Trudeau to look into Daesh spy link in schoolgirls trafficking
NEW BOOK CLAIMS DOUBLE AGENT HIRED BY CANADA HELPED BEGUM AND FRIENDS REACH SYRIA
PRIME MINISTER Justin Trudeau vowed last Wednesday (31) to “follow up” on allegations that a spy working for Canadian intelligence trafficked British schoolgirls into Syria, where at least one married a Daesh (Islamic State group) fighter.
According to a Times report in London, in 2015 then-15-year-old Shamima Begum and two friends received help from a peoplesmuggler recruited by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) to get to war-ravaged Syria from their Bethnal Green Academy in east London.
British police had launched a massive international search for the trio at the time. When pressed about the case at a news conference, Trudeau defended the need for intelligence services to be “flexible and creative in their approaches... in their work to keep Canada and Canadians safe in a very dangerous world.”
At the same time, he added, CSIS must abide by Canadian laws and “strict rules” of conduct.
“We expect those rules to be followed,” Trudeau said.
“I know there are questions about certain incidents or operations of the past and we will ensure to follow up on those.”
“We will continue to ensure that proper oversight is done and as necessary, look at further steps,” he added.
The Times report cites a new book by its former security correspondent Richard Kerbaj.
According to the book, The Secret History of the Five Eyes, CSIS had recruited Daesh supporter Mohammed al-Rashed as a double agent when he visited Canada’s embassy in Jordan seeking asylum. His cover was blown when he was later arrested by Turkey and found to be in possession of travel documents, including bus tickets, belonging to Begum and her friends.
Canada only privately admitted its involvement with al-Rashed and asked Britain to help cover it up, Kerbaj’s book said.
It also claims Canada could not have stopped the girls’ travel as they had already crossed into Syria by the time al-Rashed’s handler was informed of the situation.
Now 23 and stripped of her UK citizenship, Begum, who is of Bangladeshi heritage, remains in a displacement camp in northern Syria as she appeals the decision to bar her from Britain.
Begum’s family lawyer, Tasnime Akunjee, has argued that the teenager was trafficked out of the UK.
Begum is due to make a fresh case at a Special Immigration Appeals commission in November.
Her school friends, Kadiza Sultana and Amira Abase, are said to have been killed in a Russian air raid or are missing.
Begum previously denied being directly involved in the preparation of acts of terror. “I am willing to go to court and face the people who made these claims and refute these claims because I know I did nothing in IS but be a mother and a wife,” she said last year.
“These claims are being made to make me look worse because the government do not have anything on me,” she told ITV.
The Supreme Court last year rejected her permission on public safety grounds to return to Britain to challenge the government’s decision to remove her citizenship.
There was no suggestion in the Supreme Court judgment that the British authorities knew the circumstances of her smuggling into Syria.