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Canadian Secret Services Issued Warning Two Weeks Before Shooting

Canadian Secret Services Issued Warning Two Weeks Before Shooting
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Ottawa shootings have already been linked to Islamist threat. How come the connection is made without even waiting for investigation results? Radio VR is discussing it with Julie Lévesque, Canadian journalist and Researcher.

Ottawa shootings have already been linked to Islamist threat. How come the connection is made without even waiting for investigation results? Radio VR is discussing it with Julie Lévesque, Canadian journalist and Researcher.

A gunman attacked Canada's parliament on Wednesday, firing several shots near where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking.  The PM was safe, but a Canadian soldier at a nearby war memorial was killed.

Mr. Harper was quick to link the shooting to Islamist threat. He said the attack would prompt Canada to redouble its efforts to fight against "terrorist organizations" abroad. Canada has recently announced it was joining the anti-ISIS coalition.A gunman attacked Canada's parliament on Wednesday, firing several shots near where Prime Minister Stephen Harper was speaking.  The PM was safe, but a Canadian soldier at a nearby war memorial was killed.

The CNN quoted US sources as saying “The suspect in Wednesday's shootings in Ottawa had "connections" to jihadists in Canada who shared a radical Islamist ideology, including at least one who went overseas to fight in Syria, multiple U.S. sources told CNN on Thursday”.

However, why the PM and the media would be so quick in drawing the connection without waiting for the investigation results?

Radio VR is talking about Ottawa shootings and the global war on terror with Julie Lévesque, Canadian journalist and Researcher at the Centre for Research on Globalization in Canada:

I think that right now it is really too early to say anything about the motives of the shooters. We don’t really know. What we are being told by the media, and I think that is important, because from the beginning the media…and I have to remind your listeners that prior to the shooting at Ottawa yesterday, there was another shooting two days before in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu, in Quebec, which is where there is a big military base. One military killed. He was ran over by some guy, who, we are being told, was radicalized Muslim – someone who had converted to Islam a year ago. And I think, I'm not sure, I would have to verify that, but the shooter in Ottawa, apparently, was also a converted Muslim. And he also happens to be the French Canadian.

Like I said, it is too early to tell what the motives were, but the media was very quick to point to self-radicalization over the Internet, Islamic terrorism. That’s what they were saying immediately. So, what the consequences of those two attacks are is that people are calling for increased security measures. Some people are even calling for the restrictions of liberties. They are saying – oh, these people should not have access to the Internet. Some people should not have access to Facebook.

I was told that there was sort of a study that is kind of being established in Canada right now. Some people are being told by the police that they have to remain vigilant. And that’s what the media and the authorities have been saying for the past few months as well, that the Canadian citizens need to remain vigilant and we need to be suspicious of any suspicious activity. Clearly, what they are saying is that you need to be suspicious of Muslims. That’s not what they are saying, but that’s what it implies, because we keep talking about radical Islam and things like that.

So, I think the effects are that we are seeing increased security measures, there is a fear campaign going on and we are asking the citizens to be suspicious of one another, especially suspicious regarding the Muslim community.

This situation is not exactly typical for Canada. I mean, we are kind of accustomed to random shootings in the US, but Canada was different, wasn’t it?

Julie Lévesque: Yes, and that’s the thing. And what I find suspicious in those two attacks is that for months now we are being told by the authorities that – oh, there is a very real threat of a homegrown terrorism. Two weeks ago the RCMP (the Royal Canadian Mounted Police) and the CSIS (the Canadian Security Intelligence Service) were in the Parliament and they were saying that – yes, we have like 63 inquiries about 90 people that we think might be plotting terrorist attacks. That was two weeks ago.

And in the summer there was also a report in the National Post about a study by the intelligence services in Canada, where they were saying that they were expecting attacks in Ottawa, because it is the place where you have federal institutions, you have a lot of embassies and they were expecting small-scale attacks, lone shooters and things like that.

And what we were being told by the RCMP yesterday, was that – oh, the attack took them by surprise. I find that very surprising, since they had a study saying that they were expecting that kind of attack. So, it is very foggy as we speak. We don’t know. It could be a false flag. I'm not saying that that’s what it is, but it could very well be.

In the past the Canadian security services have been issuing threats against the Canadian citizens. They had informants who were infiltrated into the Muslim community and they were issuing threats against the Canadian citizens, saying that – yes, there were going to be terrorist attacks. And these people were working with the Canadian security services.

And I think we have to ask at this moment – who benefits from these attacks. It is not the Muslim community, it is not ISIS or some kind of terrorist organization that’s benefitting from this, it is the Canadian Government, which is very militaristic and it is right-wing, and their allies in the ME. We know that the Canadian Government is very pro-Israeli. And I have to say that the number one terrorist right now in Canada is Stephen Harper, because Mr. Harper has no respect whatsoever for the international law.

Mr. Harper supports the illegal occupation in Israel, its colonial regime. They support the neo-Nazi unelected Government in Ukraine. Like I said, with no respect whatsoever to the international law they have been bombing Libya. And we are asking people in the media, we are asking experts where does the ISIS come from. And then, some of them will say – well, you know, it is a byproduct of an illegal occupation in Iraq, you know, when the Americans left, they created a mess.

