An operative for Canada’s spy agency who once trafficked three British teens to Islamic State militants has been released from a Turkish prison, and the federal government will not say if he has been relocated to Canada.
A source with direct knowledge of the situation told The Globe and Mail that the man, Mohammed al-Rashed, a Syrian human smuggler for the Islamic State who was recruited to spy for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service, was freed from prison on Aug. 5. He had been incarcerated in Turkey since 2015 on terrorism and smuggling charges.
The source said Turkish authorities did not want Mr. al-Rashed in their country. Their options were either to send him back to Syria, where he would likely face death over his involvement with foreign powers and the Islamic State, or to Canada, the source said. The Globe and Mail is not identifying the source, because they were not authorized to discuss national security matters involving the Canadian government. The Turkish embassy in Ottawa did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Mr. al-Rashed, whom CSIS recruited in 2013, told Turkish intelligence after he was arrested in 2015 that Canada had promised him political asylum. The source said CSIS had planned to relocate him after his release in August.
Public Safety Minister Marco Mendicino declined to say whether Mr. al-Rashed has been given asylum.
“For obvious reasons we don’t want elected officials commenting on operations. I would leave it at that,” he said in a brief interview Thursday. “Operational questions are best put to the service.”
CSIS spokesperson Brandon Champagne would not confirm or deny that Mr. al-Rashed is in Canada. “As you can expect, CSIS cannot comment on investigations, methodologies or activities in order to maintain the integrity of operations,” he said. “There are important limits to what CSIS can confirm or deny given the need to protect sensitive techniques, methods and sources of intelligence.”
A source, whom The Globe is not identifying because they were not authorized to speak publicly, said CSIS has the decision-making powers to bring an operative into the country if they are at risk.
Richard Kerbaj, the Britain-based author of The Secret History of the Five Eyes, a new book that recounts parts of Mr. al-Rashed’s story, said it would not be surprising if Mr. al-Rashed was relocated to Canada. The Five Eyes is the name of an intelligence-sharing network between Canada, the United States, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
In his book, Mr. Kerbaj writes that CSIS withheld information about its recruit’s role in smuggling the three British girls from London until after Mr. al-Rashed was arrested by Turkish authorities. Mr. al-Rashed allegedly helped the trio cross over into Syria after they arrived in Turkey on Feb. 17, 2015. They were aged between 15 and 16 at the time.
“You always try to protect your sources and your agents and you don’t abandon them. It also stands up with what al-Rashed said, because he said that he was promised relocation,” Mr. Kerbaj said. “If they have agreed on his relocation and gone through with it, that is admirable and honourable. On the other hand, it confirms the cover-up and confirms their role.”
Mr. Kerbaj said CSIS learned on Feb. 21, 2015, of Mr. al-Rashed’s role in trafficking the girls to Syria. “Instead of providing that information immediately to the British counterterrorism authorities, they just sat on it,” he said.
It was only after Mr. al-Rashed was arrested in Turkey on Feb. 28 of that year that CSIS arranged to meet with the head of London’s Metropolitan Police counterterrorism command. At the time, Britain’s counterterrorism police were engaged in a frantic search for the girls. Mr. Kerbaj alleges Canada was aware Turkey would soon leak details about the CSIS operative and wanted to get ahead of the story. He said the meeting was part of an effort by CSIS to cover up and obscure the agency’s role in recruiting and running Mr. al-Rashed.
Mr. Kerbaj said Mr. al-Rashed was relaying intelligence to the Canadian embassy in Jordan, and that he passed along the three schoolgirls’ passport details – but only after they had already crossed into Syria. He said Mr. al-Rashed also helped Canadian intelligence officers map the locations of the homes of Islamic State fighters and supplied screenshots of electronic conversations he was having with them.
In his book, Mr. Kerbaj says CSIS sent a high-level official to Ankara “to beg forgiveness for failing to inform Turkish authorities they had been running a counter-intelligence operation in their territory.”
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CSIS has refused to comment on the allegations in the book, saying the agency does not comment on “specifics of CSIS investigations, operational interests, methodologies, or activities.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau defended CSIS when the book’s allegations were reported in British newspapers in late August. He said: “The fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and to be creative in their approaches.”
The case of the three girls, 16-year-old Kadiza Sultana, 15-year-old Shamima Begum and 15-year-old Amira Abase, generated headlines around the world in February, 2015, after they flew to Istanbul from London. They were among more than 500 women from Western countries who went to Syria to join the Islamic State. The three teenagers from east London “had become part of a new and rapidly growing phenomenon of young women being drawn to the battlefield not for combat but rather as potential spouses for jihadists,” according to Mr. Kerbaj’s book.
Their disappearance prompted an emotional appeal by their families, who urged them to return home. Meanwhile, British counterintelligence was in the midst of what Mr. Kerbaj called an unprecedented campaign to get people to come forward with information on the exodus of jihadis and their supporters to Syria.
British lawyer Tasnime Akunjee, who represents the families of the now-former schoolgirls, recently told The Globe and Mail that Canada needs to hold an inquiry into these events. Two of the women are believed to have died in the Islamic State war zone, he said.
He added that the third, Ms. Begum, is languishing as a prisoner of war in a Kurdish prison camp, where she gave birth to three children, all of whom died in harsh conditions. Her British citizenship was taken away in 2019.
With reports from Colin Freeze and Steven Chase
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