Between The Lines
August 30
No comment necessary, I hope
"LIBYA: ENI SIGNS DEAL WITH NTC, PLEDGE TO RESUME ACTIVITIES
30 August , 09:32
(ANSAmed) - ROME, AUGUST 30 - Eni and the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) have signed a memorandum that increases cooperation in the country. A statement reads that Eni and the NTC have pledged to recreate the conditions required for a swift and complete resumption of Eni's activities in Libya and for the reopening of the Greenstream gas pipeline, which transports gas from the Libyan to the Italian coast."August 24
Next For Libya
The first big shocker - the new crowd was not actually fighting for parliamentary democracy. Second - some of their methods may seem a little abrupt. Not easy, this nation-building.
August 17
Industry To Make Next FWSAR Move
At the end of Wednesday’s Fixed Wing SAR industry day, some participants were impressed enough to applaud the government’s new approach to a problem that has been getting old – buying a new search and rescue aircraft. A full complement of the right ADM’s and DG’s from Industry, Public Works and DND turned out, and it was noteworthy that they stayed until the end of the day.
In a procurement with this kind of history, little things can mean a lot, so government representatives handed out all their slide decks and notes in advance, before they worked through an agenda that looked at:
There appears there were multiple objectives to the recently hosted FWSAR Industry Day including:
1) Providing an Update to the Project Status
2) Providing to industry an outline of the essential elements
3) Open discussion about the impending procurement strategy options
4) Seek industry feedback on options
On that last point, industry has until September 16 to get back to the government with its feedback, with a major focus on where the fixed-wing purchase can and should sit on a spectrum from full government ownership and ISS all the way through to full ASD, provided it still delivers the same ‘world-class’ capability as today.
This does not appear to be the only interaction the Crown intends, as this briefing is being followed by individual one on one corporate briefings, with the promise of follow-up sessions once inputs have been received and digested.
August 10
When Libyan dictator Col. Khadaffy tells UK PM David Cameron that his crackdown on street riots has cost him legitimacy, it is neither funny nor ironic but rather simply childish. Cameron could legitimately respond, "Yeah? Come outside and say that."
June 12
Viet Nam Looks for US Help Against China
"Oceania has always been at war against Eastasia."
May 31
Osprey Still Hunting Canadian SAR Opportunity
As long as Canada is looking for a fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft (FWSAR), the Bell-Boeing V-22 Osprey will be looking to fill the role – and according to business development executive director Bob Carrese, the tilt-rotor aircraft is looking better all the time. The March 22nd rescue of a downed US F-15E pilot didn’t hurt, nor did the fact that the type had logged 100,000 hours as of last February. As Carrese points out, a lot of those hours were operational, in Iraq and Afghanistan,
What distinguishes the Osprey, he said, is the range of capabilities it brings to the SAR task. And the longer Canada takes to make up its mind about a new search and rescue aircraft,the better the V-22 will look. “Our cost per flight hour is coming down,” Carrse said. “The metrics are getting better.”
He admits that selling an innovative and expensive aircraft that acts like both a fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft is tough but when he last brought the message to Ottawa, he was cheered by the response. “It’s what we would have hoped,” he said.
May 3
And the point is?
For an operation that is almost pure symbolism, the US seems to be bungling the symbolic aspects of the Osama Bin Laden assassination very badly. Questions about the actual death of the 9/11 architect, the lack of physical evidence of his demise and the legality of the operation are all quickly obscuring what should be seen - by friend and foe alike - as a victory.
April 27
US ARMY Smart Phone Smart Move
Possibly this week's biggest news was the US Army's use of the Android operating system in its Joint Battle Command-Platform - that's the smartphone it may issue to every soldier. For now, anyway the MITRE testing organization is using Android instead of the alternative BlackBerry or Apple operating systems, signalling an openness to the Open Source community. In the first wave of apps for the new system, the document viewers will be Open Office. How open is that?
April 20
The Libyan Adventure (2)
Things are going very well in Libya, according to Canadian LGen Charles Bouchard, the commander of Operation Unified Protector. “This campaign has been successful. We are seeing the results in reduced activity in regime held areas. But Qadhafi forces continue to cause harm to civilians in the Misuratah and other areas,” he said.
