Government was warned of Air India bombing

The inquiry looking into the 1985 Air India bombing will be told Monday that government agencies were warned a number of times an airline attack was imminent, the CBC has learned.
The official line has been that the government knew of no such information, a key issue for the victims' families. Many of them testified last fall that Canadian law enforcement agencies had to know much more than they've let on, the CBC's Terry Milewski reported Sunday.
For 22 years, the official storyline has been that the system did not fail because there were no specific warnings. But the inquiry — resuming Monday after lengthy wrangling over official secrecy — is about to hear of a months-long series of specific warnings about a coming attack on Air India.
The warnings came from police informers, the Indian government and Air India itself, which told the RCMP three weeks before the bombing that Sikh extremists in Canada were planning to put bombs on Air India flights, Milewski reported.
On Monday, the inquiry will hear that the RCMP failed to give details of the Indian intelligence to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, and that the airline itself failed to check bags against passengers, allowing an unaccompanied bag on to the plane, Milewski reported.
Furthermore, several police informers inside the Sikh extremist movement also reported the bomb plot. Paul Besso told CBC News he was spying on Sikh drug dealers when he heard about the plot.
CSIS also followed the plot leader, Talwinder Singh Parmar, to a test bombing on Vancouver Island, just three days after the tip from Air India about the bombs.
Vancouver police also monitored a meeting of Sikh militants, where one can be heard complaining that: "No ambassadors have been killed! What are you doing? Nothing!"
"You will see! Something will be done in two weeks," another person replied.
30/04/07 CBC News/CBC.ca, Canada

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Categories: Air India Apr 2007, Foreign Apr 2007, Safety Apr 2007