The Canadian Connection

"The guy may be fabricating to save himself and could have been interviewed by CSIS in the past."
"On the other hand, if I was still running operations at CSIS I would be trying to penetrate the groups, individuals and routes that are getting these so-called fighters into Syria and Iraq."
Jim Corcoran, former CSIS deputy director

"And the next time he gets arrested, 'I'm working for the Canadians' [people who arrive at the embassy offering information]."
"I've had people when I was overseas during the Iraq war [say], 'I know where Saddam is, I know where the weapons of mass destruction are.' They walk into the embassy and want to speak to somebody."
"There's no doubt that that part of the world is the nexus for so many Western intelligence agencies trying to get at the issue of foreign fighters and develop intelligence."
"Does CSIS have people? I can't say and I wouldn't say if I knew. Is it plausible that CSIS has some assets there? Sure. Would they be directed assets? Don't know. A lot of those are probably assets of assets." 
"I think CSIS is looking into it. That is the only thing I can assume. They may not be saying much right now because sometimes operations can run pretty deep. This thing could be five times removed from someone under CSIS direction."
"If CSIS is involved in this, that is the new reality. That is what they should be doing. They should be running sources and agents in parts of the world where there are Canadian interests at work."
Ray Boisvert, former CSIS counter-terrorism chief

Shamima Begum, 15, Amira Abase, 15, and Kadiza Sultana, 16, left on a flight to Turkey on 

17 February  (Met Police)

Turkish media reports, in an increasingly autocratic Islamist country which directs the media, has pointed to Canada as being implicated through its security agencies, as being involved with aiding Islamic State. Specifically in spiriting across the border from Turkey into Syria through illegal covert trysts young Muslim girls enticed from foreign destinations to travel abroad to become 'brides' of Islamic State jihadis.

How positively delicious for Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to engineer an embarrassment, true or false, for a fellow NATO member, while Turkey is being faulted for supporting jihadist groups in Syria in hopes they will overthrow his arch-enemy Syria whom his friend Iran is supporting. He is thus able to squirm away from blame for allowing Islamic State to destroy Kurdish Kobani and refusing to defend the city against Islamic State while reluctantly permitting refugees from Kobani and surrounding towns to enter Turkey for shelter.

The story coming out of the Turkish media linking Canada's CSIS spy agency to a Syrian dentist ostensibly in the employ of CSIS, has done a huge favour to the Canadian opposition, however, slamming the current Conservative government for a travesty being conducted under its watch. All the more so, that the ambassador to Jordan, overseeing Syria as well is a government nominee, a former RCMP agent whose duty it was to protect the home of the prime minister.

Turkish police arrested Mohammed Mehmet Rashid who, according to Yeni Safak, a conservative Islamist Turkish newspaper which supports the government, aided three London schoolgirls to travel to Syria from Turkey last month. Video footage that Mr. Rashid himself ostensibly shot, showed Mr. Rashid meeting the girls and travelling with them to hand them over to Islamic State contacts in Syria.

The Turkish intelligence service arrested him on his return to Turkey, confiscating his cellphone and computer, both of which they claim were provided to Mr. Rashid by the Canadian government. Agents found passport images of 17 people beyond the three girls, in his possession, according to the newspaper. Furthermore, according to Turkish news reports, the agent had between $800 and $1,500 deposited to his bank accounts in the United Kingdom.

As a Canadian underground agent, Mr. Rashid wasn't getting rich quick for his purported services. The Turkish news channel A Haber further reported that the 28-year-old Mr. Rashid whom they identify as a spy working for Canada, fled Syria into Jordan seeking asylum in a third country, when the Canadian embassy expressed an interest in him.

According to the news channel A Haber, Mr. Rashid contacted a Canadian embassy official in Jordan named "Matt", quoting Turkish police sources that "Matt" (was an employee of a British intelligence service); that the suspect was a smuggler, whose services were paid for by the Canadian Security Intelligence Services. British intelligence service agent working at the Canadian embassy?

The girls were said to have arrived at Ataturk Airport, then proceeded to the city of Gaziantep close to the Syrian border, taking a taxi to a prearranged destination to meet the suspect who asks their names and begins videoing their encounter. The girls, with their new escor,t depart in a vehicle to arrive in Syria where they are delivered to ISIS.

Defence Minister Jason Kenney in addressing the reports, stated that he has never heard Mr. Rashid's name mentioned in any context, but that "We don't comment on allegations or operations about our intelligence agencies". The puzzle appears to be why Turkish agencies would take such care to link Canada with the smuggling of young girls into Syria.

But according to Reid Morden, former director of CSIS, "I think if I had to put $5 of my hard-earned pension on the table, that's pretty much where I'd come out, that if Mr. Rashid had any connection to Canadian agencies it would be tenuous; after arrest, he would have inflated any role he had as an intelligence source. I mean, never turn down a source of information", since seeking out sources of information is what intelligence agents do, after all.