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:
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.
Thanks for atricle!
BTW Canada, UK and The Netherlands have set up or are in the works to create an identical ‘plumbers’ cyber attack group. Today, Germany announced plans for an Internet divorce from US trunk lines and server locations for European communications. Perhaps it is easier to prohibit Echelon stations and military espionage serving NSA from European soil …
More on TAO from The Guardian
I look at the Canadian press occasionally. Fair amount of dissent there, Canadians calling out Harper for his slavish relationship with Israel. Not so much hasbara backlash as here. Some peace groups active there as here, but having a tough go against huge odds.
http://www.cjpme.org/ Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East
“Harper’s trip should not be a love-in with the Israeli right”
It is pretty discouraging, Israel lobbies active and successful in a lot of Western countries. On the other hand, the US president and his secretary of state giving the Israelis a hard time. Israeli lobby here has its hands full trying to control our president. Right wing calling out of the President for NOT being supportive enough of Israel — I’ve become a big fan of Obama.
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He’s being investigated for espionage so he throws his girlfriend under the bus. He’s either a shit heel or an Iranian spy.
@ Shoshana: You certainly don’t understand how the intelligence world works. Nor the effective use Israel has made of such honeypots. “Girlfriend?” Do you think two spies who have a romantic liaison are human beings like you & I? If so, how naive. They are two people using romance to advance national interests. This is not a romantic exchange, it is pure self-interest. You don’t think planting a honey pot Canadian agent in an attempt to ferret out Iranian secrets from him was a pretty cold calculated thing to do?
We know on which side your pro-Israel bread is buttered.
“Her assignment was to romance an alleged Iranian spy.”
How do you come to that conclusion? How do you know that she wasn’t the target of the ‘honeypot’?
It sounds to me as if she worked in law enforcement, not espionage.
Question: If your ‘source’ is currently out of government, how does he/she stay so well informed? It strains credulity.
@ Shoshana: Did you read the stories to which I linked? The Canadians suspected the Iranian was working for the Iranian govt, therefore they assigned her to find out. She failed & in fact was turned herself. Believe me, a woman responsible for creating a fake identity for an Israeli agent as she did, is NOT in law enforcement–she’s in the intelligence business.
Regarding the credibility of my source: so you claim that political-intelligence officials of past Republican administrations can’t stay “well-informed” about developments in a current Democratic administration?? It’s you & your limp judgments which strain credibility.
“Unrealistic?” Like the non-existent 2 state solution is “realistic?” Or the current apartheid situation is “realistic?” As for the situation between the Czechs & Slovaks–curious you neglected the German reunification. It hasn’t gone perfectly smoothly, but it was historically justified and both sides have determined to make it work. And it will. No one believe Germany will return to two separate states.
As for whether Israel-Palestine will be a “unified” state–I don’t know what it will be: a bi-national state, a confederation. Who knows? It will only be unified if both peoples want it to be. If it will be in the long range interests of both sides, then it will be. If not, then it won’t.
I never said Israelis were “the world’s worst bigots.” You did. There are plenty of bigots in the world to compete for that honor. But Israelis will get along because they must. They will have no choice. The world will expect them to & demand it. If Israelis refuse then there will be consequences too painful for them to do otherwise.
I don’t know how you published a comment about Avrum Burg’s op ed in the thread for my Canada post. But make sure you post in the right thread. Otherwise, you’re off-topic.
I read the Toronto Sun article you linked several times and I failed to find where it says anything like, ‘The Canadians suspected the Iranian was working for the Iranian govt, therefore they assigned her to find out’.
Please point out where it says that. I’m at sea.
@ Shoshana: People like you are perfectly willing to make logical connections between pieces of evidence to draw conclusions when it’s convenient to your ideology or biases. But when the conclusions run counter to your biases, all of a sudden your brain slams shut. How convenient.
Canadian intelligence believed the Iranian was spying for the Iranian government. Hence they assigned a counter intelligence agent working for the Canadian equivalent of the Dept. of Homeland Security to make contact with him. A sexual relationship ensued. Let me guess what happened and what the mission was…HONEYPOT.
That may be too hard or complicated for your mind to comprehend. But others of us don’t have such limitations and can figure this out. Open your mind to new possibilities.
You are at sea, but not for the reasons you believe.
So she’s a spy sent to set up the Iranian and she gets drunk and tells the Iranian that she’s a spy?
Okay.
Richard. Without a shred of evidence you’ve concocted an entire scenario that is far from what the Toronto Sun reported.
Don’t you think, at some point, you should your piece should have included a, ‘My guess is..,’ or a ‘Probably’, or a ‘This is pure conjecture on my part but…?
@ Shoshana: I didn’t hear the pillow talk. But if you have any connections to Unit 8200, you might be able to hear their recordings of it. At any rate, when she told him she’d preprared a fake ID for the Mossad agent, what do you think he thought she was? A preschool teacher?
I haven’t concocted anything. If you lack basic comprehension skills and the ability to string together two pieces of evidence, that’s not my problem. You keep repeating yourself–a cardinal no-no here. So you’re done in this thread. Do not post again here. If you wish, you may post in other threads.
