Latest news with #CSIS
Globe and Mail
3 days ago
- Politics
- Globe and Mail
CSIS flags extremist Khalistani activists as national security threat
Canada's spy agency is warning that a small but militant group of Sikhs are using the country as a base for promoting, fundraising and planning violence in India in support of an independent homeland in Punjab, a caution some see as a sign of shifting policies toward New Delhi. In its annual report to Parliament in June, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service said these homegrown extremists represent only a small group among Sikhs who are otherwise pursuing non-violent advocacy for a state they call Khalistan. The spy agency says the presence of Sikh extremists in Canada 'continues to pose a national security threat to Canada and Canadian interests,' without pointing to any specific examples. It's the first time CSIS has highlighted Khalistani extremists in its annual report since 2018. Canada is attempting to rebuild relations with India, which suffered a major rupture in September, 2023, when then-prime-minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of a role in the killing of Canadian Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a prominent advocate for Khalistan. India has denied the allegation. A year after Hardeep Singh Nijjar's death, mysteries remain about how he really lived The rift escalated further last fall when Canada dismissed top Indian diplomats over allegations that government agents had been linked to a targeted campaign against Canadian citizens. India expelled Canadian diplomats in response. The CSIS report says India remains one of the country's most persistent foreign interference threats. It adds that India's 'real and perceived' concerns about Khalistani extremism is driving New Delhi's foreign interference activities in Canada. Balpreet Singh, legal counsel for the World Sikh Organization of Canada, which advocates on behalf of this country's nearly one million Sikhs, says his group has reached out to CSIS over concerns about the language in the report. He says despite alarms raised by India, there's no evidence Khalistani extremists pose a threat to Canada, and the report acknowledges there were no attacks in Canada related to Sikh extremism in 2024. 'Are there actors that engage in some sort of extremist activity in Canada? CSIS would indicate that there is a 'small number.' I haven't seen them. I don't know anything about them,' Mr. Singh said. 'The problem is India tries very hard to malign anything related to Khalistan as, by default, terrorism.' Opinion: Canada is letting the memory of the deadliest terrorist attack in our history slip away Andrew Kirsch, a security consultant and former intelligence officer with CSIS, said the spy agency is signalling that the threat from Khalistan extremists is real and should be taken seriously. 'If they're highlighting it, it means it's become a priority item, that the threat is serious and they want to raise awareness about it. Clearly, this stuff is going on, and they want the public to know about it,' he said. These annual reports are important because they offer insight into how the spy agency is spending time and resources, he said. He is skeptical of the suggestion CSIS could be influenced by Indian disinformation. These kinds of threat assessments are based on a wide range of sources, as well as electronic surveillance, such as intercepts and wiretaps, all of which goes through a heavy vetting process internally, he said. 'Unfortunately, we can't tell people what information that threat is based on. But our intelligence service is trained to wade through disinformation. I have a high degree of confidence in their analysis,' Mr. Kirsch said. The CSIS report says politically motivated violent extremism has been an element of the Khalistani movement in Canada since the 1980s. Sikh activists, however, argue India has used these perceived threats to target peaceful advocacy for Khalistan. 'The problem is India sees any activism for Khalistan as extremist, and it has targeted that,' Mr. Singh said. Mr. Nijjar, designated a terrorist by India, was gunned down in the parking lot of a gurdwara in Surrey, B.C., in June, 2023. Four Indian nationals are facing charges in connection with the killing. Mr. Trudeau said Canada had credible allegations the murder was carried out by agents of India. New Delhi has refused to acknowledge any role in foreign interference or transnational oppression of Sikhs in Canada. Mr. Singh says the CSIS report may signal a shift in policy from Ottawa. He suggested it may be designed to appease New Delhi as Canada seeks to repair relations – something Gurpreet Sahota, editor-in-chief at Channel Punjabi in Surrey, called a 'betrayal.' Multiple Sikh organizations protested Prime Minister Mark Carney's decision to invite Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the G7 summit in Alberta earlier this month. Campbell Clark: Carney should know it's way too soon to invite Modi to Canada 'We believe that India pressures Canada to do these sort of things … Did it happen here? I hope not,' Mr. Singh said. CSIS spokesperson Magali Hébert told The Globe and Mail that the spy agency has used the term 'Canada-based Khalistani extremism' for some time, and pointed out the Public Inquiry into Foreign Interference referenced its findings on Sikh extremism in its final report earlier this year. Ms. Hébert, who added that the 'vast majority' of Khalistan supporters are peaceful, did not directly address a question about whether its reports are politically influenced. The Indian High Commission did not respond to a request for comment. But in social-media posts, it said the bombing of Air India Flight 182, 40 years ago this month by Canada-based Khalistani terrorists, is a reminder the world must show 'zero tolerance' toward extremism.
