Police had trouble piecing together Air India clues, inquiry told

Ottawa: Vancouver police picked up signals, just 11 days before the 1985 Air India bombing, that Sikh militants were planning "serious" action in support of their cause, a public inquiry has been told.
But Don McLean, the now-retired policeman who came across the information, testified Tuesday that he thought the most likely target would be Indian diplomats posted to Canada.
"The significance, for me and my partner, was that they would do something towards the consul-general's office in downtown Vancouver, or something to one of the (diplomatic) ministers who either resided in Vancouver or West Vancouver," said McLean.
It was only after the Air India plane went down that he realized the earlier intelligence - gleaned from a meeting attended by a police informant - had probably been a reference to the impending bombing.
The anecdote illustrated the extent to which intelligence gathered before the attack was fragmented and not always shared with the appropriate frontline officers.
Others in the Vancouver police force and the RCMP had received tips about potential threats to Air India, but their information was apparently never passed on to McLean.
And that wasn't the only example of a communications breakdown to surface at the inquiry headed by former Supreme Court justice John Major.
Documents tabled Tuesday showed that Air India's head office in Bombay advised the RCMP on June 1 that it feared Sikh extremists could try to blow up a plane using a time-bomb planted in checked baggage.
The Mounties took the possibility seriously enough to ask the Canadian Security Intelligence Service for an updated threat assessment, with a possible eye to beefing up airport security.
But they failed to pass on to the spy service the new warning just received from Air India.
01/05/07 Jim Brown/Canadian Press/Canada.com, Canada

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