Ex-CSIS scurries to deny CSIS-ISIS link

Ex-CSIS assistant director Ray Boisvert spins stories for his former employer.

Ray Boisvert, a former assistant director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS), has been busy trying to deflect blame from his former employer in the developing scandal involving an alleged CSIS asset who helped three British schoolgirls and others join ISIS.

Boisvert's impetus is to shield CSIS and the Canadian state when their hand is exposed in duplicitous activity at home and abroad. He has frequently appeared as a pundit on mainstream media programs, and unsurprisingly was trotted out by the usual suspects to comment on revelations that a Syrian national who spied for CSIS was acting as a liaison for ISIS, helping Westerners travel through Turkey to join the militant group in Syria.

The former CSIS big-wig told media that:

If [the suspected ISIS liaison Mohammed Mehmet] Rashid worked in some capacity for CSIS, and based on reports his computer contained images of passport and travel documents of several apparent ISIL recruits, it's conceivable he was actually gathering intelligence for CSIS about those recruits and the methods, logistics and contacts for spiriting them into Syria.

Boisvert implied that,

If [Rashid] was a CSIS asset, he's likely an observer whose only job is to report what he saw. If Rashid was working for CSIS in some fashion, the spy agency's current mandate would prevent him or the organization from doing anything to have stopped the three British girls from reaching Syria. Under current Canadian law, CSIS and its assets are only allowed to gather intelligence.

Boisvert's damage control narrative is ludicrous. He is obviously trying to exonerate CSIS from culpability in this by erroneously suggesting that CSIS's asset Rashid, who was essentially helping people join ISIS, could not act to stop them from linking up with ISIS in Syria because that is not in CSIS's mandate. The asset could only 'observe' the situation and report back to his handlers. This hogwash is dumbfounding.

Firstly, he is presuming that CSIS always abides by its 'mandate,' when there's no reason to believe that they do. Secondly, the fact is that the CSIS asset did not just 'observe' the ISIS recruits, he directly facilitated their safe travel through Turkey and entry into Syria to link up with ISIS. Without him, many of these recruits would likely not have made it to their destination. He was in effect ensuring that the recruits made it safely into the hands of ISIS. He wasn't sitting by a window with binoculars observing from afar or listening in to phone calls, he was directly participating in the recruiting process, facilitating that process every step of the way.

This means that CSIS, which represents the Canadian government, is aiding and abetting ISIS - an extremely damaging revelation for the Western 'coalition' who maintain the bogus pre tense that they are presently 'at war' with the radical group.