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The Harper government had a host of military and possiblycommercial reasons for not blaming and shaming Russia in theaftermath of an embarrassing spy scandal involving a juniorintelligence officer, a series of internal briefings suggest. Sub.-Lt. Jeffrey Delisle arrives at provincial court in Halifax inMarch 2011. He's charged with communicating information to aforeign entity that could harm national interests. The case isadjourned until June. (Andrew Vaughan/Canadian Press) The case of Sub-Lt. Jeffery Delisle, which exploded across thefront pages in January, has largely disappeared into a black holeof secrecy and court-ordered silence that even a Wall StreetJournal story failed to dislodge last spring. The New York-based publication recently quoted U.S. intelligencesources saying Delisle's breach in communications secrets wasroughly as big in volume as the notorious U.S. data loss toWikiLeaks. Yet, the Harper government has remained mute, even in the face ofsuggestions the case caused a major rift with Washington. Several sources within the government and the military say therewas a vigorous debate within the halls of power about whether tocall out the former Cold War adversary over Delisle, whose case hasbeen adjourned until June 13 while his lawyer awaitssecurity-washed documents. A small cadre of cabinet ministers, notably Defence Minister PeterMacKay, argued for a measured, nuanced response to the crisis,which continues to have the potential to cause serious strainsamong allies, said the sources. The Conservatives have previously shown no hesitation to paintMoscow as a bogey man, especially when it comes to justifying theirmilitary build-up in the Arctic. But to alienate Russia over the alleged betrayal by a navysub-lieutenant, potentially setting off tit-for-tat diplomaticexpulsions, had more downsides than upsides, sources and briefingdocuments suggest. Arctic disputes yield opportunities The rivalry over Arctic boundaries, which is expected to come to ahead next year with a United Nations submission, is being driven bythe suggestion of mineral wealth under the polar sea. The Department of Foreign Affairs and National Defence haverepeatedly pointed out, in internal briefing reports, that Russianinterest in the Arctic is weighted towards oil and gas exploration something that Canada can appreciate and possibly exploit. "Indeed, these commonalities could yield political and commercialopportunities for co-operation between Moscow and Ottawa," said aJuly 12, 2011 briefing note prepared for MacKay. "From a defence perspective, in spite of disagreements over Russian(Long Range Aviation) flights, there is mutual interest with regardto co-operation in (search-and-rescue) and Arctic domain awareness.Defence is continuing to explore the potential for furtherco-operation with Russia in these fields." The note was written as security services investigated Delisle'salleged treachery. Among the more sensitive areas of mutual co-operation is aninternational counter-terrorism exercise known as Vigilant Eagle. The manoeuvres, which began in 2008, see NORAD and the Russian airforce practise how to handle a hijacked airliner in internationalairspace. Tension over Russia's intervention in Georgia cancelledthe 2009 event, but at the time of Delisle's arrest plans werealready well advanced for Canada's participation in the 2012edition. Russian co-operation in the Arctic and elsewhere was paramount toCanada's interests, as well as Moscow's ability to influence eventsin potential global flashpoints such as Iran and North Korea,MacKay reportedly argued with his colleagues. Cooler heads prevailed The government's initial reaction was to go public with theallegations, but sources said cooler heads pointed out that such areaction would complicate relations with the erstwhile ally, whichhas been engaged in increasingly aggressive spy operations. Defence and intelligence experts have said there is growingexasperation with Russia. "As you know, about a year ago, a British minister complainedpublicly about Russian espionage, the scale of it and the intensityof it and the aggressiveness," said Wesley Wark, an expert at theUniversity of Ottawa. "He asked the question: What are you doing?And warned them to scale it back because you're causing us problemsin terms of us pursuing other legitimate targets." Britain has been embroiled in a number of Russian espionage casesover the last few years, including recent allegations that a26-year-old woman, Ekaterina "Katia" Zatuliveter, working for aLiberal Democrat MP, was a spy. She was accused of seducing65-year-old Mike Hancock in a classic "honey trap" operation. Sources in the Delisle case say money was the motive. He is charged under a section of the Security of Information Actwith communicating information to a foreign entity that could harmnational interests. The RCMP have said the charges against Delisle mark the first timeanyone has been charged under that section of the act. The e-commerce company in China offers quality products such as Stainless Steel Sheeting Manufacturer , PPGL Coil, and more. For more , please visit Pre Painted Steel today!
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