Elsewhere, Al Jazeera is reporting Libyan rebel claims that more than 10,000 people have died in the fighting so far, with no end in sight. Meanwhile, France, Italy and the United Kingdom are all adding more people to their forces on the ground in Libya. These 'liaison officers' will presumably bring some badly needed coordination to both NATO air strikes and rebel ground activity.
April 14
Uglier Than Fiction
A week ago, suicide bombers attacked a police station in the outskirts of Kandahar City. Police managed to kill three men before they triggered their explosives but the worst was yet to come. An ambulance that rushed to the scene was actually another suicide bomb that killed six people and injured twelve others. The Taliban may have been watching the movies. In the 2007 film "The Kingdom", FBI investigators at the scene of a suicide bombing in Saudi Arabia discover that an initial attack at a foreigners' compound is really only a gambit to introduce an explosives-packed ambulance to cause even more destruction.
April 7
The Libya Adventure
The Canadian contribution to Operation Unified Protector is substantial. The 570 aviators and sailors enforcing the no-fly zone and the maritime weapons embargo represent a big slice of our overall deployable capability. If it had a ground component, could we have answered the call in the same way, with the army equivalent of a frigate, seven fighter-bombers, tanker aircraft and the logistical support? The point has been made that the presence of Canada's LGen Charles Bouchard as NATO commander of the operation almost guarantees a continuing Canadian presence. Seeing this through to some kind of finish that allows withdrawal could take a long, long time. And the aftermath could be even longer. After all, Canadian peacekeepers were on Cyprus almost 30 years.
March 31
Progress In Libya
What progress have we made since Conrad wrote ‘Heart Of Darkness’ more than a century ago? Our warriors may be living in greater comfort but the motivation for this war, and its ultimate goals are still unclear.
“Once, I remember, we came upon a man-of-war anchored off the coast. There wasn't even a shed there, and she was shelling the bush. It appears the French had one of their wars going on thereabouts. Her ensign dropped limp like a rag; the muzzles of the long six-inch guns stuck out all over the low hull; the greasy, slimy swell swung her up lazily and let her down, swaying her thin masts. In the empty immensity of earth, sky, and water, there she was, incomprehensible, firing into a continent. Pop, would go one of the six-inch guns; a small flame would dart and vanish, a little white smoke would disappear, a tiny projectile would give a feeble screech—and nothing happened. Nothing could happen. There was a touch of insanity in the proceeding, a sense of lugubrious drollery in the sight; and it was not dissipated by somebody on board assuring me earnestly there was a camp of natives—he called them enemies!—hidden out of sight somewhere. We gave her her letters (I heard the men in that lonely ship were dying of fever at the rate of three a day) and went on.”
MARCH 25
You were saying?
In recent months, Vanguard has taken several light-hearted looks at the V-22 Osprey and its possible search and rescue role here in Canada. It is a pricey piece of kit, to be sure, and some traditionalists may frown at its transformational ways, but the fact remains that it pulled off a classic 'downed aircrew' rescue in Libya the other day. Value for money?
MARCH 24
So when do we bomb Syria?
Derek Burney's posting at the 3D's blog on the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute - "Why Are We In Libya?" does an excellent job of examining that question. Meanwhile, developing events elsewhere in the Middle East - Yemen, Bahrain, Syria - do raise more questions about that central question - what are we doing there? And how do we make those decisions?
MARCH 17
Could this be about the engines?
Rolls-Royce has summoned the media to its Lachine, Quebec facility for an announcement tomorrow morning - (Friday 18 March) - about a major R&D investment - but it is a safe bet there will be some bureaucrats and politicians amongst the reporters. Rolls-Royce, along with partner GE is fighting hard to keep its F136 engine in the Joint Strike Fighter program but the US Secretary of Defense is fighting hard to get it out.
MARCH 16
Canada And Foreign Intelligence
Does Canada need a foreign intelligence agency? That issue has "banged around forever," according to University of Ottawa professor Wesley Wark. So, the panel discussion he moderated last week looked instead at "Canada's foreign intelligence needs" – a completely different topic, and lots to say.