And yes, the Americans are responsible for that and they have supported clandestine operations in the ME as well. For a long time they’ve been supporting that. We've been helping terrorists in Libya, the revolt in Libya or the so-called popular uprising that began in Benghazi. And there was a study in 2007 from the West Point Military Academy in the US, which was saying that Benghazi was the haven in the ME for terrorists, for jihadists.

And we ended up helping these people take control of Libya. And what is happening is that the weapons that were in Libya have been flowing to some terrorist organizations. And we've also been helping the jihadists and terrorists in Syria; we've been helping them for a long time. Like I said, we – it is mostly the US and their allies in the ME, but Canada has been supporting that all along. So, if there is one person in Canada who should be arrested right now, it is Mr. Harper.

But if we come to look at that over the past years, as soon as the global antiterrorist campaign was launched, the situation with the global terrorism started to deteriorate.

Julie Lévesque: Absolutely! And this is what is crazy about this whole situation. It is that we are trying to find out how we can eradicate terrorism. Well, first of all, if we stopped intervening militarily everywhere in the world, if NATO and the US and their allies stopped intervening everywhere in the world militarily, without regards to the international law – that would help, because the studies have shown… and there is a really interesting study that I would refer your listeners to. I don’t have the title with me, but I’ll just read one sentence to you. “The new research provides strong evidence that suicide terrorism, such as that of 9/11, is particularly sensitive to foreign military occupation and not Islamic fundamentalism or any ideology.”

And now we are being told that the reason for the shooting in Ottawa and the attack in Saint-Jean are due to radicalized individuals, and it is due to the Islamic extremism and Islamic terrorism, and the fundamentalist ideology. It is not true! The cause of terrorism is occupation and the war on terrorism itself has proven to increase terrorism. So, we are trying to solve a problem by its cause. We shouldn’t be intervening militarily to stop terrorism, because that’s what breeds terrorism. It is completely crazy!

What do we do? Is there anything we could do about that?

Julie Lévesque: First of all, this US-led coalition that is attacking Iraq and Syria at the moment, to which Canada participates, this is illegal. It is an illegal bombing. So, that should stop. And the first thing we should do is stop supporting terrorism, because that’s what’s been happening in past few years: we've been supporting radical jihadists in the ME and now we are complaining that there are organizations like ISIS that are emerging. It makes no sense!

Moreover, saying that ISIS in fact emerged as a strong organization in Iraq, it is not exactly true: it was created in Iraq, but then it moved to Syria. And it was in Syria, where it got most of its resources, because the West was indiscriminately arming and supporting those anti-Assad forces. 

Julie Lévesque: Absolutely! And the goal of the military intervention right now, so-called against ISIS, it is not against ISIS. The goal is to remove Bashar al-Assad. And even the Saudi Prince said so. He said – I hope that this is the first step to the removal of Assad. That’s clearly the goal. They are not fighting against ISIS. I mean, if we look at the facts, they are bombing grain silos and killing civilians, and bombing even empty buildings. Right at the beginning of the bombings, they were bombing empty buildings. So, the ISIS, they have been tipped off. They knew where it was going to be bombed.

And once again, it does resemble the 9/11, because 9/11, willingly or not,  was used as a pretext. At that time there was Al Qaeda, now it’s ISIS…

Julie Lévesque: Absolutely! Yes, but Al Qaeda was the creation of the US and they admitted – yes, we created AL Qaeda. Even Hilary Clinton said it, that they created Al Qaeda. I mean, it is a pattern. If you look at the history, how many times did the US use terrorist organizations, death squads in Latin America? So many death squads were used. If you think of the contras, for example, in Nicaragua – these people were armed and financed, and trained by the US. I mean, it is a pattern.

“National Interest” has run a story, saying the US foreign policy has been incompetent and the two presidents – Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush – are misguided.

Julie Lévesque: No, it is intended to be this way. I mean, if you look at just this document from the Project for a New American Century, where they are saying that to keep its global domination the US needs to be implicated in multiple theatre wars in the ME. What is happening right now, it is exactly that. And also, one thing that we have to keep in mind is the Yinon Plan for Greater Israel, the goal of which is to destabilize all the opposing Arab countries, such as Iraq. The goal is to destabilize these countries and Balkanise the ME, so that Israel can emerge as the regional dominant country.

So, the US policy in the ME and the Canadian policy in the ME, it is not misguided, these people are not stupid. They would like us to think that they are stupid, but it is intended to be this way, it is planned this way. This is what they want.

True! But it backfires.

Julie Lévesque: I'm not into that backfiring theory. Yes, it can, sometimes we need to be cautious with these backfiring things. Like we were told shortly after 9/11 that – oh, Osama Bin Laden, yeah, he turned against us. Yes, he was the CIA asset, but he turned against us. And then, we learnt shortly after that, well, actually, Osama Bin Laden was working for the US until the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Like I said, the experts are saying – oh, well, in Iraq the ISIS came out of bad US policy, an unjustified war in Iraq, that’s the result of that. And what they are proposing for an answer to that and to solve the problem is the problem itself. They are suggesting that we go back with the military. It makes no sense!

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