SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE -

id: 194492 date: 2/27/2009 22:09 refid: 09OTTAWA154 origin: Embassy Ottawa classification: SECRET destination: 09STATE13023|09TORONTO18 header: R 272209Z FEB 09 FM AMEMBASSY OTTAWA TO SECSTATE WASHDC 9150 INFO AMCONSUL CALGARY AMCONSUL HALIFAX AMCONSUL MONTREAL AMCONSUL QUEBEC AMCONSUL TORONTO AMCONSUL VANCOUVER CIA WASHDC DIA WASHDC FBI WASHINGTON DC -------------- header ends -------------- S E C R E T OTTAWA 000154 DEPT FOR DS/IP/WHA AND DS/TIA/ITA E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/12/2019 TAGS: ASEC PTER SUBJECT: SECURITY ENVIRONMENT PROFILE QUESTIONNAIRE - SPRING 2009 REF: STATE 13023 Classified By: Classified By RSO Kevin F. Flanagan, reason 1.4 (d) ¶1. This Message is SECRET/NOFORN. -------------- ¶2. POLITICAL VIOLENCE -------------- -------------- ¶I. (SBU) DEMONSTRATIONS -------------- ¶A. Human rights groups, small political protest/grass roots organizations and Canadian Aboriginal groups are prone to carrying out demonstrations aimed at the host government and sponsor anti-U.S. demonstrations. i. YES - to include Aboriginal groups. ii. YES - Peaceful demonstrations and marches occur near the embassy on a frequent basis and involve between 20 to 100 persons. Police support including notification and monitoring is excellent. iii. The average size of demonstrations runs between 20 and 50 persons with marches including up to 100 on some occasions. iv. Ongoing U.S. Foreign Policy initiatives and military actions as well as U.S. domestic issues related to the U.S. Canada Border have triggered Anti-American demonstrations in the past. ¶B. Demonstrations across the country are mainly peaceful however there have been a limited number of violent clashes with police. The last incident involving any violence by demonstrators occured during the POTUS visit to the North American Leaders meeting in August of 2007 in Montebello, Quebec. i. No. ii. Yes. An emotionally disturbed person walked through the gap between two Delta Barriers at the Embassy vehicle entrance and threw red paint across the Garage door. The individual was subsequently arrested and charged with criminal mischief as the damage to the garage door did not exceed 5000.00 Canadian Dollars. ¶C. Yes. The NO-WAR coalition of various groups has demonstrated against U.S. involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan, including demonstrations aimed at U.S. detentions in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba as well as the Canadian military mission in Afghanistan. i. Yes. The close proximity of the U.S. Embassy to the Canadian Parliament lends itself to demonstrations and marches. ii. The average size of anti-government demonstrations involve between 20-100 persons. In general, both Toronto and Vancouver report larger numbers of demonstrators. iii. Peaceful. iv. No damage to U.S. Property. -------------- II. MACRO CONFLICT CONDITIONS. -------------- ¶A. No. ¶B. N/A ¶C. N/A ¶D. N/A -------------- III. HOST GOVERNMENT CAPABILITIES. -------------- ¶A. Yes. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police and most major city Police Services in Canada are professionally trained and extremely sensitive and responsive to the safety and security of U.S. facilities and personnel. ¶B. N/A ¶C. No. ¶D. Yes. The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) have demonstrated their commitment to battle terrorism. However, Canadian services do not appear to be as proactive as U.S. law enforcement regarding terrorist cell penetration and source development. Both agencies are supportive and cooperative with U.S. law enforcement for the most part although restricted by the Canadian Charter of Rights, which is the basis for Canada's strict provacy laws. Qis the basis for Canada's strict provacy laws. ¶E. Yes, as long as privacy regulations are enforced to the fullest degree of the law. Timeliness on requests for information, depending on the request, can take longer than normal given the privacy constraints. ¶F. Yes, to include the arrest of 18 "Homegrown" terrorists in Toronto during June of 2006, an arrest in the fall of 2007 in Montreal of a Muslim doing online facilitation for a German terrorist cell, and the arrest in the late summer of 2006 in Toronto and Windsor of members of the LTTE. In September of 2008, a Toronto court convicted one of the "Toronto 18" for conspiring in the group plot. He faces a maximum of 10 years in prison, but the court has not yet set a date for sentencing. The remaining court proceedings for "Toronto 18" have yet to be finalized and thus success/failure cannot be assessed. Mohammad Momin Khawaja, charged and found guilty of financing and facilitating terrorism for training at a remote camp in Pakistan and providing cash to a group of British extremists, will be sentenced on March 12, 2009. He was also convicted of offenses related to building a remote-control device to set off explosions, and faces a maximum penalty of two life terms plus 58 years, which would preclude the possibility of parole for 10 years. ¶G. Yes ¶H. Good/Average. In general, major airports generally have good security controls in place. Use of the no-fly list has been added for outbound international flights, but not used for domestic air travel. Canada has established its own "no fly list" and has successfully stopped someone on the list from flying. ¶I. The Canadian Border Services Agency (CBSA) is reasonably effective at ports of entry. ¶J. Canada lacks a dedicated border patrol. The RCMP and some local police jurisdictions perform this function. -------------- ¶3. INDIGENOUS TERRORISM -------------- -------------- I ANTI-AMERICAN TERRORIST GROUPS -------------- ¶A. No. ¶B. No. ¶C. No. ¶D. No. ¶E. No. ¶F. No. ¶G. N/A. -------------- II OTHER INDIGENOUS TERRORIST GROUPS -------------- ¶A. No. There are no formal/named indigenous terrorist groups located or operating in Canada. ¶B. Yes. 18 "Homegrown Terrorists" (Al-Qaida inspired) were arrested in June of 2006 from the greater Toronto region. These "Homegrown terrorists" are first generation Canadian citizens, primarily of Pakistani descent, and they were allegedly