RCMP examines Algerian attack
Pair of investigators make ‘progress’ on reports of Canadian involvement
Two Mounties on the ground in Algeria are making “some progress” in their efforts to verify claims that a couple of Canadians had a role in a deadly gas plant attack in that country, a senior law enforcement official said late Friday.
While investigators have not been able to get access to bodies or key documents, they are discussing “co-ordination and co-operation” with Algerian authorities.
“We feel a lot better than when we got there,” the official told Postmedia News.
The official acknowledged that Algeria is dealing with many priorities following the four-day siege last month at the In Amenas facility that left 37 hostages and 29 militants dead. Algerians have allowed representatives of some countries where the victims were from to get access to the bodies, the official said. The dead hostages included workers from Japan, the Philippines, the U.S. and Britain. None were from Canada.
“We’re not the only country knocking on their door,” the official said. The official declined to go into detail about the challenges RCMP investigators are facing or what they’re doing to try to authenticate the claims, made by Algeria’s prime minister.
Scott Stewart, a former U.S. State Department special agent, suggested that investigators could run into additional challenges, including fake identity documents, poorly collected evidence and badly decomposed bodies.
Experts said Canadian intelligence officials are likely liaising with their counterparts in the U.S., Britain and France on this file in case it turns out there’s a network operating out of several countries.
“You find out guy ‘x’ lived in Mississauga, who talked to guy ‘y’ in Brooklyn, who talked to guy ‘z’ in London,” Stewart said.
There have been conflicting accounts about the supposed Canadian militants. The Algerian prime minister reportedly said the Canadians were of Arab descent. However, a Wall Street Journal story cited three plant employees who recalled a “bearded, blond militant” assisting the ringleader of the group. That ringleader at one point boasted of the man’s Canadian origins, one of the employees said.
A Canadian official would only say Friday that authorities were still “trying to get any relevant information” to verify the claims of a Canadian connection.
The fact there is no verification after almost two weeks may suggest the “smoking gun wasn’t quite as smoking or can suggest there’s something genuine to the story” and officials are intentionally saying little so they can pursue their investigative work, said Christian Leuprecht, a fellow at the Centre for International and Defence Policy at Queen’s University.