Justice for Kazemi elusive

Oct. 29 - The investigation into the circumstances surrounding the death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi continues to be a political fight between the reformists and hardliners in the Iranian government. The official Iran report on Kazemi death highlights this:

TEHRAN -- Iran's reformist-dominated parliament accused hardline Tehran prosecutor Saeed Mortazavi yesterday of illegally detaining a Montreal photojournalist and then covering up facts surrounding her death in custody in July. Zahra Kazemi, a Canadian of Iranian origin, died July 10, about three weeks after she was detained for taking photographs outside a Tehran prison during protests against the ruling Islamic establishment.

An intelligence agent charged with her alleged beating death has pleaded not guilty to "semi-premeditated murder."

The parliament holds Mortazavi responsible as the head of the Tehran prosecutor's office.

The reformists control the intelligence agencies, and the hardliners control the judicial agencies.

Parliament accused Mortazavi of covering up facts about Kazemi's death -- he said she died of a stroke -- and having no evidence when he accused her of spying and having no permission to work.

The report said Kazemi was beaten by judiciary officials in Evin prison, north of Tehran. It said 20 guards who witnessed and reported the beating were forced to change their reports.

The report leaves little option for the court but to summon Mortazavi for questioning in the trial.

One of the demands of the Canadian government has been for the return of Kazemi's body to Canada and her son, Montrealer Stephan Kachemi. This has not yet been done.

It's hard to tell how much pressure the Canadian government would have put on the Iranian government to pursue this investigation had not Kachemi, Reporters Without Borders, the Canadian media, bloggers and the Official Opposition kept this issue in the forefront, but it is important to keep the pressure on. Kazemi is one of several journalists who are imprisoned in the Middle East and, had she not been a dual citizen of Canada, her death would probably have been ignored.

We tend to take freedom of speech and freedom of the press for granted, and nothing highlights this more than the incessant whining by lefties that they are being "repressed" when, in fact, the fact that they aren't in jail proves that there is no repression except in their own minds, but, more seriously, their whining insults those who actually are being repressed, tortured and jailed for asking questions, taking the "wrong" photographs and speaking their opinions as free people.

The best way we can aid those who are being repressed is to keep the death of Zahra Kazemi an issue. I think that's the best tribute we can pay to her and her belief in freedom.

UPDATE: The story in the Daily Telegraph says: Yesterday, a parliamentary commission dealing with press freedoms, attacked Teheran's chief prosecutor, Said Mortazavi, who has a reputation for jailing journalists and closing down newspapers.

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Terror watch

Oct. 26 - There's been a lot of strange symmetry this week with a round-up of terrorists in and from Canada in yesterday's National Post combined with (unofficial) allegations that Maher Arar gave names to Syrian interrogators and the rationale behind the re-routing of El Al flights away from Toronto Airport.

That there are people in Canada who have been trained by al Qaeda is hardly a surprise: after all, why would Canada be any different in this respect from France, the UK, Australia, Gemany, and the United States?

What bothers me most is government reluctance to publicly address the issue. Toronto Sun columnist Gary Dunford was more irritated than humourous today in his column Flying in the Dark:

REMAIN CALM: Like most, I say we should be told absolutely nothing about why Israeli jetliners have avoided Pearson airport for three days. Canadians, like mushrooms, grow best in the dark.

The story behind the diverted El Al flights from Toronto, according to this, was a telephone threat to an Israeli security agency to bring down an El Al airplane at Toronto Airport report. Officials are unsure if the phone call was made from a pay phone or a cell phone. (Airport security officials spoke on condition of anonymity. Sigh.)

The good news: somebody is apparently examining and seeing if dots connect:

Security officials are also trying to determine if a rocket launcher found in a postal shipment is linked to the threat.

The Mounties and CSIS are tracing the origins and destination of a German-made rocket launcher, found by Canada Customs officers among 14 caches of weapons, entering the country at a Mississauga postal plant from April 2001 to March 2003.

The weapon is designed to be fired from the shoulder and can be outfitted with heat-seeking missiles.

Meanwhile, B'nai Brith Canada is urging members of the Jewish community to be careful in light of the El Al alert.

According to this, Canada's Minister of Transport, David Collenette is considering re-routing more El Al flights destined for Toronto to other Canadian cities, which may seem to solve the problem in the short term but doesn't adddress security concerns. That's about as official a comment on the diversion we're likely to get.

