Canadian agent destroyed Air India crash evidence — Paper

The Canadian Globe and Mail newspaper reported yesterday that information in the probe into the bombing of the plane was destroyed by a Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent 14 years ago in the midst of a turf war with Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP).

It quoted the former agent involved in the investigationas saying that he had destroyed hours of audio-taped interviews with two confidential sources in defiance of orders to hand over the tapes to the RCMP. He has only now come forward because he said he wants to set the record straight, the daily said.

"I destroyed the tapes and the sources were cut loose. I told them the sources. I was no longer able to protect their identities," the agent, who left CSIS because of burnout, said.

The CSIS investigation, the former agent said, was so badly bungled that there was a near mutiny by CSIS officers involved in the probe.

However, CSIS spokesman Dan Lambert said the service "categorically denies that any audio tapes from investigators were ever destroyed".

The daily also quoted RCMP spokesman Corporal Grant Learned as saying that the mounties enjoyed good relations with CSIS and had no comment on "our ongoing investigation".

But the former agent said CSIS’ official response is misleading and inaccurate.

The former agent, who asked not to be identified, said his actions were the result of a fierce turf war between the RCMP and CSIS that marked the early stages of the probe. The RCMP and CSIS conducted separate probes rather than working together.

The key informants – members of the Sikh community in Vancouver – were not handed over to the mounties by the veteran CSIS agent early in the investigation because he believed the mounties would not be able to protect the identities of his coveted sources, the daily said.

"We were told to hand over our human sources and the tape to the RCMP….(but) unless we could get an iron clad undertaking that these people would’nt appear in court, it was a no go," the daily quoted the former agent.

"If their identity had become known in the Sikh community, they would have been killed. There is no doubt in my mind about that," he said.

He said he felt compelled to destroy the tapes because he was morally obliged to do everything in his power to protect the safety of his sources. "I decided it was a moral issue," he added.

The tapes were destroyed in an incinerator that sits atopthe old csis headquarters on West broadway street in vancouver the former agent said.

According to the daily the incinerator was regularly usedby agents to destroy sensitive material.

"I took our tapes up there and dropped the cassettes inand watched them melt away," the former agent said.

The rcmp and csis have spent more than 14 years and 26million dollars investigating the bombing, making it one of the longest and most expensive police probes in Canadian history.

Rcmp and csis investigators were often tripping over thesame leads, pursuing similar informants with a competitive zeal that rivalled a "stanley cup hockey game…The competition often reached a fever pitch…it was a turf war", the globe and mail quoted an intelligence source.

Another csis officer who worked on the probe said theagents were loath to hand over their cherished sources to the rcmp and when they did, the sources were often reluctant to cooperate with police for fear that their names would be disclosed in court.

The former agent said "it was tough to get them thesources and when you get them, you want to keep them… They didn’T want to be handled by the police because they knew if their information was good, they might end up in court."

The sikh informants were originally contacted by csisagents after they hinted broadly in telephone conversation that they were prepared to cooperate with authorities, according to the daily.