ZGram - September 19, 2004 - "'Notes stolen: Can't remember' - how convenient"

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

ZGram - Whee Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

September 19, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

One more about the last three days' Zundel hearings:

[START]

CSIS notes stolen, ex-spy says at Zundel deportation hearing

By KIRK MAKIN
JUSTICE REPORTER
Saturday, September 18, 2004 - Page A6

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/ArticleNews/TPPrint/LAC/20040918/ZUNDEL18/TPNational/

A former Canadian Security Intelligence Services agent's detailed 
notes about his experiences at the spy agency were stolen soon after 
he went public about his employer's shortcomings in 2000, the 
ex-agent testified yesterday.

Testifying at the deportation hearing of Holocaust-denier Ernst 
Zundel in Toronto, former agent John Farrell said that both his 
computer and a collection of hard-copy notes disappeared. He said the 
loss has left him unable to answer many of the questions posed by Mr. 
Zundel's lawyers.

The material disappeared from a friend's home where he had left it 
for safekeeping, Mr. Farrell said.

At the time, Mr. Farrell testified, he was working with former Globe 
and Mail reporter Andrew Mitrovica to write articles about CSIS not 
having paid him $72,000 in overtime pay, as well as about dubious 
practices at the agency.

Mr. Farrell eventually collaborated with Mr. Mitrovica on a book -- 
Covert Entry -- which details alleged underhandedness, incompetence 
and illegal activity by CSIS.

Mr. Zundel's lawyers -- Peter Lindsay and Chi-Kun Shi -- have been 
trying to erode the spy agency's credibility as a supplier of 
reliable information, hoping it will rock the faith of Mr. Justice 
Pierre Blais of the Federal Court in secret evidence the agency is 
using to justify deporting Mr. Zundel as a national-security risk.

In contrast to his first day in the witness box, Mr. Farrell 
frequently said yesterday that he could not recall what lay behind 
book excerpts.

"It's all escaped your memory?" Mr. Lindsay asked at one point.

"I did have nine years of detailed notes in a computer, but that 
computer was stolen," Mr. Farrell replied. "I reported the computer 
because it had money value. The notes, on the other hand, were the 
property of the government."

Much of the session was consumed by arguments over whether Mr. 
Lindsay's questions were sufficiently connected to the Zundel case 
itself. Eventually, Mr. Lindsay gave up altogether and ended his 
examination.

Judge Blais repeatedly disallowed questions aimed at discrediting 
CSIS and the Security Intelligence Review Committee in a general way, 
saying they did not probe directly into Mr. Zundel's treatment by the 
agency. He also refused to let the defence call Mr. Mitrovica as a 
witness.

"CSIS is not on trial here," Judge Blais said. "SIRC is not on trial, 
either. I think this is a waste of time."

[END]