Not only did my own post not need any caveats of the sort you propose, I don’t need any caveats to know that you’re one of the Chosen–Hasbara Chosen, that is.
maybe Canada simply realizes that Israel is a loyal friend/ally. obviously being pro Israel is not something you sympathize with silverstein
@ Eric: Ah yes, and the moon is made of green cheese. I see nothing wrong with Israel or supporting Israel as the sort of state I envision. It’s the national security state that I have a major problem with.
The sort of State Richard envisions is unrealistic. Czechs and Slovaks once had a ‘marriage of convenience’ but have called it splitsville. Do you really think Arab and Jew are going get along in a unified State? In today’s Middle East?
You’ve got to be kidding.
I thought Israelis were the world’s worst bigots? How can you expect them to get along with Arabs in a unified State?
It is good to see this piece. Harper’s recent trip to Israel not only extended the existing free trade agreement, but also deepened security and intelligence sharing. Two authors with work on Israel-Canada are Eric Walberg and Yves Engler. See Walberg’s ‘Canadian Israeli Lobby’s ‘Good Cop, Bad Cop’
http://dissidentvoice.org/2013/08/canadian-israeli-lobbys-good-cop-bad-cop/ and Yves Engler’s ‘The Long History of Zionism in Canada’
http://yvesengler.com/2014/01/07/the-long-history-of-zionism-in-canada/
In light of the serious indications that Israel’s Defence Attache Attias was involved in Gaza/Mavi warcrimes, Canada’s anti-Zionists should be calling for his immediate expulsion and/or charges brought, and hard questions put to those with answers on these and other by-ways of deception currently underway in the Great White North – that other settler-state, ‘Israel’s best friend’, Canada.
h/t John Gilberts, your comment on November 5, 2013, 10:49 PM
RS’s article – Israel Appoints Accused War Criminal as Special Forces Commander.
Canada a refuge for retired Mossad spies?
Montreal-based lobbyist Ari Ben-Menashe, who claims to have worked for Israeli intelligence, promoting the recognition of the break-way eastern federalist group for separate Cyrenaican State in Libya. [Source: Libyan Leader Aims for Separate Cyrenaican State]
Chairman Canada’s SIRC in financial deal with Ari Ben-Menashe
Arthur Porter, the federally appointed chairman of Canada’s Security and Intelligence Review Committee (SIRC), described in three interviews how he directed $200,000 cash from a foreign bank account to Ari Ben-Menashe, a jet-setting, Montreal-based businessman who often acts as a middleman in negotiations between the Russian Federation and developing countries.
From NYT article:
TAO inquiry about the Elysée hacking revealed likely culprit Israel’s Unit-8200 or ISNU.
Fron JPost link:
“Horowitz was decorated twice for his service, most recently this week, for actions he performed for Israel’s security. The latest decoration was awarded him by Border Police chief Cmdr. Yoram Halevi for capturing an armed terrorist.”
I suspected Doron Horowitz was more of a combat special forces guy. This link to his commander, now Police Major General Yoram Halevi indicates his unit is Yehida Mishtartit Mistaravim (YAMAS). Raiding Palestinian homes and taking no prisoners. Read this article – Terrorists Have Become More Sophisticated.
See also Yehida Merkazit Meyuhedet (YAMAM). On a website with photos, DH had a series from Arad-Dimona, I recall a location for urban combat by special forces nearby – IDF’s National Center for Ground Force Training.
Canadian National Security Journalist, perhaps some leads from these links …
One of Canada’s top spy agencies, Communications Security Establishment Canada, is violating privacy rights under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, according to a lawsuit filed by the B.C. Civil Liberties Association and the OpenMedia organization.
I do not see what is your objection. Hiding a former spy (or even current ones) is what is necessary to protect Israel…so what’s wrong with that? Everybody has to be somehere. Israel and Canada are very friendly.
Was Attias a military attaché or a defense attaché to Canada? I believe he was Israel’s first Minister of Defense, not military attaché to Canada. In the current Jewish Post & News, Israel’s new attaché is called a military attaché and the editor of the paper writes that they are two different things, as explained by the now unnamed attaché.
I receive the pdf of the paper dated Feb17th but this article was omitted from its website.
” “As far as the duties of an Israeli attaché are concerned, he explained,
there are two types of attachés: A military attaché coordinates between the
militaries of Israel and the country where the attaché is posted; a defense
attaché coordinates between the Israeli Ministry of Defense and its counterpart
in the country where the attaché is posted.
“Until I arrived in Ottawa the Israeli defense attaché”, who would have
coordinated between the Israeli and Canadian ministries of defense “was
stationed in Washington.”
In contrast, “Canada has had a defense attaché in Israel for many years
now,” he noted. ”
Obviously confusing, either by the author, inadvertently, or by the military attaché, who compares his presence in Canada to that of the defense attaché in the US, though they are said to be different positions.
There is a photo of him in the article. The author previously writes: “The name of the attaché is being withheld for reasons of the sensitivity of the post which he holds.”