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'THEY KNEW, THEY KNEW BEFORE THE BOMB WENT OFF'
Jeff Sallot
Globe and Mail, Canada
May 18 2007
>From Friday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA - A senior Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer
seemed to have advance knowledge of the Sikh extremist plot to bomb
an Air India flight in 1985, two lawyers testified Thursday.
Their testimony is based on separate conversations with Mel Deschenes,
then the head of the CSIS counterterrorist branch, just days before
the bombing.
Graham Pinos, who was a federal Justice Department lawyer representing
CSIS, said he remembers talking shop with Mr. Deschenes over drinks
beside a Los Angeles hotel pool.
Mr. Deschenes said that CSIS considered Sikh extremism the biggest
terrorist threat facing Canada, not the Armenian nationalists whose
violent activities had brought the Canadians to California.
Mr. Deschenes didn't specify that Air India Flight 182 was a target,
Mr. Pinos said.
However, "he did tell me he was afraid of a plane being taken out of
the air, or in his words, blown out of the air" by Sikh extremists.
The Air India flight was bombed four days later. Mr. Pinos, now in
private law practice, said he thought: "Holy expletive. They knew.
They knew. I had a distinct impression that they knew something was
going to happen."
In earlier testimony yesterday, Michael Anne MacDonald, who was an
Ontario government prosecution lawyer in the Armenian case, said she
also had what now seems like an eerie conversation with Mr. Deschenes
at the L.A. hotel.
Mr. Deschenes told her he had to head back to Canada early to deal
with an urgent Sikh terrorism case.
When she heard that the plane had been blown out of the sky, she too
remembered Mr. Deschenes's words. "I thought, even when they know
something is going to happen, they can't stop it."
Inquiry lawyers say Mr. Deschenes is not going to testify. He's old
and in poor health.
Tracey McCann, a federal lawyer at the Air India inquiry, said the
government disputes the accuracy of the recollections of the two
witnesses.
However, Jacques Shore, a lawyer for the families of Air India victims,
said Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos provide important new evidence.
Their testimony tends to corroborate Ontario Lieutenant-Governor
James Bartleman's startling statement earlier this month that Canadian
authorities knew of a threat against Flight 182, Mr. Shore said.
Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos were in Los Angeles at a judicial hearing
to obtain wiretap evidence in the case of an Armenian nationalist
who had attacked a Turkish diplomat in Canada.
Mr. Pinos quoted Mr. Deschenes as saying that CSIS feared Sikh
extremists would attack Indian interests, including Air India."I
have an absolutely clear recollection of events. It was something
that shocked me," Mr. Pinos said.
Ms. MacDonald said she vividly remembers Mr. Deschenes checking out
of the hotel early. They ran into each other in a corridor and Mr.
Deschenes said he had received an urgent call and had to rush back
to Canada to deal with a problem of Sikh extremism.
Ms. MacDonald said that when she learned that Flight 182 had exploded
over the Atlantic, her first thought was: "They knew, they knew before
the bomb went off."
In a 1988 report, Mr. Deschenes wrote that he did not have advance
word about the bomb plot. But he wasn't feeling well and decided to
leave early.
He said he may have used a "work-related pretext."
"My return from Los Angeles was not sudden and could only have been
perceived as such by someone who chose the warm sands of Venice Beach
over a return to cool Ottawa," Mr. Deschenes wrote.
Jeff Sallot
Globe and Mail, Canada
May 18 2007
>From Friday's Globe and Mail
OTTAWA - A senior Canadian Security Intelligence Service officer
seemed to have advance knowledge of the Sikh extremist plot to bomb
an Air India flight in 1985, two lawyers testified Thursday.
Their testimony is based on separate conversations with Mel Deschenes,
then the head of the CSIS counterterrorist branch, just days before
the bombing.
Graham Pinos, who was a federal Justice Department lawyer representing
CSIS, said he remembers talking shop with Mr. Deschenes over drinks
beside a Los Angeles hotel pool.
Mr. Deschenes said that CSIS considered Sikh extremism the biggest
terrorist threat facing Canada, not the Armenian nationalists whose
violent activities had brought the Canadians to California.
Mr. Deschenes didn't specify that Air India Flight 182 was a target,
Mr. Pinos said.
However, "he did tell me he was afraid of a plane being taken out of
the air, or in his words, blown out of the air" by Sikh extremists.
The Air India flight was bombed four days later. Mr. Pinos, now in
private law practice, said he thought: "Holy expletive. They knew.
They knew. I had a distinct impression that they knew something was
going to happen."
In earlier testimony yesterday, Michael Anne MacDonald, who was an
Ontario government prosecution lawyer in the Armenian case, said she
also had what now seems like an eerie conversation with Mr. Deschenes
at the L.A. hotel.
Mr. Deschenes told her he had to head back to Canada early to deal
with an urgent Sikh terrorism case.
When she heard that the plane had been blown out of the sky, she too
remembered Mr. Deschenes's words. "I thought, even when they know
something is going to happen, they can't stop it."
Inquiry lawyers say Mr. Deschenes is not going to testify. He's old
and in poor health.
Tracey McCann, a federal lawyer at the Air India inquiry, said the
government disputes the accuracy of the recollections of the two
witnesses.
However, Jacques Shore, a lawyer for the families of Air India victims,
said Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos provide important new evidence.
Their testimony tends to corroborate Ontario Lieutenant-Governor
James Bartleman's startling statement earlier this month that Canadian
authorities knew of a threat against Flight 182, Mr. Shore said.
Ms. MacDonald and Mr. Pinos were in Los Angeles at a judicial hearing
to obtain wiretap evidence in the case of an Armenian nationalist
who had attacked a Turkish diplomat in Canada.
Mr. Pinos quoted Mr. Deschenes as saying that CSIS feared Sikh
extremists would attack Indian interests, including Air India."I
have an absolutely clear recollection of events. It was something
that shocked me," Mr. Pinos said.
Ms. MacDonald said she vividly remembers Mr. Deschenes checking out
of the hotel early. They ran into each other in a corridor and Mr.
Deschenes said he had received an urgent call and had to rush back
to Canada to deal with a problem of Sikh extremism.
Ms. MacDonald said that when she learned that Flight 182 had exploded
over the Atlantic, her first thought was: "They knew, they knew before
the bomb went off."
In a 1988 report, Mr. Deschenes wrote that he did not have advance
word about the bomb plot. But he wasn't feeling well and decided to
leave early.
He said he may have used a "work-related pretext."
"My return from Los Angeles was not sudden and could only have been
perceived as such by someone who chose the warm sands of Venice Beach
over a return to cool Ottawa," Mr. Deschenes wrote.