Watchdog reviewed only part of the tapes

Ottawa: The oft-cited 1992 report exonerating Canada's spy agency for erasing key tapes related to the Air India bombing got it wrong, a retired Mountie testified yesterday.
The federal government had long cited the conclusions of the 1991-02 annual report from the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the civilian watchdog that oversees the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, in arguing that a full public inquiry was unnecessary.
However, retired RCMP Sergeant Terry Goral, who was involved with the Air India investigation and an 11-page RCMP memo assisting SIRC's Air India report, said SIRC's highly publicized conclusion was based on a misunderstanding.
"It is often said that there was nothing on the tapes and that we agree with that," Mr. Goral testified yesterday. "However, if you read further, they talk about 50 tapes that are reviewed and that there was no significant criminal information uncovered on these 50 tapes. Well, those were only 50 tapes out of a couple hundred tapes."
Mark Frieman, the inquiry's lead counsel, pounced on the comment.
"So am I to understand from that, that the message of [SIRC chairman John] Bassett may not have been entirely in alignment with the facts in the matter, on tape erasures?"
"On that issue, yes," Mr. Goral replied.
He said the police did get some leads out of the summaries of the tapes, which, he said, suggests the actual tapes would have been useful for the criminal investigation.
08/11/07 Bill Curry/Globe and Mail, Canada

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Categories: Air India - International Nov 2007, Foreign Nov 2007, NACIL Nov 2007, Safety Nov 2007