Now this: Canadians warned to avoid travel to Saudia Arabia because intelligence reports indicate that terrorists are planning future terrorist attacks. The warnings specify that Americans, the British and Canadians should be especially vigilant around the upcoming Ramadan:

"It is the Embassy's assessment that terrorist groups may place special operational significance on the upcoming month of Ramadan and American citizens are therefore urged to be particularly vigilant during this time."

According to this, one reason the warning was issued was because explosive belts were found during a raid in Saudi Arabia.

An unusual warning was issued by the FBI to Muslims in the US:

On Friday, the FBI urged extra vigilance for possible terror attacks and violence against Muslims in the United States during Ramadan.

In its weekly bulletin to 18,000 state and local law enforcement agencies, the FBI said it has no credible information that an attack is being planned by Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida network or any other terror group during the month.

But attacks overseas have been timed in the past to coincide with symbolic dates, the FBI said, adding that "the possibility of such an attack in the United States cannot be discounted."

Is the FBI warning about attacks on Muslims from non-Muslims or Muslims? Al Qaeda certainly has no scruples about killing Muslims, as has been evidenced most recently in Indonesia and Saudi Arabia, and it's no secret that many American Muslims are actively trying to root out terrorist cells within their own communities, something al Qaeda would want to punish. I'm just speculating, but when I see a non sequitur like the above my anteannae go hippity-hop.

Or maybe it's the persistant whispers from the Netherlands and Australia among other places that there is a quiet struggle within the Muslim communities that overtly seems to revolve around whether women should or not should wear headscarves, and more ominously, what to do about women who chose to forgo them, and this fairly well-circulated report by Theodore Dalrymple on the public housing ghettoes in France (ghetto is my terminology), and some further musings from Mark Steyn.

(If you follow only one link, make it the one to Mark Steyn. It may startle you.)

(NP and Dalrymple links via Right On!.)

UPDATE: MSNBC has an article on the harsh life of Muslim women in Paris, which is considerably more on target than the pathetic NY Times article A Crime of the Young Stalks France's Urban Wastelands.

UPDATE: The threat to El Al is officially over. Officials are remaining tight lipped.

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Precision Guided Humour

Oct. 17 - The last precision guided humour assignment with The Alliance was to imagine what I would say if I had the floor at a press conference with Jacques Chirac.

I couldn't come up with anything (which is to say I couldn't come up with anything I'd want my mother to read) but it took me awhile to figure out why I was totally blocked.

Actually, once I stopped fretting about it, it turned out to be very simple: I live in Canada, which too is a member of the Axis of Weasels thanks to the PM here, one Jean Chretien, who has surrendered Canadian sovereignty to the Chirac wing of the UN.

The questions I might pose to Chirac would be nothing compared to the questions I would level at Chretien, yet asking Chretien "How could you betray every value of Western civilization" has already been answered: he is an arrogant, self-serving bastard who is more interested in reminding everyone that he's a French-Canadian with strongs ties to France and family ties to the French conglomerate oil company TotalFinaElf.

Chretien has reduced the military budget in Canada to a point that puts Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan in danger because they have inadequate armour on their transports.

He uses the international forums of the UN and G-8 conferences to attack Pres. Bush and the USA, and continues to try his best to enrage the American public.

When the UNSC was contemplating a second resolution, Chretien visited Mexico to persuade them to vote "no" should a second resolution be presented.

Chretien has, as Jay Currie put it in his post French Poodle, reduced Canada to being Chirac's bitch.

What could I possible ask Chirac except "How did you do it?"

Not very scathing or witty, but still fully aware of immense betrayal.

BUT other Alliance members fared a lot better with their responses.

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Adnan El Shukrijumah and a "dirty bomb"

Oct. 17 - Despite the carping about the sieve-like Canadian border (disclosure: I'd be carping about problems within the US more if I resided there!) and so on, I do think that Canada has been a partner in the War on Terror and this Washington Times report by Bill Gertz illustrates that there has indeed been cooperation between the two countries: Al Qaeda pursued a 'dirty bomb':

A key al Qaeda terrorism suspect was in Canada looking for nuclear material for a "dirty bomb," The Washington Times has learned.

Adnan El Shukrijumah is being sought by the FBI and CIA in connection with a plot to detonate a dirty bomb -- a conventional explosive laced with radioactive material.