The National
5 days ago
- Business
- The National
Israel-Iran conflict hangs over Washington energy conference
Unanswered questions and an uncertain outlook following the Israel-Iran conflict dominated an annual gathering in Washington to discuss emerging trends in the Gulf's energy plans. While Tuesday's 11th annual Petro Diplomacy Conference hosted by the Arab Gulf States Institute was billed to discuss the Gulf Co-operation Council's diversification efforts, analysts were instead left to address with the wider developments in region. That morning, President Donald Trump scolded Israel and Iran for breaking a ceasefire agreement he had announced the night before. That came after a series of events shaking the region, punctuated by the US joining the conflict over the weekend. Traders love volatility. That's how you make money. Producers don't Raad Alkadiriz, senior associate at CSIS. That left leading thinkers playing catch-up at the think tank's downtown Washington conference to developments that seemed to change by the hour. 'I don't think anyone really knows where we are,' said Mona Yacoubian, director of the Middle East Programme at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. There are different paths that could unfold. The crisis could escalate further, or Iran's restrained retaliation against a US airbase in Qatar on Monday could open the door for diplomacy. 'The Iranians are in such a weakened position that they were really not interested in undertaking a response that would have goaded the US or compelled the US to respond again even more strongly,' Ms Yacoubian said. Iran's response and Mr Trump's ceasefire announcement sent oil prices tumbling. Brent, the global benchmark for crude, closed 6 per cent lower on Tuesday. 'Traders love volatility. That's how you make money. Producers don't,' said Raad Alkadiriz, a senior associate at CSIS. So far, traders appear less spooked than they were in 2019, when Iran attacked oil processing facilities in Saudi Arabia. 'At this point the market is very much thinking:n 'Look, we're going to bet on real disruption when we see it, and not on some kind of fear of that disruption,'' said Phillip Cornell, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council and former adviser to Saudi Aramco. Still, questions over the effectiveness of America's strikes on Iran's three nuclear plants remain unanswered. US media reported that Washington's strikes had only set back Iran's nuclear programmes by a few months, which the White House has denied. "The market is very much thinking: Look, we're going to bet on real disruption when we see it, and not on some kind of fear of that disruption Phillip Cornell, non-resident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council And even as Mr Trump said now is the time for peace, a more sour outlook hung over the conference at the Army Navy Club in downtown Washington. 'Iran is not going to come to come to the table and say: Please don't do it again,' said Alan Eyre, diplomatic fellow at the Middle East Institute and former member of the US Foreign Service. 'This has replaced, I think, for many Iranians, the [1984] Iran-Iraq war as the motivating trauma that's going to guide them going forward.' The conflict adds another shade of uncertainty to the region's economic prospects. Analysts say that the Gulf, while largely insulated from the direct effects of Mr Trump's tariffs, are likely to be affected significantly through the higher cost of production in the US. And even less is known about the economic impact of the Israel-Iran conflict. Speaking to the House Financial Services Committee in Congress, Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said he would not want to speculate on how it would impact the economy. Meanwhile, Wells Fargo economists maintained their projection the global economy would grow by 2.7 per cent this year despite recent tensions. 'While new confrontation marked a major geopolitical flashpoint in the Middle East and globally, we do not expect any economic disruptions from the conflict and maintain our view that growth prospects are improving,' economists Brendan McKenna and Azhin Abdulkarim wrote in a note to clients.
