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today’s ” AR-online” again ** see you in Cincinnati!AR-Online recent issues: September 1999 August 1999 July 1999 June 1999 May 1999 April 1999 March 1999 February 1999 January 1999 December 1998 November 1998 October 1998 September 1998 August 1998 July 1998 September 6, 1999 http://www.globeandmail.ca/gam/National/19990906/UMOSSN.html Probe of Mossad’s use of Canadian ID halted Intelligence sources say investigation incomplete because Ottawa did not
want to upset Israel ANDREW MITROVICA The Globe and Mail Toronto — The federal government has quietly closed the file on its investigation into allegations that Israel broke a 1997 promise to no longer use Canadian passports in covert operations.
The Israeli pledge, made after purloined Canadian passports were used in a failed assassination attempt on an Islamic official in Jordan, was allegedly broken later in 1997 when a Canadian living in Israel was approached by an organization thought to be a front for the Mossad — Israel’s secret service.
A Foreign Affairs official has confirmed that the investigation — announced by Foreign Affairs Minister Lloyd Axworthy — has ended with the conclusion there is insufficient evidence to prove that Israel broke its pledge. But Canadian intelligence sources are denouncing the investigation as shoddy and incomplete.
They say the probe was half-hearted because Canadian officials did not want to upset Israel. “They [Canadian officials] got the answers they wanted from the Israelis and ended it right there. Some investigation,” one intelligence official said. The sources say Canadian officials did not thoroughly check out Israel’s explanations about the Mossad’s pursuit of Canadian passports. “It is a farce,” said another intelligence source.
This is the second time Ottawa has investigated allegations the Mossad approached Leslie Lewis , a Canadian living in Israel, for his passport after Mr. Axworthy received iron-clad assurances from former Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu (right, visiting Auschwitz) in late 1997 that the spy agency would no longer do so. The pledge came after two Mossad agents were apprehended in Amman in September, 1997, carrying illegally obtained Canadian passports.
They had just botched an assassination attempt on Kahlid Mashaal , a key member of Hamas, a militant Palestinian organization. A diplomatic dustup between Canada and Israel ensued, resulting in the brief recall of Canada’s former ambassador to Israel, David Berger. Last Monday, the Amman offices of Mr. Mashaal and several other prominent Hamas members were raided by Jordanian police. An arrest warrant for Mr.
Mashaal, who was reportedly out of the country, has been issued by Jordanian authorities. Valerie Noftle , a spokeswoman for Foreign Affairs in Ottawa, rejected suggestions that the new probe was incomplete or less than thorough. Canada, she said, is satisfied with Israeli assurances that Mossad agents were not involved in further attempts to secure Canadian passports. “The Canadian government has accepted these assurances and has no basis, at this time, for doubting them,” Ms.
Noftle said in an interview. The new probe was ordered last November by Mr. Axworthy after Mr. Lewis, a Hasidic Jew, said Israeli agents approached him to hand over his passport just weeks after Mr. Netanyahu’s promise. Mr. Lewis said he was contacted by agents with the Bureau of Immigration Affairs, which intelligence sources say is a Mossad front. He also said bureau agents asked for permission to fly his daughter, Devora , to Canada where she would obtain a Canadian passport and then