Reports link embassy worker to Islamic State recruitment
Islamic State recruiter worked for embassy in Jordan, reports say
OT TAWA Canada’s embassy in Jordan is linked in news reports to an unfolding international terrorism and spy scandal.
The federal government refused to comment Friday on multiple Turkish media reports that a foreign spy, alleged to be working for Canadian intelligence and arrested in Turkey for helping three British girls travel to Syria to join Islamic State militants, was working for the Canadian Embassy in Amman.
Reports also say the suspect has confessed to working for Canadian intelligence and was doing so to obtain Canadian citizenship. The man previously travelled to Canada with the embassy’s approval, said one report.
Yet former Canadian intelligence officials expressed doubts Friday about the allegations the Syrian human smuggler was working for Ottawa.
The suspect in custody is a Syrian intelligence operative named Mohammed Mehmet Rashid, dubbed Doctor Mehmet Rashid, who helped the three London schoolgirls travel to Syria upon their arrival in Turkey, according to Yeni Safak, a conservative, Islamist Turkish newspaper known for its strong support of the government. Other Turkish news outlets identified the man with slightly different spellings: Mohammed al Rashid or Mohammad Al Rashed.
Police arrested Rashid more than a week ago in a province near Turkey’s border with Syria, multiple news agencies reported.
The initial police report says Rashid confessed he was working for the Canadian intelligence agency and that he has flown to Jordan to share intelligence with other agents working for the Canadian Embassy in Amman, various news outlets reported.
The suspect claimed that he worked for the intelligence service to get Canadian citizenship for himself, said various news reports. The Turkish intelligence service confiscated his mobile phone and computer, which were provided by the Canadian government, according to reports.
Computer records revealed Rashid entered Turkey 33 times with his Syrian passport since June 2013, and agents discovered passport images of 17 more people, aside from the ones belonging to the three British girls, Yeni Safak reported.
The Citizen has not been able to independently confirm the Turkish news reports.
The Syrian agent reportedly received deposits of between $800 and $1,500 through bank accounts opened in the United Kingdom.
A federal government source in Canada said the individual arrested is not a Canadian citizen and “was not an employee of CSIS,” but nobody in government has said this on the record. Nor has the government categorically ruled out reports that the alleged spy was working for or helping the Canadian government in some capacity.
Four ex-Canadian Security Intelligence Service officials said if he had any connection, it was likely tenuous, but after being arrested he had inflated his role as an intelligence source.
“I think if I had to put $5 of my hard-earned pension on the table, that’s pretty much where I’d come out,” said Reid Morden, CSIS director from 1988 to 1992.
According to Turkish press reports, Rashid accompanied Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, to a Turkish border town, where they crossed into Syria.
Morden said he thought it was unlikely CSIS had recruited the man; had he approached a Canadian embassy, staff would have listened to what he had to say. “I mean, never turn down a source of information.”
Another former senior CSIS official said that when he worked overseas people would walk in to the embassy “all the time” offering information.
He speculated Rashid was embellishing his connection to Canadian intelligence because he had been arrested and was trying to find a way out.
“The guy may be fabricating to save himself and could have been interviewed by CSIS in the past,” said another former CSIS official, Jim Corcoran, who served as deputy director.
“On the other hand if I was still running operations at CSIS I would be trying to penetrate the groups, individuals and routes that are getting these so called fighters into Syria and Iraq.”
Ray Boisvert, a former CSIS counter-terrorism chief, recalled when he worked overseas, people would come to the embassy offering to provide information. “And the next time he gets arrested, ‘I’m working for the Canadians,’” he said.
He also said intelligence officials sometimes deal with sources who rely on their own networks of subsources whose identities are unknown to the Canadians.
“There’s no doubt that that part of the world is the nexus for so many Western intelligence agencies trying to get at the issue of foreign fighters and develop intelligence,” he said.
Canada’s ambassador to Jordan is Bruno Saccomani, the former RCMP officer who was in charge of Harper’s security detail until the prime minister appointed him almost two years ago as the envoy to Amman, with dual responsibility for Iraq.
In Ottawa, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney has refused to comment on the reports, citing operational security.
The official Opposition pursued the Conservatives Friday in question period over the alleged link to Canada’s embassy in Jordan, which they noted is run by Harper’s handpicked ambassador.
Exactly why Turkish officials chose to publicly identify the man’s affiliation as being with Canada, and possibly CSIS, remains unclear.
Relations between Turkey and Canada were rocky after the federal government formally recognized the killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during the First World War as a genocide, but they have become more cordial in recent years.
The guy may be fabricating to save himself and could have been interviewed by CSIS in the past.