Excerpted: ENN DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-Thursday, May 8, 1997 Vol. 3 - 128
HEZBOLLAH TERRORIST OPERATIONS
IN CANADA ...
By Steve Macko, ERRI
Analyst
Officials say that the recent arrest of a Saudi Arabian national believed to be connected to a deadly terrorist attack in the Middle East in 1996 has given authorities a glimpse of what is said to be a largely hidden network of terrorists that use Canada to raise money, recruit members, provide a safe haven and plan additional terrorist attacks.
Many of the details of this operation remain secret, but official reports, court papers and transcripts of interviews with another individual accused of terrorism and deported in 1994 reveal what officials believe to be the pro-Iranian Hezbollah has established a presence in Canada.
It is the opinion of Canadian officials that Canada's open borders and its refugee policies make it easy for suspected terrorists to enter the country to hide or to find an easy way to get into the United States. The Saudi national, Hani Abdel Rahim al-Sayegh, is accused of belonging to Hezbollah and taking part in the 25 June 1996 terrorist bombing of a military complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, that killed 19 U.S. servicemen.
Court papers indicate that Canadian intelligence officers believe that Hezbollah members in Canada helped al-Sayegh find safe haven in the country last August.
Canadian intelligence learned a great deal about the workings of Hezbollah in Canada from a man accused of being a member who was deported from the country three years ago.
In a 1993 interview with agents of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, Mohammed Hussein al-Husseini said, "Hezbollah has members in Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto, all of Canada." The man gave details of how Hezbollah conducts surveillance of important buildings in Canada, such as the CSIS' own regional headquarters in Montreal. He told the agents who were interviewing him: "If Hezbollah decided to get this building, it would get it."
The CSIS stated that it believed Hezbollah was prepared to order al-Husseini to commit an act of terrorism or violence in Canada or some other place. If Hezbollah did give such an order, al- Husseini would have carried it out.
During the Persian Gulf War in 1991, the CSIS was widely criticized for conducting investigations in Arab neighborhoods, where residents felt unjustly singled out because of their background.
The former chief of strategic planning at the CSIS and who is now a political risk analyst, David Harris, said, "The situation in Canada is somewhat confused by the multicultural aspect of Canada."
The United States, France and other countries with large ethnic populations have also had trouble investigating suspected terrorists without being accused of stereotyping minority groups. Harris says that it is shortsighted to allow sensitivity to get in the way of national security. He said, "The very fact that you've got a group of people here with the track record for violence that Hezbollah has should be of grave concern to Canadians."
In the U.S., officials say that there was at least one Hezbollah cell in Canada in 1993. U.S. intelligence said that at the time, the Canadian arm of Hezbollah was providing planning and logistical support for terrorist attacks, perhaps in North America.
The CSIS recently gave its view of the scope of terrorist activities in Canada in its annual report to Parliament. The intelligence service said in its report that was filed on 23 April: "Many of the world's terrorist group's have a presence in Canada."
The CSIS said that it believed that the terrorist groups use Canada for fund raising, safe haven and recruiting Canadian citizens in ethnic communities. They also provide "logistical support for terrorism outside of Canada" and are developing the potential for "terrorist actions in Canada."
The interviews with al-Husseini did help to illustrate how Hezbollah operates in Canada. CSIS agents suspected al-Husseini of being involved in the 1988 hijacking of a Kuwaiti airliner.
According to al-Husseini, Hezbollah is made up as "a military organizational and popular apparatus." He also said that "orders for these three units come from Iran, but final approval is obatined from Hazzan Nasrallah and Sayid Fadlallah," who are the political and religious leaders of Hezbollah." Al-Husseini added that the cells were involved in "security activities, that is, hostage taking and explosives."
Al-Husseini gave the CSIS the names of people in Montreal and Ottawa who he said were members of Hezbollah. He also said that the terrorist group had a security service that could "gather information even on its own members, who are scattered all over the world."
Hezbollah is said to be capable of conducting in-depth surveillance in Canada and has sent video back to Lebanon because, according to al-Husseini, "Hezbollah wants to collect information on Canada, on life in Canada, its roads and so on, in case there's a problem with Canada."
Even with all of this great information that was obtained from al-Husseini, the realiability of his informationhas come into question. When questioned about al-Husseini, Gaetan Bais, the CSIS spokesman, said that much of the information that was gathered in three interviews with al-Husseini was gathered to support the suspicion that he was a terrorist. Al-Husseini was deported back to Lebanon three years ago.
Canada really has not been a prime target for Middle East terrorists. However, the country has been the victim of a few incidents. In 1985, 329 people were killed when an Air India flight from Toronto exploded off the coast of Ireland. In 1982, a Turkish military attache was assassinated in Ottawa.
Before being arrested in March, al-Sayegh had arrived in Canada by way of Rome and Boston. he was kept under close surveillance for several months.
(c) Copyright, EmergencyNet NEWS Service, 1997. All Rights Reserved. Redistribution without permission of ENN is prohibited by law.
The ENN DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT is a subscription publication of the EmergencyNet NEWS Service, which is a part of the Chicago-based Emergency Response and Research Institute. This publication specializes in Security/Terrorism/Intelligence/Military and National Security issues.
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