Fox News
5 days ago
- Politics
- Fox News
Experts gauge success of 'bunker buster' bombs dropped by US on Iran nuclear sites
While President Donald Trump has asserted that the military's weekend strike against Iran "completely and totally obliterated" its nuclear weapon-making capabilities, there are still questions about whether the ground-penetrating "bunker buster" bombs used to attack Iran's key enrichment sites were enough to stop the rogue country from developing a nuclear bomb. A report released last week by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) explains that the special "bunker buster" bombs the U.S. used in Iran over the weekend that everyone is talking about, known as GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators, or MOPs, might not be able to fully destroy the Iranian nuclear facility at Fordow. Fordow, which Trump said was "gone" now following the strike, is considered central to Iran's nuclear weapon-making capabilities. Meanwhile, a satellite imagery expert relayed to Reuters that confirmation of below-ground destruction could not be determined via pictures alone, because the facility's hundreds of centrifuges are too deeply buried in order to make an accurate determination. "I actually have a little bit of a rosier view on things," Andrea Stricker, Deputy Director at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies' Nonproliferation and Biodefense Program, told Fox News Digital. "I think that because of the massive damage and the shock wave that would have been sent by 12 Massive Ordnance Penetrators at the Fordow site, that it likely would render its centrifuges damaged or inoperable." Stricker noted that centrifuges are "very delicate" and the kind of shock wave coming from the MOPs would at least put them "out of commission." She also said if any centrifuges did survive the blasts, it would be likely that they would be inaccessible by Iranian authorities for several months. "Underground facilities present a difficult target, not only for destruction, but also in terms of follow-on battle damage assessment," added Wes Rumbaugh, a fellow in the Missile Defense Project at CSIS. "The United States and Israel will likely need to invest additional intelligence resources to determine the true extent of the damage from the U.S. strikes and their long-term effect on Iranian nuclear infrastructure." In addition to Fordow, the U.S. used its MOPs at an Iranian enrichment facility called Natanz, where, according to Stricker, at least 1,000 centrifuges are located, as well as an above-ground enrichment plant and other labs capable of making uranium metal. According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) the above-ground labs had previously been damaged by Israeli airstrikes, destroying the plant's electrical infrastructure. Meanwhile, satellite imagery following the U.S.'s decision to drop two MOPs on Natanz show two craters located where the site's underground enrichment facilities are reportedly located. However, it is still not clear if the U.S. attacks completely destroyed the underground nuclear infrastructure. Either way, Striker noted, the significant damage to Iran's Natanz facility will create a "bottleneck" in the country's supply chain for weapons-grade uranium, which will significantly impact Iran's nuclear weapon-making capabilities. The third site targeted by the U.S.'s airstrikes was Iran's Isfahan nuclear enrichment facility, but MOPs were not used at that site. Instead, the U.S. used Tomahawk cruise missiles, which the IAEA confirmed caused significant damage. Satellite imagery reportedly shows Isfahan's above-ground facilities were taken out, but it remains unclear the extent of the damage to the site's underground sections. One of the biggest outstanding questions regarding the success of the United States' weekend strike on Iran's nuclear facilities, is whether authorities in the country were able to move their nuclear materials from the targeted sites before the U.S. launched its missiles at them. But, according to CSIS's Bumbaugh, even if that is the case and Iran moved their nuclear materials, the chaos would still make it hard for Iran to "sprint to a nuclear weapon." "Having to move these assets to new facilities likely degrades Iran's immediate ability to sprint to a nuclear weapon but makes it likely that Iran will go to great lengths to conceal their new location," Bumbaugh said. "This movement of nuclear infrastructure or material would make follow-on strikes difficult if intelligence is unable to find all of the new hidden facilities." "There's a lot of alarmism right now about whether Iran could sprint to a bomb," Stricker added. "Israel has done so much damage to their ability to make nuclear weapons [and] the weaponization supply chain. So the facilities, the components that [Iran] would need, the equipment, and then up to 14 nuclear scientists, I think, if they did want to build a bomb quickly, they're really stymieing – they don't have access to all of all that, all of those assets they would need. And so, I think in the short to medium term, we don't need to be overly concerned that they could get there." Fox News Digital reached out to both the Pentagon and the Air Force to glean more details about the success of the weekend strike on Iran, but no new information was gleaned. An Air Force spokesperson did confirm to Fox News Digital that, in total, U.S. forces deployed 75 "precision guided weapons" targeting Iran over the weekend, including 14 30,000 pound GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrators. On Monday, Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA, appealed for immediate access to the targeted Iranian nuclear sites in order to assess the damage that is likely "significant," according to the United Nations.
