The Secrets Of Vancouver BC, Canada

Wiring Terrorists

The story breaks at the Globe and Pail:

CSIS taping conversations between lawyers, terrorism suspects, judge says

Canada’s spy agency is taping conversations between men held as terrorism suspects and their defence lawyers, according to a Federal Court Judge, who suggests state agents cease such wiretaps and delete the tapes.

Defence lawyers saying they were “apoplectic” with rage that hundreds of their conversations had been snooped on, and that one of the most basic and fundamental legal protections, solicitor-client privilege, is being flouted by the government.

Reviewing the case of an Egyptian living under house arrest because he once ran a farming operation for Osama bin Laden, Judge Layden-Stevenson released a summary of secret testimony given by a Canadian Security Intelligence Service agent.

The testimony revealed just how CSIS is helping another federal agency keep tabs on the “security-certificate” detainee, Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub.

Mr. Mahjoub consented to wiretapping in order to get released from six years of jail to house arrest in 2006. But lawyers say there was an implicit understanding that conversations with lawyers – a basic right protected for hundreds of years – would not be recorded.

That basic right should have been clear to the government, they say. “I feel like my house has been broken into, it’s incredibly invasive,” said Barbara Jackman, a lawyer for Mr. Mahjoub.

Similar concerns have been raised in the another case, that of Mohamed Harkat, an Algerian security-certificate detainee living in Ottawa.

But the cases at hand are not typical. The Canadian government has branded five Muslim immigrants as potential al-Qaeda agents, under the security certificate law that allows for indefinite jailing or monitoring so long as they are in the country.

I find it really hard to have sympathy for terrorists, and although I understand their lawyers are just doing their job, defending al-Qaeda agents rates a bit lower than defending pedophiles. Besides, Mohammad Zeki Mahjoub won’t be of any use now that he’s been outed.

Maybe they could ask their client to turn off the wire next time? They knew that the client was wired.

Read the comments to the article to get a feeling for support for terrorist rights in Canada.

I wonder who they’ll blame if Canada ever experiences an “incident” of terrorism.

Thanks CSIS – Keep up the good work.

photo credit: dameskates