Air India plot warning claim rubbished

By Gurmukh Singh, IANS

Toronto : The public inquiry into the 1985 Air India bombing has turned curiouser with a Canadian spy countering the claim of former Ontario Lt. Governor James Bartleman that he saw a secret intercept about the plot a week before the plane was blown up.


Support TwoCircles

If the intercept had been acted upon, Bartleman had testified at the inquiry in May, the Air India tragedy could have been averted. All 329 people on board were killed when Flight 182 from Toronto to New Delhi was blown off the Irish coast June 23, 1985.

Testifying that Bartleman had “fabricated” his claim, Pierre Lacompte, who in 1985 worked with the then secret Communication Security Establishment, said Thursday that what Bartleman claimed in his testimony actually never happened. No intercept about Air India ever existed, and Bartleman was lying.

Bartleman, who served as an intelligence officer in the department of foreign affairs when Air India was bombed, had testified in May before he retired as the Lt Governor of Ontario.

Lacompte, now with the Canadian Intelligence Security Service (CSIS), wondered how Bartleman could have kept this a secret for 22 years if it had actually happened.

Since the turf war between Canada’s top spy agency (CSIS) and the top police body (Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP) is blamed for the botched Air India investigation, their bosses testified Thursday, describing their complicated relationship and how they could share intelligence inputs without jeopardizing national interest.

CSIS has been blamed for not sharing information about the Air India plot with the RCMP and erasing tapes of secret conversations of the plot mastermind that led to acquittal of suspects.

Testifying before the inquiry, CSIS director Jim Judd said the spy agency’s prime aim was to secure conviction of a terrorist. For this, CSIS was ready to give inputs for criminal prosecutions. He said CSIS now consulted the RCMP before mounting surveillance against suspects.

For his part, RCMP chief William Elliott told the inquiry that CSIS was justified in keeping some information secret for reasons of national security. “There needs to be some room for appropriate levels of discretion to be appropriately exercised,” he said.

He feared that if the law was changed to make it mandatory for CSIS to share intelligence with the RCMP, that information could reach defendants under court-ordered disclosure of police files to defence lawyers. “It’s hard to be definitive with respect to all potential future events or situations,” he said.

SUPPORT TWOCIRCLES HELP SUPPORT INDEPENDENT AND NON-PROFIT MEDIA. DONATE HERE