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
US Strikes on Iran: Evaluating the Impact
This is the moment for intelligence officers to shine, says Emily Harding, director of CSIS's Intelligence, National Security, and Technology Program. She joins Caroline Hyde on "Bloomberg Tech." Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
CBC
6 days ago
- CBC
Police in B.C. say suspect known as 'Mr. X' in 1985 Air India bombing is dead
Social Sharing Police in British Columbia say a suspect known as "Mr. X" who is believed to have helped test a bomb before the 1985 Air India terror attack has died before facing charges. The statement from the RCMP's Pacific Region comes as families commemorate the 40th anniversary of the attack, where two bombs targeting Air India flights exploded, including one that killed 329 people, most of them Canadians. Police said in an email that investigators had "uncovered information related to a suspect they believe was involved in testing an explosive device prior to the Air India terrorist attack on June 23, 1985." RCMP are not naming the suspect, saying the evidence was not sufficient to unequivocally confirm the identification of the person who has since died. WATCH | Loved ones remember those lost to Air India bombing, 40 years on: 40 years later, Air India bombing still marks victims' loved ones 19 hours ago Duration 4:20 On June 23, 1985, Air India Flight 182 departed from Montreal and exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing all 329 people on board. It was the worst terrorist attack in Canadian history, but few remember the details. In a later response, police said investigators "made extensive and deliberate efforts over the last several years to identify the suspect." A 2010 commission of inquiry report heard that Canadian Security Intelligence Service officers watched Mr. X among a group of suspects entering a forest on Vancouver Island where the bomb test was heard, a few weeks before the bombs were placed on two planes. But the officers did not have a camera and the suspect went unidentified for decades, in a failure the report called "the nadir of ineffectiveness of CSIS pre-bombing surveillance." WATCH | Calls for learning centre to mark tragedy: B.C. groups want learning centre to honour Air India bombing victims 20 hours ago Duration 2:39 Monday marks the 40th anniversary of the Air India Flight 182 bombing that left more than 300 dead — many of them Canadians en route to India. It's considered as one of the deadliest terror attacks in Canadian history. Ahead of the solemn occasion, Sohrab Sandhu spoke with some local faith groups in B.C., who are calling on the province to build a large memorial and learning centre to honour the memory of the victims. Only one person was ever convicted of involvement in the attack, bombmaker Inderjit Singh Reyat, who pleaded guilty to manslaughter in 2003 and was later convicted of perjuring himself to protect his co-conspirators. Two men, Ripudaman Singh Malik and Ajaib Singh Bagri, were acquitted in 2005 after a trial that cost almost $60 million. The trial, a 2005 federal investigation report and the commission of inquiry all concluded the attack was rooted in radical sections of the Sikh community seeking an independent homeland in India, known as Khalistan. The identification of Mr. X was first reported by Postmedia last week, citing an interview with RCMP Asst. Commissioner David Teboul, who reportedly said the name of the suspect could not be released due to privacy laws. The bomb on Air India Flight 182 exploded over the Atlantic Ocean, killing everyone on board, while a second suitcase bomb exploded before being transferred onto an Air India jet, killing two baggage handlers in Tokyo's Narita Airport. Ceremonies marking the National Day of Remembrance for Victims of Terrorism took place Monday in Vancouver, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and County Cork, Ireland, which is near where Flight 182 went down. B.C. Premier David Eby said in a statement that the province "must stand against the hate, intolerance and division that fuel terrorism," and his government was renewing its resolve "to create a safer society for everyone in honour of those we have lost." "They were entire families, businesspeople and students with their whole lives ahead of them," Eby said. "Tragically, they became victims of the deadliest terrorist attack in Canadian history when a bomb exploded onboard their flight. "We mourn with the loved ones left behind and condemn such senseless acts of violent extremism." Former B.C. legislator Dave S. Hayer said in a statement on Facebook that the 40th anniversary of the attack is a reminder that "terrorism has no place in a civilized world and that it must be stamped out at all costs." "Sadly, only one person has been convicted of the bombing that killed 331 civilians, even though known terrorists who were responsible for these bombs were being watched and tape-recorded by Canadian law enforcement agencies before the bombing," said Hayer, who spoke often in the provincial legislature about the attack during his 12 years in office. In 2022, acquitted suspect Malik was killed in B.C. by two hitmen who received life sentences. Their motives have never been revealed by police or prosecutors.