According to an FBI informant, El Shukrijumah was spotted last year in Hamilton, Ontario, posing as a student at McMaster University, which has a 5-megawatt research reactor. U.S. officials believe El Shukrijumah, whose photograph was posted on the FBI's Web site in March, was in Hamilton trying to obtain radioactive material.

One U.S. official said El Shukrijumah is a key North American al Qaeda member who is useful to other Middle Eastern members of the terrorist group because of his knowledge of the United States and his ability to speak English.

El Shukrijumah was identified by the informant after his photograph was made public by the FBI in March. He is believed to be part of an al Qaeda cell in Canada and the United States that was planning a dirty-bomb attack. The status of the bomb plot is not known.

Spokesmen for the FBI, CIA, Canadian Security Intelligence Service and Royal Canadian Mounted Police declined to comment on El Shukrijumah's stay in Canada.

[...]

In addition to El Shukrijumah, the informant said that at least three other al Qaeda terrorists were seen in Hamilton in 2002. They include Anas al-Liby, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, Jaber A. Elbaneh and Amer El-Maati.

Anas al-Liby is connected to the 1998 embassy bombings in West Africa, and El Shukrijumah is believed to be a ring-leader (similar to Mohammed Atta) and was in Florida at the same time as Jose Padilla, who is currently being detained on suspicion of trying to make a "dirty bomb."

The Toronto Sun carried the story here.

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Ahmed Said Khadr possibly killed

Oct. 14 - Early reports indicate that Ahmed Said Khadr and one of his sons were killed by Pakistan security forces during a raid on an al-Qaeda camp in Waziristan, Pakistan.

A press release issued by the Islamic Observation Centre in London and circulated on an Arabic Internet site announced the death of Mr. Khadr, calling him a "founding member" of al-Qaeda.

"God bless him and we hope that his soul will be accepted by God," said the British-based Islamic centre, which has close links to Egyptian terrorist groups including Mr. Khadr's Al Jihad.

Canadian officials were unable to confirm the deaths yesterday but said consular authorities were looking into the matter. Mr. Khadr's family in Scarborough was unaware of the reports.

"Our officials in Islamabad are investigating the reports regarding Ahmed Khadr," Jennie Chen, a spokeswoman at the Department of Foreign Affairs, said yesterday.

Canadian intelligence officials believe Mr. Khadr is a senior al-Qaeda member closely tied to Osama bin Laden. Three of his Canadian sons -- Omar, Abdurahman and Abdullah -- are also suspected members of al-Qaeda.

When Mr. Khadr was arrested in Pakistan for his alleged role in the 1995 bombing of the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, Jean Chretien, the Prime Minister, intervened in the case. Mr. Khadr was released shortly thereafter.

The press release said Mr. Khadr and his son were among 12 al-Qaeda and Taliban members killed in an exchange of gunfire. It did not name the son but he is believed to be Abdullah, who once ran an al-Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Omar and Abdurahman Khadr are currently being held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The report from London did not indicate when Mr. Khadr was killed, but on Oct. 2, Pakistani forces launched a major raid in Waziristan, where some believe bin Laden and his deputy Ayman Al Zawahiri are hiding. At dawn, soldiers backed by Cobra helicopter gunships surrounded five mud compounds that had been taken over by al-Qaeda and Taliban members. They refused to surrender and fought back with grenades and machine guns.

By the end of the day, 12 al-Qaeda fighters had been killed and another 18 were captured. Pakistani soldiers seized grenades, rockets, guns and anti-tank mines from the compounds.

Major-General Shaukat Sultan, a spokesman for the Pakistani military, said the dead were "foreign elements who were most likely involved in attacks against coalition forces in Afghanistan."

The assault occurred the same day Canadians Sergeant Robert Short and Corporal Robbie Beerenfenger were killed in Afghanistan by a land mine authorities suspect was placed by pro-Taliban guerrillas.

The Islamic centre said Mr. Khadr, also known as Abu Abdurahman Al Kanadi, was among those killed in the operation in Waziristan, where hundreds of fighters loyal to al-Qaeda have fled since the fall of the Taliban. "He and others were killed during an exchange of fire between mujahedeen [holy warriors] and Pakistani forces," it said.

"God bless him, Abu Abdurahman was running a charity, Human Concern International, in Afghanistan. This is a charity based in Canada and he's an Egyptian who bears Canadian citizenship and he's about 55 years old."

