Research Paper on "Why Canada Needs a Foreign Intelligence Agency Service"

Research Paper 13 pages (3712 words) Sources: 12

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Canada Needs a Foreign Intelligence Agency

At the present time, Canada, an independent sovereign nation, has no foreign intelligence agency. It does have a security agency, Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), but CSIS is limited by its mandate and in function only to investigate and act on security threats inside Canada's borders. Until recently, the vague wording of the CSIS mandate was interpreted by the agency in a way that the agency did carry out a quasi-Foreign Intelligence with its Security Intelligence (Campbell 2008, 13). That changed when Canada's Justice Edmond Blanchard ruled that the CSIS mandate did not extend itself to "extra-territorially" conducting security surveillances involving wire-taps, thereby redefining what had previously been interpreted by CSIS as the breadth of its mandate (13). Now, according to the redefined mandate, Canada is a first world nation that has had a role in World War II, and, more recently, in Afghanistan, but has in the past, and more so now since Blanchard's ruling, had to rely upon the foreign intelligence of its allies. This raises the question of whether or not Canada, in its own best interest, should continue to rely upon the information provided to them from its allies. What if the information being given to Canada was incomplete, or deemed by the allied source as not relevant to Canada? Should Canada rely upon other nations to gather and share information with Canada that could be vital to Canada's political and economic security?

A 2007 study prepared by Barry Cooper for the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute helps answer the questions asked here. Cooper begins with a discussion in an Executive Summary on why Canada should indeed be responsible for its own foreign intelligence. He points out that American intelligence networks, for whatever reason, failed on September 11, 2001, when terrorists commandeered commercial jet airliners carrying civilian passengers, and turned those jetliners into weapons of mass destruction that killed still more civilians when they were deliberately flown into the World Trade Center, the U.S. Pentagon, and, one, unsuccessful in its mission crashed in a field in Pennsylvania, but was believed to have been targeting Washington, D.C. (Cooper 2007, i). An intelligence failure of this magnitude in a country with a system of agencies dedicated to foreign intelligence and internal security, and one which Canada relies heavily upon for its own foreign intelligence, only further demonstrates that Canada must be responsible for its own foreign intelligence and protection. No foreign partner can possibly put Canada's interests above its own, nor should Canada rely upon a foreign country to do so.

Cooper says that "intelligence collection," as it now exists in Canada, where foreign intelligence is gathered from "members of the public, foreign governments and technical interception of telecommunications . . . combined with information from open sources including newspapers, periodicals, academic journals, foreign and domestic broadcasts, official documents, and other published material (i)," is insufficient in and of itself, and without an agency separate and distinct in its mandate and operation as a foreign intelligence agency, cannot be relied upon to provide the necessary foreign security for Canada to benefit from (i). In other words, Canada sits alone, making itself vulnerable as a target to be considered by terrorists, to unseen enemies who would exploit Canada's vulnerability in "political, economic and trade-related intelligence" operations (Campbell 13).

In this study, we will examine the ideas and recommendations of experts, analysts, and politicians whose understanding of Canada's need for an independent foreign intelligence agency arises out of a vast knowledge based on research, and first-hand experience in the foreign and domestic arenas such that their ideas and suggestions should be guiding lights to the Canadian people and government in establishing for Canada an separate and distinct agency under a mandate of foreign intelligence in operation and function.

The Outside Threat to Canada's Internal Economy and Infrastructure

The overall goal of terrorism is not to conquer by sheer force one militarily functioning force against another. It is, rather, to achieve specific objectives within the broader range of the terrorist group. To achieve these objectives, terrorism is the tactic employed to maim, kill, and to especially interrupt the operations of governments and nation-state economies such that they become over burdened with internal failures and weaknesses in their infrastructure that established and existing infrastructures become weak and collapse. Once collapsed, the people of that nation-state become susceptible to new ideologies that promise relief from the threat of harm, even if that relief comes at the price of their freedom.

In the terrorist attack on the United States on September 11, 2001, Jerrold M. Post explains:

"Thus, violence against victims is intended to convey a message to the audiences of attention. And it is the fact that the victims are unarmed, and the randomness of the act that could occur to anyone at any time, anywhere -- the extranormality of the act -- that so compels horrified attention (3)."

The traumatic effect upon the people of the world post September 11, 2001, is still being felt today. More importantly, in the examination of terrorism as a tool of foreign enemies, America serves as an example of the success of terrorism on many levels:

September 11, 2001 is a date that remains etched in the minds of Americans because of the horrific nature of the enemy's act of violence as a statement about the American government emphasized by striking civilians represented by that government over military personnel or targets with respect to the passengers on the commercial jets and the World Trade Center. The Pentagon as a successful target, representative of the seat of power of America's military prowess, demonstrated that for all its technological strength, America was vulnerable to successful attack by a foreign enemy.

America's intelligence systems proved themselves to be flawed and incompetent, resulting in the creation of Homeland Security, intended to be the hub of all information, but which continues to reflect an even greater breadth of internal weakness as demonstrated by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, when spokes to the hub, like Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) failed to respond efficiently and timely to the natural disaster.

American economic infrastructure collapsed, first, by its response in completely shutting down all non-military air traffic over the country (CNN 2002, film documentary).

The terrorist attack closed down Wall Street, interrupting America's economic life-line. Wall Street remained closed for six days following the 9/11 attack, and when it resumed business, the stock market reflected the economic impact of the attack, closing at a significant low (CNN, documentary). That impact on the American market began a negative decline in the American economy that completely collapsed in 2008 and resulted in government bailout interventions. The ripple effect of America's economic collapse has been felt around the world.

The United States responded with military force and engagement on two fronts: Afghanistan and Iraq. The wars have been prolonged, entering the ninth year since the terrorist attack on the United States at a cost of billions of dollars to the American taxpayers, but it has failed to bring about an end to the terrorist network responsible for the attack.

The American people have become war-weary, forcing the government to bring about an end to the war in Iraq, and demanding the government bring home its troops from Afghanistan too.

The wars have left the American public politically and philosophically divided even though there was unity immediately following the events of 9/11.

The impact of the events of 9/11 has deteriorated the American public's confidence in its leaders, and we now see a governmental infrastructure potentially at risk from its own citizens.

All of this must serve as lessons learned for Canada. Canada cannot rely upon an ally and source of foreign intelligence as close as America, nor far away as Europe. Since 9/11, terrorist attacks have been carried out against European nations once thought to be well informed on matters of foreign intelligence, at least to the extent that they could protect their selves from terrorist attacks on their civilian populations, especially following the events of 9/11. This has taught us that terrorism is the face of the new war tactic (Morden 2003). No longer will we see two nations stand one against the other in military strength with strictly military targets. Reid Morden (20023), in a CSIS commentary wrote:

"Whatever the intelligence instruments in play, the focus is most likely to depart from identifying threats to and protecting Canadian security. Terrorism tops this list but it would probably encompass military intelligence where Canadian forces are engaged, organized crime (which wraps in money laundering, drugs, illicit immigration), arms trafficking, and nuclear proliferation. In fact, since 9/11 and subsequent attacks, most intelligence organizations would concede that the line between 'security intelligence' and 'foreign intelligence' has become increasingly blurred (3)."

Canada has troops in Afghanistan, and that is not going to change in the foreseeable near future. Morden is saying that Canadian forces are deserving of the foreign intelligence needed for… READ MORE

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