CSIS man boasted Air India case would be solved

Ottawa: A top CSIS official insisted in the days following the Air India bombing that the fledgling spy agency had the information needed to help police crack the case, a public inquiry has heard.
But Bob Burgoyne, a former counter-terrorism officer, testified Tuesday that he thought Archie Barr, then deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, was likely just trying to boost morale with the statement.
"We're going to solve Air India,'' Burgoyne quoted Barr as telling colleagues just after Sikh terrorists downed Flight 182 in June 1985, killing 329 people.
Burgoyne, who then served on the Sikh desk of CSIS, said he interpreted the words to mean that "we had the knowledge base . . . a pretty good idea who the perpetrators were behind this.''
Former Supreme Court justice John Major, the head of the inquiry, interjected to suggest that Barr may have been delivering "a sort of rallying cry rather than a promise.''
"I believe so,'' replied Burgoyne. "The comment that he made, I believe, was probably to encourage us.''
CSIS had been created just a year earlier to replace the old RCMP security service, which had been heavily criticized for its excessive zeal -- and in some cases outright lawbreaking -- in the name of fighting Quebec separatism.
But the new spy service, largely staffed by ex-Mounties, came in for criticism itself following the Air India attack.
It's now known that CSIS had key suspects under surveillance before the bombing but failed to piece the puzzle together in time to head off the plot. The service was also slammed for erasing wiretap tapes that could have helped in the post-bombing criminal investigation.
22/05/07 Canadian Press/CTV.ca, Canada

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