The federal government is being tight-lipped about proposed changes to the law governing our spy agency, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service.
It is reliably reported, however, that it is seriously considering changes in the agency’s mandate to authorize it to conduct overseas spying operations. As it is, the CSIS Act, whereby the agency was brought into being in 1984, specifies that its operations are to be limited to “within Canada.”
The government is well advised to do so, in part because the present CSIS mandate limits its scope in countering foreign threats to Canadian security, but also to legitimize something the agency has already been doing to some extent, notably in Afghanistan where CSIS agents have been involved in the interrogation of prisoners.
There have been growing calls for the government to extend the CSIS mandate to allow it the same offensive capability to spy on foreigners overseas that it is endowed with domestically.
Former CSIS boss Reid Morden said recently he was initially opposed to such expansion of the mandate, but has since come around after Canada was added to the al-Qaida and Hezbollah “hit lists” for the government’s strong pro-Israel policy and its actions against fundraising fronts for terrorist organizations.
As well, the former head of Britain’s overseas spy service, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, recently chided Canada as “an intelligence freeloader” for its extensive reliance on allied spy services for foreign intelligence.
Before its election to govern in 2006, the Conservative Party espoused the creation of a separate foreign-intelligence service, but once in government rightly figured that mounting a Canadian equivalent to the American CIA would be hideously expensive. The current thinking is that simply removing the “within Canada” clause and expanding the CSIS mandate is the best way to proceed.
The option was supported by Morden, who suggests the watchword should be: “Keep it simple and keep it cheap.” To that sound advice he might also have added: “And keep it on a short leash.” That means making the enhanced CSIS operations subject to scrutiny by the agency’s watchdog body, the Security Intelligence Review Committee and holding the agency to a high standard.
On the latter score the agency was found wanting in its Afghan activities. A recent SIRC report did clear CSIS agents of complicity in detainee abuse, but criticized senior agency brass for lax record-keeping and for sending field operatives overseas without sufficient guidance as to how they were to weigh and circulate intelligence they gather.
The report concluded that the spy service must “ensure that the management of its operations mirrors, to the extent practicable, the standard of accountability and professionalism that is set and maintained domestically.”
It is sound advice that if not heeded could result in CSIS foreign ventures doing more harm than good to the Canadian interest.
Origin
Source: Montreal Gazette
It is reliably reported, however, that it is seriously considering changes in the agency’s mandate to authorize it to conduct overseas spying operations. As it is, the CSIS Act, whereby the agency was brought into being in 1984, specifies that its operations are to be limited to “within Canada.”
The government is well advised to do so, in part because the present CSIS mandate limits its scope in countering foreign threats to Canadian security, but also to legitimize something the agency has already been doing to some extent, notably in Afghanistan where CSIS agents have been involved in the interrogation of prisoners.
There have been growing calls for the government to extend the CSIS mandate to allow it the same offensive capability to spy on foreigners overseas that it is endowed with domestically.
Former CSIS boss Reid Morden said recently he was initially opposed to such expansion of the mandate, but has since come around after Canada was added to the al-Qaida and Hezbollah “hit lists” for the government’s strong pro-Israel policy and its actions against fundraising fronts for terrorist organizations.
As well, the former head of Britain’s overseas spy service, the Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6, recently chided Canada as “an intelligence freeloader” for its extensive reliance on allied spy services for foreign intelligence.
Before its election to govern in 2006, the Conservative Party espoused the creation of a separate foreign-intelligence service, but once in government rightly figured that mounting a Canadian equivalent to the American CIA would be hideously expensive. The current thinking is that simply removing the “within Canada” clause and expanding the CSIS mandate is the best way to proceed.
The option was supported by Morden, who suggests the watchword should be: “Keep it simple and keep it cheap.” To that sound advice he might also have added: “And keep it on a short leash.” That means making the enhanced CSIS operations subject to scrutiny by the agency’s watchdog body, the Security Intelligence Review Committee and holding the agency to a high standard.
On the latter score the agency was found wanting in its Afghan activities. A recent SIRC report did clear CSIS agents of complicity in detainee abuse, but criticized senior agency brass for lax record-keeping and for sending field operatives overseas without sufficient guidance as to how they were to weigh and circulate intelligence they gather.
The report concluded that the spy service must “ensure that the management of its operations mirrors, to the extent practicable, the standard of accountability and professionalism that is set and maintained domestically.”
It is sound advice that if not heeded could result in CSIS foreign ventures doing more harm than good to the Canadian interest.
Origin
Source: Montreal Gazette
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