Security lines burning between Ottawa, Washington in advance of Bush visit

OTTAWA (CP) - U.S. President George W. Bush (news - web sites) is probably safer in Canada than he is at home, says security expert Wesley Wark.



The telephone lines have been burning between Ottawa and Washington as security and intelligence agents in both countries have watched, assessed, analysed and prepared for Bush's visit next week. The FBI (news - web sites), CIA (news - web sites), RCMP and CSIS have stepped up surveillance and security for weeks since plans were first broached to bring Bush to Ottawa and Halifax on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.


Terrorists have had little time to prepare a major attack and, while he's here, the president will be surrounded by RCMP as well as U.S. Secret Service agents, said Wark, a professor at University of Toronto.


"I'm not sure that an American president on a foreign visit is more vulnerable than an American president at home," he said.


"Probably, in fact, the reverse, because in many ways the security precautions that surround a president in terms of his daily routine are even heightened on foreign trips.


"In the Canadian context, he would have, not just the American Secret Service and other American intelligence agencies involved, but he would have the relevant Canadian authorities, too.


"So you have a kind of double layer of security precautions."


Furthermore, the capabilities of the organization most interested in Bush - al-Qaida - have been significantly reduced since its 2001 attacks on the United States and the subsequent war in Afghanistan (news - web sites), said Wark.


"It hasn't shown its abilities to strike at the United States directly since Sept. 11," said Wark.


"Perhaps there is some small degree of reassurance about the security environment that we can take from that - but only a small one."


Two years ago, al-Jazeera television broadcast a taped message attributed to Osama bin Laden (news - web sites).


It addressed "peoples of the countries allied with the tyrannical U.S. government" and specifically mentioned Canada, Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Australia and Israel.


"What business do your governments have to ally themselves with the gang of criminality in the White House against Muslims?"


Citizens from all the countries mentioned on the tape have been attacked by al-Qaida except Canadians.


The fact Ottawa refused to participate in the Iraq (news - web sites) war is no protection, especially since Canada maintains a significant force in Afghanistan.


"I don't think, in any case, that al-Qaida makes any real distinctions between the various societies and states that it considers part of the 'coalition of the crusaders'," Wark said.


"As far as they're concerned, Canada is part of that coalition, whether we took part in Iraq or not."





David Rudd, head of the Toronto-based Canadian Institute of Strategic Studies, says al-Qaida's decentralized nature is the very thing that enhances its ability to strike.

Cells can lie dormant for years, waiting for just such an opportunity as a visit by the president of the United States.

"We think of al-Qaida as a corporation with a command-control network and central funding," he said. "It isn't.

"It's more like a philosophy whereby individual cells are locally supported. Al-Qaida has resiliency, but it's not an organizational resiliency. It's more the resiliency of a certain philosophy of Islam and international political objectives."

The point is not so much whether an al Qaida-type cell could mount an operation in time, but whether they could get close enough to be effective, said Rudd.

The RCMP, officially responsible for the safety of visiting heads of state, is pulling out all stops, even cancelling members' vacations, said RCMP Cpl. Danis Lafond.

Security agents on both sides of the border have stepped up their security watches for any indications of attack plans, including heightened cellphone or Internet 'chatter.'

Even if specifics aren't known, measures have been taken to disrupt or discourage attacks by raising visible surveillance in specific areas at home and abroad.

Security forces must also plan physical security for Bush, Prime Minister Paul Martin and other dignitaries, as well as site security for the venues in which they will appear.

"Security operations will balance individual rights and freedoms with the need to maintain public safety, peace and good order," said Lafond.

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