat to Canada and the West. If CSIS needs to expand and coordinate with friendly intelligence agencies, It should be encouraged to move in this direction. CSIS is Canada’s front line defence against terrorism.

It was CSIS, remember, that warned the Chretien government two years before 9/11 it could identify 50 terror groups in Canada, involving 350 operatives. The Chretien government dismissed the report -- and cut the CSIS budget.

CSIS has matured considerably from its beginnings.

It’s our frontline weapon in a silent war, and finally a Canadian government seems to realize it. If it’s not already too late.