h4. "Malik and Bagri were found not guilty in the Air India terrorist attacks. Now the world needs to know if CSIS and the RCMP are innocent."

"First of all I have to say that the verdict did not come as a surprise. The botched investigation is a disgrace. I believe that its failure was caused by incompetence and stupidity at the highest levels of government, the RCMP (Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and CSIS (Canadian Security Intelligence Service).

I also feel ashamed that I was a part of it.

Most of all I feel sick at heart for the relatives of the murder victims. I would like to apologize to every single one of them. That is how I feel.

The reasons for the failure are many but I would say lack of leadership was the biggest problem beginning with the government's failure to take charge, to appoint a joint task force and to seek an accommodation with the Indian government. A task force composed of the RCMP, CSIS and RAW (The Research and Analysis Wing, India's main intelligence agency) would have wrapped this case up in a matter of months. I expect, however, the usual buck passing and scapegoating will occur.

I can't help thinking of the "Buck Stops Here" sign Harry Truman had on his desk.

In Ottawa this is an alien concept.

The shit will roll down hill as usual." ~A former CSIS officer involved in the Air India probe.

Ripudaman Singh Malik

But before we get to that allow us to make one thing clear--we are not calling for a public inquiry into the cocktail of cock-ups that forced Justice Ian Bruce Josephson of the British Columbia Supreme Court to acquit the accused.

Other than making lawyers richer and you poorer, public inquiries, as the great Canadian track record shows, shield everything and yield nothing.

It will reaffirm what everyone already knows that the C$130 million case should not have been built on erased evidence, spurned women, lying witnesses and a taxpayer-funded convicted killer with selective memory.

Ajaib Singh Bagri

The suit should seek information not compensation.

At the dawn of the 233-day trial that ended recently in the acquittal of mill worker Ajaib Singh Bagri and millionaire Ripudaman Singh Malik, secret files pointed to the Canadian spy agency blocking investigations because they had a spy close to the plot.

CSIS was accused of erasing crucial wiretap evidence to cover up the fact that the spy agency knew about the alleged plot but pulled their spy out, three days before the disaster that killed 329 people.

Natasha Madon and relatives of those  whoperished in the terrorist attack

Adam says: "(CSIS) gave up this case after many years ... after they had done everything they could to keep it from coming to trial."

Malik says: "Yes, but they destroyed lots of wiretaps."

Adam said: "And why would they do that If you were a policeman why would a government agency destroy the very tapes that would. ... Perhaps if your agent was right in the middle of it, and then it happened and now you were all going to look horrible, you might have a reason to cover that up, wouldn't you"

In the questioning of Bagri, RCMP Sergeant Jim Hunter says the spy backed out three days before the bombing "because his CSIS agents have told him ... to get out of there. That things are happening and you can't be seen as part of that."

A former CSIS officer told The Asian Pacific Post that the families should pull on this thread of information which has got lost in the mountain of information that came out during the trial.

He said CSIS still routinely destroys key material to hide its incompetence and sins and its assertions that it has learned from its Air India mistakes are nothing but lies.

The officer pointed to the destruction of evidence in the case of attempted millennium bomber Ahmed Ressam and more recently its disposal of notes involving a suspected Al-Qaeda terrorist in Canada.

Similarly, CSIS destroyed evidence and reports involving Project Sidewinder which looked at the connection of top Chinese tycoons and Canadian politicians and the influence of the Chinese Mafia in Canada.

Malik and Bagri were found not guilty in the Air India terrorist attacks.

Now the world needs to know if CSIS and the RCMP are innocent.

"If it had been an Air Canada flight and had happened in Toronto or Vancouver, or if it had been an Air Canada plane and gone into the Irish Sea, or full of people on holiday going to watch the Queen's jubilee parade in London, it would have been a different matter. Instead it was new Canadians, visible minorities, flying to a country most Canadians don't know much about." ~Senator Colin Kenney, a leading advocate for tighter security and stronger anti-terrorism measures

h4. The Asian Pacific Post