plotting to attack the CN Tower in Toronto as well as the Parliament building in Ottawa. Eleven have been charged, and one trial has begun. In September of 2007, a suspected terrorist believed to be plotting attacks in Austria was arrested by the RCMP. Native Canadian (Aboriginal) groups have, on occasion, had confrontations with Canadian police. ¶C. No ¶D. N/A ¶E. No -------------- ¶4. TRANSNATIONAL TERRORISM -------------- -------------- -------------- ¶I. (S/NF) TRANSNATIONAL TERRORIST INDICATORS -------------- -------------- ¶A. (S/NF) Yes. Almost every known Islamic extremist group has either a presence or sympathizers in Canada such as the Hizballah; AL-Itihad; Algerian GIA; the LTTE; Egyptian Islamic Jihad; the Iranian MEK, AL-Qaida and the Hell's Angels gang. Sikh extremists are also present and are under constant scrutiny by Canadian security services as a result Qof the suspicioun of their involvement in the 1985 Air India bombings. All Canadian Posts have seen an increase in the number of Visa Viper entries. Also, in August of 2006, the RCMP arrested 4 members of the Tamil Tigers in a plot to buy missiles from undercover FBI agents. The Tamil Tigers were added by Canada to its list of terrorist organizations in early 2006. Extremist groups resident in Canada primarily operate as propaganda, financial and support cells. However, the potential threat from these groups cannot be discounted. Investigative activity by U.S. and Canadian services since September of 2001 has confirmed the presence of AL-Qaeda members and cells in Canada. In January of 2002, a suspected Al-Qaeda trained terrorist, Al Rauf Bin Al Habib Bin Yousef Al-Jiddi, a Canadian citizen born in Tunisia, was identified as one of the five suicide martyrs whose photos were released by the U.S. government in January of 2002. Al-Jiddi lived in Montreal. U.S. law enforcement have, on occasion, identified an individual of interest with ties to Canada, as was the situation with Abderraouf Jdey and Mahar Arar. Arar, a naturalized Canadian citizen from Syria, was recently cleared by a Canadian inquiry of any wrongdoing and subsequently awarded 10.5 million dollars (CDN) as a result of his removal from the U.S. to Syria immediately following the events of 9/11/2001. ¶B. The organization and sympathizers are primarily assessed as propaganda, financial, and/or support cells. Most recently, financial support fronts for Hamas. Operational activities have been planned in Canada in recent years such as well-documented El-Maati probe. Another notable example was the December 1999 arrest f convicted terrorist Ahmed Ressam and the subsequent arrest of a number of his accomplices. Ressam was a Montreal based terrorist apprehended at the British Columbia/Washington state border as he was enroute to conduct an attack in the United States. Investigations indicate Canada-based extremists have toes to identified or suspect terrorists overseas. The nature and extent of the Canada-based persons involvement with these terrorists is often unclear, but does give cause for concern. ¶C. No. ¶D. (S/NF) Yes, there are extremists who are in sympathy with the Islamic fundamentalist organizations including Hizballah and Al-Qaeda. Several arrests by Canadian services were made over the last year of suspected Al-Qaeda members. NGOs have also been determined to be in support of suspected terrorist fund raising activities. There are Sikh extremists in sympathy with the Sikh organization(s). The largest of those communities, we believe, are not fully known to security services who continue to work the targets in question to access and re-assess that question. For example, the Global Relief Foundation (GRF) and the Benevalence International Fund(BIF),both listed by the U.S. as having supported terrorism, have been active in Canada. The Tamil LTTE is also very active in raising IS ALSO VERY ACTIVE IN RAISING MILLIONS OF DOLLARS THROUGH A VARIETY OF FRONT GROUPS. Early last summer, the RCMP shut down the World Tamil Organization (WTO) for supporting the LTTE. ¶E. Yes ¶F. Ottawa is an international capital with over 140 foreign Embassies to include Russia, Iran, Syria, Israel, France, Venezuela, Cuba, China, and several others considered by DSS as having hostile intelligence services. Surveillance detection teams have been made aware of RSO interests of any and all diplomatically plated vehicles exhibiing interest in our facilities. U.S. Embassy Ottawa has reported numerous sightings of apparently Chinese nationals photographing the Qsightings of apparently Chinese nationals photographing the facility and its occupants. The CI threat from third country services and non-state actors in Canada is assessed as being low. However, a recent reminder concerning Contact Reporting by the RSO to the Country Team, has ellicited a mild flurry of reporting. The reporting suggests an interest and perhaps some probing by the Russian Embassy and is being monitored accordingly. The RSO will host a number of defensive briefings in the coming months to address these concerns. While Canadamis home to a number of extremist sympathizers and support operatives, there have been no reported incidents of targeting of the U.S. Embassy or U.S. personnel since late ¶2002. The Canadian Government routinely investigates persons who support Sunni extremism, as well as AL-QA'ida and Taliban operations, and Hizballah. ¶G. The EAC believes that Canada's strict laws pertaining to weapons in general, limits the availability of small arms. Given the internet and U.S. gun laws however, there is a great deal of potential for availability of explosive components and weapons. In light of the August 2007 discovery of home made C-4 plastic explosive and small arms ammunition in a FEDEX box from New Jersey to Ottawa, Post cannot rule out the possibility that other types of weapons to include CBW and combat grade explosives could be used against U.S. or other international targets as witnessed in recent world events. ¶7. (SBU) Point of contact for the above is RSO Kevin F. Flanagan,(613) 688-5262. Visit Canada,s Economy and Environment Forum at http://www.intelink.gov/communities/state/can ada BREESE