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Canada a haven for terrorists, new book claims

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  • Canada a haven for terrorists, new book claims

    The Vancouver Sun (British Columbia)
    March 8, 2004 Monday Final Edition

    Canada a haven for terrorists, new book claims: National Post
    reporter says the country is a renowned hub of global terrorism

    by Mary Vallis

    TORONTO -- An Armenian immigrant who participated in Canada's first
    major terrorist incident 22 years ago still lives in Toronto and
    plays guitar in a band, according to a new book probing the country's
    terrorist ties.

    Cold Terror: How Canada Nurtures and Exports Terrorism Around the
    World explores how Canada has evolved into an internationally
    renowned hub of global terrorism. Written by National Post reporter
    Stewart Bell, the book contains exclusive interviews with victims of
    terrorist attacks, senior intelligence officials and terrorists
    themselves.

    In September 2003, at a nondescript coffee shop in Little Italy, Bell
    met with Haig Gharakhanian, one of three Armenians convicted of
    plotting to kill a Turkish diplomat in Ottawa. The man was nervous
    because his band's CD was about to be released and he had just met
    with CSIS to get clearance for his Canadian citizenship, but spoke
    with Bell anyway.

    "As we were speaking, the lead singer of his band comes in and sits
    down," Bell recalled. "You could just see this guy's eyes widening as
    he listens to the guy who's been his guitar player and roommate for
    years explaining his involvement in terrorism."

    Gharakhanian, who was just 17 years old when he participated in the
    attack, spent nine months in prison for his role in the 1982 shooting
    of Kani Gungor. The diplomat was left paralyzed. Gharakhanian, who
    had Iranian citizenship, helped scout out the target and delivered a
    letter to the United Press International's Los Angeles office, in
    which the Armenian Secret Army for the Liberation of Armenia (ASALA)
    claimed responsibility for the attack.

    After he was released on parole, Gharakhanian applied for refugee
    status and successfully fought a deportation order. Bell uses his
    case as one example that illustrates how Canada's immigration policy
    has fuelled the country's links to terrorism.

    "He got a very light sentence. He was not deported because the
    immigration judges felt sorry for him, and now he's about to become a
    citizen," Bell said of Gharakhanian. "That was our beginning. We
    treated a guy who was basically a terrorist sympathetically, and that
    set the stage for everything that's followed ...."

    Bell's book, released today, chronicles how Canada became a haven for
    some of the world's most powerful terrorist organizations. It also
    features newly uncovered pieces of an internal CSIS report written in
    the days after the Sept. 11 attacks.

    The report shows that as Jean Chretien stood up in the House of
    Commons and proclaimed Canada free of terrorists planning attacks,
    CSIS had concluded al-Qaida had operatives in Canada and could list
    them by name.

    Bell argues Canadian politicians do not pay enough attention to
    warnings from security intelligence officials. Politicians have not
    taken a strong stand against terrorism in part because they fear they
    will alienate some of their core voter support -- namely interest
    groups who promise to deliver ethnic voting blocks.

    "Canadians like to think of themselves as benevolent world citizens,
    peacekeepers in blue berets who bring kindness and calm to troubled
    lands," Bell writes.

    "The cold truth is that, since the early 1980s, Canada has become a
    source country of international terrorism. Former prime minister Jean
    Chretien used to boast that the United Nations Human Development
    Index showed Canada was the best country in the world in which to
    live. In the past two decades, it also became the best country in the
    world for terrorists to make their home."
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