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The new age of local espionage has just begun
Night Stalker
Member Posts: 11,967
The new age of local espionage has just begun
Jeffrey Paul Delisle of Bedford has been charged with passing military secrets to a foreign entity. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff)
Infiltration - not imitation - is the sincerest form of flattery.
That's one of the new unwritten rules of the World o' Espionage, mes amis. If the wascally Wussians are so intewested in us, surely we must not be fuddy-duddies.
This all comes as a bit of a pleasant surprise, I know. We thought our little outpost on the East Coast was a global backwater. At least until a half-dozen black Chevy Suburbans of the secret service - if that's what they were - descended on a quiet suburban home last weekend.
By Monday, Halifax had become a hub - and a hubbub - of international intrigue as a 40-year-old naval intelligence officer was charged with passing along military secrets to a "foreign entity." In this instance, the latter is code for Russia. The Herald has confirmed this through its own spy network.
What the Russians might have been after, we can only surmise. But at the risk of bursting our newly inflated bubble of self-importance, our home-grown secrets were probably secondary. A well-placed Canadian military mole would have access to some prized American and allied classified information on fleet movements, communications, strategies and data-gathering.
Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle worked at such a top-secret nerve centre in Halifax, dubbed Trinity. Even if the allegations against him stand up to scrutiny, we'll never know how much damage may have been done.
The good news is that there are indications the suspect may have been under surveillance for some time. If you think you have a mole in your midst, you reduce his exposure to sensitive stuff or you start to feed him garbage. Let's hope that's what the Russians allegedly got for the most part - garbage - and that they flocked to it like seagulls.
I must admit the idea of Russian operatives sneaking around Halifax and ferreting out informants does seem faintly ridiculous in this day and age. But that's because we have been lulled into a false sense of national security. We think the end of the Cold War changed everything. In the end, it changed nothing when it comes to espionage.
If anything, analysts say there are more Russian spies deployed in North America now than there ever were. And the sort of tactical and strategic intelligence that can be gleaned from sites like Trinity would be of great value to a great power that still likes to play the Great Game.
Don't get me wrong. I don't believe the Cold War is back on again or that Russia has any intention of attacking us. But it is covering its bases and making contingency plans, as all the big shots do, in case things go south in the blink of an eye. There's no guarantee ex-enemies who've become adversaries must become friends in the fullness of time. They could very well go back to being enemies.
As we speak, there's a geopolitical fault line running through the Middle East. Moscow has lined up on the opposite side of Washington, bringing diplomatic and material aid to the rogue regimes of Syria and Iran, which the U.S. is striving to bring down. Everybody, including Canada, has got navy ships in the area. A brewing superpower rivalry could easily become a full-blown one the minute somebody - anybody - in the region starts shooting at his neighbour.
Whatever the future holds, it's a safe bet that Nova Scotia will only get spookier over the next few years. It is somewhat ironic that as Prime Minister Stephen Harper dropped by Halifax last week to make a big splash about rebuilding the Canadian navy, the RCMP were hours away from arresting an alleged spy who'd been undermining it for years.
Expect more of the same as the shipbuilding contract gets into full swing. "Foreign entities" will be very interested in these ships' design, capabilities and components. Much of the high-end stuff will be developed out-of-province, but it will all have to be assembled here at some point.
FYI, we aren't the only ones building a modern navy. So is Russia. So is China. Stealing technology is hardly beneath them, and there will always be well-placed people hanging around who are not above betraying their country.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/53975-new-age-local-espionage-has-just-begun
.
Jeffrey Paul Delisle of Bedford has been charged with passing military secrets to a foreign entity. (ERIC WYNNE / Staff)
Infiltration - not imitation - is the sincerest form of flattery.
That's one of the new unwritten rules of the World o' Espionage, mes amis. If the wascally Wussians are so intewested in us, surely we must not be fuddy-duddies.
This all comes as a bit of a pleasant surprise, I know. We thought our little outpost on the East Coast was a global backwater. At least until a half-dozen black Chevy Suburbans of the secret service - if that's what they were - descended on a quiet suburban home last weekend.
By Monday, Halifax had become a hub - and a hubbub - of international intrigue as a 40-year-old naval intelligence officer was charged with passing along military secrets to a "foreign entity." In this instance, the latter is code for Russia. The Herald has confirmed this through its own spy network.
What the Russians might have been after, we can only surmise. But at the risk of bursting our newly inflated bubble of self-importance, our home-grown secrets were probably secondary. A well-placed Canadian military mole would have access to some prized American and allied classified information on fleet movements, communications, strategies and data-gathering.
Sub-Lt. Jeffrey Paul Delisle worked at such a top-secret nerve centre in Halifax, dubbed Trinity. Even if the allegations against him stand up to scrutiny, we'll never know how much damage may have been done.
The good news is that there are indications the suspect may have been under surveillance for some time. If you think you have a mole in your midst, you reduce his exposure to sensitive stuff or you start to feed him garbage. Let's hope that's what the Russians allegedly got for the most part - garbage - and that they flocked to it like seagulls.
I must admit the idea of Russian operatives sneaking around Halifax and ferreting out informants does seem faintly ridiculous in this day and age. But that's because we have been lulled into a false sense of national security. We think the end of the Cold War changed everything. In the end, it changed nothing when it comes to espionage.
If anything, analysts say there are more Russian spies deployed in North America now than there ever were. And the sort of tactical and strategic intelligence that can be gleaned from sites like Trinity would be of great value to a great power that still likes to play the Great Game.
Don't get me wrong. I don't believe the Cold War is back on again or that Russia has any intention of attacking us. But it is covering its bases and making contingency plans, as all the big shots do, in case things go south in the blink of an eye. There's no guarantee ex-enemies who've become adversaries must become friends in the fullness of time. They could very well go back to being enemies.
As we speak, there's a geopolitical fault line running through the Middle East. Moscow has lined up on the opposite side of Washington, bringing diplomatic and material aid to the rogue regimes of Syria and Iran, which the U.S. is striving to bring down. Everybody, including Canada, has got navy ships in the area. A brewing superpower rivalry could easily become a full-blown one the minute somebody - anybody - in the region starts shooting at his neighbour.
Whatever the future holds, it's a safe bet that Nova Scotia will only get spookier over the next few years. It is somewhat ironic that as Prime Minister Stephen Harper dropped by Halifax last week to make a big splash about rebuilding the Canadian navy, the RCMP were hours away from arresting an alleged spy who'd been undermining it for years.
Expect more of the same as the shipbuilding contract gets into full swing. "Foreign entities" will be very interested in these ships' design, capabilities and components. Much of the high-end stuff will be developed out-of-province, but it will all have to be assembled here at some point.
FYI, we aren't the only ones building a modern navy. So is Russia. So is China. Stealing technology is hardly beneath them, and there will always be well-placed people hanging around who are not above betraying their country.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/opinion/53975-new-age-local-espionage-has-just-begun
.