Mr. Khadr was born in Egypt, but moved to Ottawa in 1975 and studied computers at the University of Ottawa. He married a Palestinian-Canadian and they had six children, four boys and two girls, most of them Canadian-born.

After the Soviets invaded Afghanistan in 1979, he joined Human Concern International (HCI), an Ottawa-based Muslim charity financed by the Canadian government, and brought his family to Pakistan, where he was supposed to be running refugee camps.

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service, however, says the camps were actually mujahedeen bases, used by Islamic fighters entering and exiting Afghanistan. HCI "was one of many organizations that were helping refugees fleeing to Pakistan from Afghanistan and supporting the mujahedeen freedom fighters who waged war against the Soviet occupying forces throughout the 1980s," a CSIS report says.

Mr. Khadr returned to Canada in 1992 after he was wounded by shrapnel near Kabul. Once he had recovered at Toronto's Sunnybrook Hospital, he returned to Pakistan with his wife and children.

In November, 1995, members of the Al Jihad terrorist organization blew up the Egyptian embassy in Islamabad, killing 17 people. Mr. Khadr was arrested for allegedly financing the operation.

But he was freed after Mr. Chrétien, under pressure from Canadian Muslim groups, took the highly unusual step of intervening in the case during a meeting with Benazir Bhutto, then the prime minister of Pakistan.

Mr. Khadr came back to Canada, left Human Concern and formed his own aid group called Health and Education Project International, which was based at the Salahedin mosque in Scarborough. But he soon moved his family to Jalalabad, where he was reportedly in close contact with bin Laden.

A month after the attacks of Sept. 11, Canada placed Mr. Khadr's name on its list of designated "terrorist entities." His son Abdurahman was captured in November, 2001, by Northern Alliance troops who swept south to oust the Taliban. The following July, Omar Khadr, then just 15, was caught near Khost after a firefight with U.S. forces. He killed a U.S. medic with a hand grenade before he was captured. Khost is just across the border from Waziristan.

The RCMP's National Security Investigations branch launched an investigation into Mr. Khadr and his fundraising activities in Canada in the fall of 2001, but no charges have been announced.

The press release announcing Mr. Khadr's death was posted on the Abu Dhabi-based Internet site alsaha.com, which is closely monitored by the CIA and FBI because it often posts credible information on Islamic terrorist activities. The posting was detected by the SITE Institute counter-terrorism research centre in Washington, D.C.

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Maher Arar

Oct. 9 - Maher Arar returned to Canada after detention in a Syrian jail. However, there are still no answers as to why he was detained, why he was sent to Syria instead of remaining in US custody, and why he was released. There were no answers forthcoming in the Commons:

"We do it in order to protect the privacy of individuals involved and ... to protect the integrity of investigations that are ongoing," he [Solicitor General Wayne Easter] said.

Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham sidestepped a question on whether Secretary of State Colin Powell told him if the RCMP shared information with the U.S.

"Secretary Powell ... said that the American authorities had acted within their jurisdiction ... based on information which they had received," Graham said. (Their ellipses)

The questions still remain: based on what information and from what source?

An Ottawa Citizen report had alleged that Arar was an al Qaeda agent and involved in a plot to bomb the American embassy in Ottawa.

According to this, there may be an investigation run by the RCMP's Public Complaints Commission.

Many believe that Arar was picked up by US officials on the basis of information relayed to them by the RCMP.

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Accused in Kazemi case enters plea

Oct. 8 - Mohammad Reza Aghdam Ahmadi, who has been charged in the beating death of Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, entered a plea of innocence yesterday in Tehran.

Tehran Deputy Prosecutor General Jafar Reshadati said Tuesday that Ahmadi was the only interrogator who spent long periods of time alone with Kazemi, refused to answer some questions about her treatment and gave contradictory statements.

Reshadati told the court a prison doctor confirmed June 26 that Kazemi was in good health and had responded to questions in writing. Hours later, she was rushed to the hospital with fatal injuries.

"Now, the accused should explain how a healthy person in his control who responded to questions in 18 pages by her own handwriting is then transferred to hospital and finally dies," Reshadati said.

Ahmadi's lawyer, Ghasem Shabani, told the court the indictment was flawed and showed "serious and deep contradictions" with documents provided by the Intelligence Ministry.

Shabani requested and received more time to study the inditement. No date was specified for resumption of the proceedings.

