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See the CSIS report
ANDREW MITROVICA The Globe and Mail
Toronto A much-ballyhooed intelligence report by Canada's spy agency warning of plans by violent extremist groups to disrupt a coming international conference in Quebec City was largely stitched together using magazine and newspaper articles. The report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Serivce does not cite any independent research conducted by the intelligence agency to support its highly controversial conclusions.
And two journalists cited in the report insist that CSIS has distorted their reportage in what one called a pathetic attempt to demonize groups opposed to the growing power of multinational corporations and international trade organizations.
The unidentified CSIS analyst who prepared the 11-page unclassified report, called Anti-Globalization -- A Spreading Phenomenon, appears to have culled much of his or her background information about the protest movement by reading The Globe and Mail and scouring the pages of Globe columnist Naomi Klein's book, No Logo: Taking Aim at the Brand Bullies .
Ms. Klein's much-heralded book analyzes the worldwide opposition to transnational corporations and their omnipresent brand names.
However, the Globe stories and Ms. Klein's book do not suggest that violent extremist groups are infiltrating the protest movements or seeking to exert influence over them.
CSIS acknowledged on the report's title page that it was "using open sources to examine any topic with the potential to cause threats to public or national security."
The report suggested that "antiglobalist" activists may be co-opted by militant and extremist groups bent on violence during the meeting of the Organization of American States in Quebec City next April.
"Extremist fringe elements will seek any excuse to indulge in aggressive tactics or resort to destructive activities," the report concluded.
In an interview yesterday, Ms. Klein expressed surprise that CSIS had even taken the time to read her book. "They appear to be developing a refined taste in literature," she said.
Ms. Klein added, however, that she was "very distressed" that CSIS was attempting to link legitimate protest by youth, labour and human-rights groups with allegedly violent organizations.
"These guys [CSIS] are trying to blur the boundaries between legitimate protest and terrorism," Ms. Klein said. "Activism has become the big cash cow for police forces and secret services all around the world, and they are exaggerating this violent threat over and over again so they can buy themselves new toys and justify their post-Cold-War budgets."
Ms. Klein, who has reported extensively on protests that recently took place at summits in Seattle, Washington, D.C., and Windsor, said the intelligence gathered by CSIS about the protesters is "pathetic" and "unbelievably wrong."
"They are simply laying the groundwork to stampede civil liberties in Quebec City," Ms. Klein said.
William Finnegan, a New-York-based journalist, who is cited in the report, also heaped scorn on CSIS.
Reached at his home yesterday, Mr. Finnegan said that portions CSIS quoted, from a piece he wrote for The New Yorker in April about the protests at the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle, were "hilariously out of context."
He added that, in its report, CSIS appeared to be engaging in the time-honoured tradition of intelligence services to make tenuous links between non-violent organizations and extremist groups in order to discredit legitimate protest.
"It just shows the deficiency of their intelligence," he said.
The report, which was posted on CSIS's Web site earlier this week, was drafted by the agency's research arm, known as the Requirements, Analysis and Production Branch. The agency's analysis branch regularly posts research reports on its Web site.
The agency's apparent reliance on The Globe for some of its background research flies in the face of comments by CSIS director Ward Elcock, who recently dismissed the paper's reporting about the embattled agency as "frequently having little to do with reality."
A CSIS spokesman did not return phone calls requesting an interview.
Reprinted under the Fair Use doctrine of international copyright law.
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This page created September 3, 2000
