Kanishka bombing: Ex-head regrets destruction of wiretap
Canadian spy agency should have preserved key wiretap tapes of suspects in the 1985 Air India bombing case rather than destroying them, a former top agency official has testified before the inquiry commission.
By PTI |
TORONTO: Canadian spy agency should have preserved key wiretap tapes of suspects in the 1985 Air India bombing case rather than destroying them, a former top agency official has testified before the inquiry commission.
"Certainly, I wish dearly that they (tapes) had not been destroyed and I think we all would have wished that they had survived for whatever value they might have had in the subsequent events," James Warren, a onetime director of counter-terrorism for CSIS said yesterday.
Warren said he personally launched an internal probe in 1986 to find out why the tapes having details of telephonic calls made by prime suspects had been erased.
In spite of repeated speculation over the years that officials at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) destroyed the tapes for nefarious reasons, Warren insisted his probe found otherwise.
The tapes were erased by lower-level employees of the agency who were simply following the policies in place at the time, he told Inquiry Commissioner John Major.
The lead counsel for the Air India inquiry, Mark Freiman, raised the issue directly in his opening question.
The inquiry probes into June 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, mostly Indian origins. The commission also examines whether new rules are required on how the agency deals with material that would be of use to police for criminal prosecution.
"Certainly, I wish dearly that they (tapes) had not been destroyed and I think we all would have wished that they had survived for whatever value they might have had in the subsequent events," James Warren, a onetime director of counter-terrorism for CSIS said yesterday.
Warren said he personally launched an internal probe in 1986 to find out why the tapes having details of telephonic calls made by prime suspects had been erased.
In spite of repeated speculation over the years that officials at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) destroyed the tapes for nefarious reasons, Warren insisted his probe found otherwise.
The tapes were erased by lower-level employees of the agency who were simply following the policies in place at the time, he told Inquiry Commissioner John Major.
The lead counsel for the Air India inquiry, Mark Freiman, raised the issue directly in his opening question.
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The inquiry probes into June 1985 Air India bombing that killed 329 people, mostly Indian origins. The commission also examines whether new rules are required on how the agency deals with material that would be of use to police for criminal prosecution.
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