Feds investigate Canadian connection in Algeria attack
Experts warn that militants could have been using faked or borrowed passports
The federal government said Monday it was still “seeking further information” after Algeria’s prime minister remarked that the band of Islamist militants who carried out a deadly attack on a natural gas plant in that country included two Canadians.
A Canadian security expert urged caution about taking at face-value statements from the Algerian government, suggesting it could be trying to deflect from criticism over its handling of the attack that left 38 hostages and 29 militants dead by pointing to “foreigners coming in to our country causing havoc.”
Christian Leuprecht, a fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University and political science professor at Royal Military College, also noted some terrorist groups have used fake or borrowed Canadian passports in the past.
Monday night, the Canadian Press reported the federal government is frustrated by the lack of information coming out of Algeria, and is assuming fake passports could be involved, according to an unnamed source.
That said, there is a precedent for Canadians responding to “calls to action” abroad, Leuprecht said, referring to Momin Khawaja, the Ottawa software developer who in 2008 became the first Canadian convicted under this country’s anti-terrorism laws for training at a camp in Pakistan, providing financial support to a group of British extremists and helping to build remote-control detonators.
“I’m sure everyone will be working overtime at CSIS tonight trying to figure out if these persons are actually Canadian and what are their networks,” Leuprecht said, referring to Canada’s spy agency.
“If there is a Canadian connection, what is that connection? Is it a recruiting connection? Is it a fundraising connection? Or is it a connection to an action cell, a sleeper cell?”
Mokhtar Belmokhtar, an Algerian who has claimed responsibility for masterminding the attack and who was responsible for the 2008 kidnapping of Canadian diplomat Robert Fowler in Niger, reportedly split last month from an al-Qaida affiliate known as al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) to form his own group, the Masked Brigade.
Leuprecht said AQIM poses one of the most significant threats to western interests by an international terrorist organization right now. It has traditionally been viewed as a regional operation in North Africa, so if it is found to have links to Canada or the West, that will undoubtedly elevate its threat assessment, he said.
An unclassified 2012 CSIS report noted AQIM was expanding its influence and “kidnapping foreigners for ransom is (its) most profitable activity, bringing in millions of dollars in revenue.”
While the report did not mention any direct links to Canada, it noted al-Qaida and affiliated groups “continue to pursue the radicalization, recruitment and training of Westerners, including Canadians, through increasingly accessible and sophisticated online propaganda.”
A recent posting on the website of the Council on Foreign Relations noted arrests of suspected terrorists with ties to AQIM have been made throughout Europe.
The article said the group’s membership numbers in the several hundreds, according to estimates, and is divided into “katibas” or brigades.
The militants who attacked the plant last week wore military uniforms and included a team of explosives experts who memorized the layout of the vast complex and were ready to blow up the facility sky-high, Algerian Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal told reporters Monday.
In addition to the Canadians, the militants included men from Egypt, Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Tunisia, Sellal said.
Three attackers were captured and five foreign workers remained unaccounted for, the prime minister said. He did not specify the nationalities of the captured militants.
The dead hostages included seven Japanese workers, six Filipinos and three energy workers each from the U.S. and Britain.
Chrystiane Roy, a spokeswoman for Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs, said the government was aware of the reports Canadians may have been involved in the hostage-taking in Algeria.
“We are pursuing all appropriate channels to seek further information and are in close contact with Algerian authorities,” she said.
“Canada condemns in the strongest possible terms this deplorable and cowardly act.”
A spokeswoman for CSIS referred queries to foreign affairs officials.