The case is becoming another struggle between reformists and hard-liners in Iran: the Intelligence Ministry is controlled by the reformists, and the judiciary is controlled by the conservatives.

The Intelligence Ministry has said that Kazemi was beaten by a prison official, who would have been a judicial agent. They have threatened to "expose all the facts" if the charges are not withdrawn.

Canadian Ambassador to Iran Phillip Mackinnon attended the trial. He recently returned to Iran after being withdrawn by the Canadian government.

Kazemi's body has still not been returned to Canada despite the request of her son, Stephan Hachemi.

Reporters without Borders issued an appeal Sept. 26 for an independent enquiry including international experts.

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Maher Arar released from Syria

Oct. 6 - This very interesting in that it has happened so soon after the arrests of US military personnel who were suspected of spying for sources within Syria, the Israeli strike at a terrorist training camp, the emergency UNSC meeting called at Syria's request to condemn that strike, and the refusal of the US to drop its support of Israel: Canadian Maher Arar, held by Syria as a suspected terrorist, been released without explanation.

Arar had been intercepted while returning to Canada during a stopover in NYC and deported by US authorites to Syria. He holds dual citizenship with Canada and Syria, but was said to be travelling under his Canadian passport.

It's never been clear what triggered the detention or deportation, and the extent of involvement by Canadian security forces.

He had been accused of having links with al Qaeda, and Syria had reported been planning to trial him for membership in the banned organization Muslim Brotherhood.

Syria was accused of torturing Maher.

There was a news report in the July 25, 2003, Ottawa Citizen by Robert Fife titled "Al-Qaeda targeted U.S. Embassy" (the original link is dead, but a copy of the article is available here):

Ahmad Arnous, the Syrian ambassador to Canada, said yesterday he did not have personal knowledge of the al-Qaeda intrigue, but confirmed Syrian intelligence has provided useful information to the CIA and CSIS.

Mr. Arnous said Syria even shared classified information with the CIA and CSIS on Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen who U.S. authorities say has ties to al-Qaeda.

Mr. Arar, a 32-year old Ottawa engineer who was the target of a joint Canada-U.S. investigation, is now in a Syrian prison because of alleged links to terrorism.

Sources say Mr. Arar was tracked when he left Canada last year for a vacation to Tunisia. On his return home, he was arrested Sept. 26 by U.S. immigration authorities while changing flights at New York's Kennedy Airport and deported to Syria on Oct. 8 even though he was carrying a Canadian passport.

"There is some kind of co-operation between all countries friendly with Syria, including Canada because even on Mr. Arar there was a communication between the security people in Canada and Syrian anti-terrorism people," Mr. Arnous said.

Mr. Arar was first sent to Jordan for 10 days where the CIA has a special interrogation site for al-Qaeda agents.
In April, U.S. Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci, told a private audience that Mr. Arar was under surveillance long before his arrest and deportation to Damascus.

"Mr. Arar is very well known to Canadian law enforcement. They understand our handling of the case. They wouldn't be happy to see him come back to Canada," Mr. Cellucci said.

Last month, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien wrote to Mr. Arar's wife, Monia Mazigh, promising to fight for the return of her husband to Canada, although Foreign Affairs acknowledges they have not been able to see Mr. Arar since last April.

But a U.S. source said the Canadian government "knows much more about Arar than they are telling Canadians," saying the RCMP quietly asked the U.S. government to arrest Mr. Arar in New York City and deport him.
"Arar had been monitored for a long time. Canadian authorities knew about him long in advance before his arrest. He had been in Afghanistan with al-Qaeda," a source said.

Mr. Arar's wife denies her husband was ever in Afghanistan and insists he is not linked to al-Qaeda or any other terrorist group.

The Syrians also arrested another Ottawa man, Abdullah Almalki, last summer when he was travelling in Syria. Mr. Almalki remains in a Syrian prison, but little is known about him or the reasons for the arrest.

Foreign Affairs says two other Canadian men are also being detained overseas, but each has asked the department to keep his identity secret for reasons of privacy. One, who holds dual Canadian-Syrian citizenship, is being held in Syria. The other man holds Canadian and Egyptian citizenship and is considered by authorities to be a serious security risk.

According to the New Yorker, the Syrians compiled hundreds of files on al-Qaeda and penetrated al-Qaeda cells throughout the Middle-East and in the Arab exile community.

