TERRORIST FINANCE - OTTAWA: GOC LIKELY TO PROCEED

S E C R E T OTTAWA 001755

SIPDIS

STATE FOR EB/ESC/TFS (MBRUNO),S/CT (TKUSHNER),IO/PHO
(BFITZGERALD),SA/A (DPUGH) AND WHA/CAN
TREASURY (JZARATE),AND OFAC (RWERNER)
NSC (KEMERSON)

E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/30/2015
TAGS: EFIN ETTC PREL PTER CVIS KVPR KTFN CA AF
SUBJECT: TERRORIST FINANCE - OTTAWA: GOC LIKELY TO PROCEED
WITH DOMESTIC LISTING OF "HEZB-E-ISLAMI HEMATYAR FACTION"

REF: OTTAWA 1703

Classified By: Wendy Moore, Economics Counselor, Ottawa. Reason: 1.4(
e).


1. (S) Reftel reported that the GOC is proceeding with
consideration of listing HIG domestically under Canada's
Criminal Code but would solicit input from the USG and the
Government of Afghanistan. On June 8, Foreign Affairs Canada
informed post that FM Minister Abdullah, during a meeting in
the The Hague, had consulted with President Karzai, who
agreed that using the phrase "Hezb-e-Islami Hekmatyar
faction" would be acceptable to the GOA. Deputy Ministers
also agreed to that language during a June 7 interagency
meeting, so that is likely to be the proposal considered by
Ministers on June 14.


2. (S) On June 9, Embassy Ottawa's Political Liaison office
received four pages of background from Canada's intelligence
agency (CSIS) that we will transmit electronically. The
paper describes criteria for listing under Canada's Criminal
Code, the origins and history of HIG and Hekmatyar, ideology
and structure, association with al Qaida, methods of
operations, threats to Canadians in Afghanistan, and a
chronology. They note that they did not focus on
intelligence about the group's Canadian activities as that is
not an essential element of their legal argument. One point
they mention is that under the Criminal Code, the GOC has to
establish that the entity is politically or ideologically
motivated and carries out (or has carried out) acts of
violence to achieve its goals.


3. (S) Comment: It sounds as if the GOC believes it has
enough information to list HIG under the criminal code and is
comfortable doing so with wording that indicates it is
Hekmatyar-affiliated members of the Hizb al Islami that they
are focused on. This would be a domestic listing, not a UN
designation, although it could possibly put some pressure on
them to proceed with a UN designation. End Comment.

Visit Canada's Classified Web Site at
http://www.state.sgov.gov/p/wha/ottawa

DICKSON