[SCADASEC] Danger from Canada

Mon Feb 11 10:41:09 CST 2008

I would also like to state, that although our borders are 'fluid' (as one person called it), it doesn't mean that our neighbors to the North, aren't good neighbors.  I am certain (without going into details) that Canada is well aware of the situation.  ;)

Also -- FOR THE RECORD -- I do NOT want to be considered a harbinger of 'FUD' (fear, uncertainty, and doubt) on this list.  If at all, I find the article interesting, and thought it worthwhile to pass onto the rest of the community.  Not to dwell on the negativity of the issue, it is still, nonetheless, interesting.

-rad

----- Original Message -----
From: Mark Fabro [mailto:fabro at loftyperch.com]
To: scadasec at news.infracritical.com
Subject: Re: [SCADASEC] Danger from Canada

> Yes, watch out!
> 
> Sad the article spins how the U.S. has done a bad job at securing its
> borders and turns it into Canada-bashing while citing
> less-than-noteworthy sources. If you want to read a good book on the
> saturation of terrorism in the U.S. (just to show balance) take a look
> at "American Jihad" by Steve Emerson. In combination with Bell's book
> you may just want to move to a more secure Europe. 
> 
> Boo!
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: scadasec-bounces at news.infracritical.com
> [mailto:scadasec-bounces at news.infracritical.com] On Behalf Of Bob
> Radvanovsky
> Sent: Monday, February 11, 2008 10:27 AM
> To: scadasec at news.infracritical.com
> Subject: [SCADASEC] Danger from Canada
> 
> URL:
> http://www.metimes.com/International/2008/02/11/danger_from_canada/8977/
> 
> Danger from Canada
> By OLIVIER GUITTA (Middle East Times)
> Published: February 11, 2008
> 
> On Jan. 15, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff told the BBC that
> one of the biggest threats to U.S. security might now come from Europe.
> Even if this assessment is quite accurate, the immediate danger might be
> coming from a much closer place: Canada.
> 
> The fact that based on the honor system, people claiming to be U.S. or
> Canadian citizens could just enter the U.S. by land or by sea makes it
> even more dangerous. But on Jan. 31, the Department of Homeland Security
> finally revoked this honor system.
> 
> While Congress is very critical of that DHS move (mostly for economic
> reasons), it is mind-boggling that six and half years after Sept. 11 the
> U.S. borders are still so open and that such a system was in place. The
> honor system was basically resting on trusting everyone not to lie about
> their citizenship without any kind of proof. Thus, potentially hundreds
> of terrorists may have been allowed into the U.S. without showing any
> proof of identification.
> 
> To show how potentially damaging this policy is, just one statistic
> suffices: in just three months, from October to December 2007, Customs
> and Border Protection officers reported 1,517 cases of individuals
> falsely claiming to be U.S. citizens. Two recent telling examples show
> the very alarming situation at the border.
> 
> First, in May 2006, CNN reported that a border station between Manitoba
> and Minnesota was unmanned and that people crossing the border were
> supposed to phone in to ask to be granted entry. Incidentally, the
> videophone was working very spottily and the local sheriff estimates
> that about 70 percent of people did not bother calling in. He also has
> information that drug smugglers and potential terrorists took advantage
> of this easy crossing.
> 
> The second example, even more mind-boggling, comes from a September 2007
> Government Accountability Office report that shows that a terrorist with
> the intention of smuggling radioactive material from Canada to the
> United States could likely easily do it. The reason they know that is
> because GAO's investigators were able, "to cross undetected, simulating
> the cross-border movement of radioactive materials."
> 
> The overall conclusion of that report was that regarding the northern
> border, "CBP faces significant challenges in effectively monitoring the
> border and preventing undetected entry into the United States."
> 
> This should not be surprising in light of how little human capital is
> devoted to protecting the border with Canada: as of May 2007, the CBP
> had 972 U.S. Border Patrol agents on the 5,500-mile northern border.
> 
> In light of the above-mentioned facts, it should be clear that the very
> porous border with Canada is a pressing national security issue. This,
> however, is just the tip of the iceberg. Why?
> 
> Historically, a number of terror attacks targeting the U.S. have
> originated in Canada, such as the "Millennium plot" planned against Los
> Angeles airport. Another example: Just two months ago, the Paris daily
> Le Figaro revealed that the leader of the Palestinian commando team that
> perpetrated the Oct. 3, 1980, terror attack on the Rue Copernic
> synagogue in Paris (which killed 4 and injured 20) is living in Canada.
> The suspect is of Palestinian descent and holds both Lebanese and
> Canadian citizenships, an expert on the Rue Copernic case said:
> 
> "We always knew that the leader of the commandos behind the Rue Copernic
> [terror attack] was very unlikely ever to be tried." One of the reasons
> behind this assessment is that the Palestinian/Lebanese/Canadian
> terrorist picked the right place to live: Canada."
> 
> In fact, Canada is well known for its reluctance to extradite suspects,
> especially when they are nationals. According to Le Figaro, the Canadian
> police have confirmed to Interpol the name and address of the alleged
> terrorist, but they have not followed up. French authorities are looking
> for this individual in order to interrogate him.
> 
> In his book, "In Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism
> Around the World" (first published in 2004, revised and updated in
> 2007), journalist Stewart Bell explains why terrorists elect Canada as a
> place of residence and "business." First, Bell points out, the judicial
> and immigration systems are basically broken: Even if a terrorist is
> caught, he rarely suffers a fate worse than deportation. In many
> instances, an individual ordered deported does not leave.
> 
> For example, the Canadian leader of the Tamil Tigers, Manickavasagam
> Suresh, was arrested in 1995 as a threat to national security and was
> ordered to be deported, but he is still in Canada 13 years later.
> 
> Canadian immigration laws, combined with the difficulty of enforcing
> better antiterrorist laws, make it tough for security services to do
> their job properly. The province of Quebec has attracted members of the
> Algerian GIA (Armed Islamic Group) - Ahmed Ressam, the "Millennium
> Bomber" was one of them - and Lebanese Hezbollah operatives.
> 
> David Harris, a former official with the Canadian Security Intelligence
> Services, told PBS in May 2001: "Montreal is the place you probably want
> to be if you are an Algerian extremist." This statement is still very
> much accurate today: Algerian or Moroccan elements of al-Qaida in the
> Islamic Maghreb or Hezbollah operatives can easily pass as immigrants
> wanting to move to Canada.
> 
> Even after the arrests of 18 homegrown Muslim terrorists in Toronto in
> June 2006 authorities seem to downplay the threat, worried not to
> disrupt the important cross-border trade that could suffer as a result
> of beefed-up border security measures.
> 
> In a post-9/11 world proper border security is a must, even if the DHS'
> new policy is somewhat late.
> 
> -- 
> 
> Olivier Guitta, an adjunct fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of
> Democracies and a foreign affairs and counterterrorism consultant, is
> the founder of the newsletter The Croissant (www.thecroissant.com). 
> 
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