I wonder how involved PM Chretien was in obtaining Arar's release. Chretien also used his personal influence to release an accused terrorist held in Pakistan, Ahmed Said Khadr, who was later revealed as a money man for al Qaeda and who ran Human Concern, funded by the Canadian International Development Agency.

The CIDA cut off funding after Human Concern financed a bombing in Pakistan that was orchestrated by al-Qaeda's #2 man, Al-Zawahiri.

Ahmed Said Khadr has not been seen since Sept. 11, and has been named as a high-ranking al Qaeda member by the UN. Two of his sons were detained in Afghanistan and are currently in custody, one of which is at Guantanamo and known as the "Toronto teen." PM Chretien has declined requests that he intervene to secure the younger Khadr's release and have him returned to Canada.

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George Radwanski

Oct. 2 - The cost thus far in the audit of former Privacy Commissioner George Radwanwski's office is $800,000.

True to form, the critics rushed to weigh in:

NDP MP Pat Martin called it a "horrendous cost" that could have been avoided through stronger control mechanisms to keep small agencies like the privacy commissioner's office in check.

"Having the auditor general do this ... expensive, comprehensive audit is the crudest of instruments to ensure scrutiny and oversight," he said. "This would be virtually negligible if there was a concrete process for these smaller agencies."

Radwanski is a victim, not a dirty unethical cheating lying pompous son-of-a-registered-gun arrogant thief. What we need is more regulations, because that always works. Thieves will never find the loopholes!

Canadian Alliance MP Paul Forseth said the Radwanski mess signals the need for better protection for public service whistleblowers as well as tighter system oversight.

"But the culture is denial, the culture is that everything is okay and that the Liberals who are in charge are great managers," he said. "In fact, this is showing the Liberals are terrible managers."

Isn't that what the Liberals said when it was a Progressive Conservative-led government? But heck, we're talking about a government that still won't establish ethics and conflict of interest guidelines. We're talking about a government wherein Cabinets appointments are made according to region and gender, not knowledge. Qualifications? Pfft. 'Tis to laugh. How hard can it be to stroke Chretien's ego?

The true denial is that the habitual patronage appointments without regard to character or qualifications plus a civil service culture that is less employee and more voting block creates problems.

The civil servants who knowingly allowed the gun registry to run over budget by $ 99 million were promoted. And MPs are worried about $800,000?

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MPs unite in anger over Kazemi

Oct. 2 - Here's something you don't see everyday: MPs unite in anger over Iran. A motion by MP Sarkis Assadourian (Brampton - Lib) calling for a return of Zahra Kazemi's body from Iran was unanimously approved by the House of Commons.

Canadian Alliance MP Stockwell Day raised objections to the return of Cdn. Ambassador Philip MacKinnon to Iran.

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George Radwanski

Oct. 1 - The ongoing investigation into departmental expeditures under former Privacy Commissioner George Radwanski, who was forced to resign last June, continue with a damning report from Auditor General Sheila Fraser. Starting with the now ubiquitous luxurious, over-the-top entertainment expenditures, it also charges that Radwanski played favourites, ran the department with bullying and threats, and, by bullying those who would have brought financial abuses to public attention, created a climate of fear and intimidation.

The Auditor General has recommended that the RCMP investigate a pattern of civil servants cashing in vacations while taking time off and improper cash advances of $15,000 to Radwanski (one of which has not been repaid.)

Sheila Fraser urges that steps be taken to see that the money improperly acquired be repaid:

Blaming the Treasury Board Secretariat and Public Service Commission for allowing bad behaviour to go unchecked for years, Fraser insisted the rampant abuse by civil servants is "not the norm." She recommended the government rectify the wrongs of the bad apples by knocking down undeserved hires or promotions, and ordering repayment from those who abused public money.

She estimated about $200,000 is recoverable -- including half from Radwanski. Officials could also go after $350,000 in questionable payments through over-classed jobs or performance bonuses.

In an interview yesterday, interim privacy commissioner Robert Marleau said two executives have already paid $80,000 in restitution for vacation pay, and a third is expected to submit $120,000 within days. He also plans to recoup cash for improper travel and hospitality claims but added he won't make heads roll -- at least for now.

As people may remember, this investigation began when it was discovered that Radwanski has altered financial expenditure reports, and gained momentum when it was revealed that one day prior to his appointment as Privacy Commissioner in 2000, Radwanski had been forgiven a debt of $540,000 which he owed in unpaid taxes.

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