Wednesday, October 03, 2007

Terror fight needs more cash: CSIS

Neither the RCMP nor Canada's spy agency has sufficient resources to tackle groups in Canada raising money for terrorist causes, the Air India inquiry heard yesterday.
Commissioner John Major expressed surprise that the RCMP received just 17 of the 126 officers requested to deal with terrorism financing probes after new legislation was passed in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Another 33 were committed last year.
And Jim Galt, of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, said he could use double or triple the staff that he now has to gather intelligence on terrorist financing in this country.
Still, both the RCMP and CSIS said they are making headway in terms of identifying those responsible for raising terrorist money and eventually prosecuting them.
But Richard Quance, a lawyer representing the Air India victims' families, said he hoped that terrorists would not expand operations in Canada because of weaknesses in the system that allow them to evade prosecution.
"I hope that you can get the resources and funding you need in order to do what I think you see is as a necessary job to combat terrorist financing," Mr. Quance commented to Mr. Galt.
"As to all of those bad guys that haven't made it to your priority list, I hope they will be patient so that you can get the funding in time."
The inquiry has heard that there has not yet been a successful prosecution for terrorist financing in Canada. Nor has there been a single security certificate issued against a charity even though many of the terrorist groups raising money are using registered charities or non-profit organizations.
Mr. Major said politicians need to equip law enforcement agencies with enough resources to do the job legislated.
"It follows that the success of the prosecution of terrorist funding or money laundering depends on the ability of your group to provide intelligence to allow enforcement people to do their work. It's like strangling a snake, in a matter of speaking. If you cut the head off, not much happens to the rest of the body," he said.
And he said terrorism cases seem to move more easily through the British court system. "My understanding is the terrorists who were involved in the subway bombings [in 2005] have been tried."
02/10/07 Kim Bolan/CanWest News Service/National Post, Canada
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