A trio of academics, Greg Fyffe, Paul Robinson and Barry Cooper were on hand to address the redefined question. On the subject of Canada’s foreign intelligence needs, uOttawa adjunct professor Fyfe said it was hard for Canada to focus intelligence resources without an overwhelming foreign intelligence need. Australia, a comparable nation, has neighbours like Indonesia that bear watching. Canada's main foreign policy challenge happens to be its main foreign policy partner and nobody on the panel seemed to think spying on the USA was a good idea.
With regard to Canada’s immediate intelligence needs Fyffe said, "We have a very wide intelligence base now. We have a lot of intelligence."
Paul Robinson went straight to the value of a Canadian secret foreign service by asking whether higher spending led to better intelligence. "I would be extraordinarily surprised if you found any correlation at all," he said. Robinson took Libya as a current example. "What difference would it make to what we’re doing if we had more or less intelligence on Libya?” His answer was none. And even if we did have good, stand-along intelligence, would we behave any differently? Again, "I would doubt it. We’d be doing exactly what we’re doing which is following our allies because that’s what we normally do." If we had less intelligence, would we behave differently? "Again, the likelihood is probably 'no'."
For his part, Barry Cooper walked through four reasons not to have a foreign intelligence agency, and then came back to knock each one down. First, spies break other countries' laws. "Spies steal secrets. That’s their job." Number two, spies cost too much. "They’re expensive. Compared to what?" Three, we already have Foreign Affairs and CSIS, and they do a pretty good job. Well, spies and spy-catchers live in completely different worlds, he said, and DFAIT does not see itself as a secret intelligence agency. "They are representatives of Canada, not thieves," Cooper said. Fourth, Canada can rely on its friends for intelligence. "I think it is hypocritical, it is cheap and it is stupid," Cooper said. "...we don’t even want to get our hands dirty and I think that's naïve and cowardly."
The conclusion? Inconclusive. But interesting. The Centre for International Policy Studies at uOttawa specializes in relevant events – coming up on the 21st, "Human rights, the United Nations and the response to the Libya crisis."
FEBRUARY 22
Government procurement: Going once, going twice
The Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries (CADSI) used its 3rd annual Small and Medium Enterprise and Networking Day in Ottawa this week to ask supplier companies for advice on two related projects aimed at improving the procurement system.
Part one is a document that will, as CADSI vice-president Janet Thorsteinson said, “attempt to describe the government procurement process from soup to nuts and this is because it can be an arcane art, as some of you know. We would like to have a document which would be useful to our members.” To that end, the association wants to know the three things that suppliers find most challenging about Canada’s procurement process.
The second document CADSI is working on is a parallel paper that Thorsteinson said had the informal working title, “Myth Busters From The Private Sector.” The document will be presented to people within government to help them understand the burdens placed on the private sector by the current procurement system.
As an example, Thorsteinson mentioned excessive risk allocation to the private sector as a factor that can result in unnecessarily expensive bids, or no bids at all. “We also talk to people about the idea that ‘profit’ is not a four letter word and that companies need to make a profit in order to remain in business in order to meet their shareholders’ needs, in order to recapitalize to be able the needs of the Canadian government, so these are some of the ideas that we have been tossing around internally,” she said.
Suggestions for both documents should be emailed to janet@defenceandsecurity.ca.
F-35 could be a single engine fighter
The U.S. House of Representatives voted Wednesday to kill the F136 GE Rolls-Royce engine for the F-35 Lighting aircraft. The project, which is supposed to provide a second, competing powerplant to the Pratt&Whitney F135, now hangs on an upcoming vote in the U.S. Senate.
The F136 engine has been on the cutting block before and survived, but the runaway success of the small government Tea Party movement in the United States has changed the political climate. In the last election, voters sent Washington an unmistakable message by replacing many Democrats with Republicans – “cut spending, do it now, or else.”
Successive Presidents, Bush and Obama, and successive Secretaries of Defense, Rumsfeld and Gates, have all tried to ground the GE Rolls-Royce alternative. Now its time may finally have come.
But wait! The GE Rolls Royce team has created lots of American jobs and many senators will no doubt weigh their choice against the possible loss of votes back home. Some F136 components are made in Canada, so the end of the program could cost jobs in this country as well.
FEBRUARY 10
United Kingdom defence review reviewed
CADSI, the Canadian Association of Defence and Security Industries, kicked off its monthly Ottawa networking luncheons in January with a talk by the United Kingdom’s defence advisor in Canada, Brigadier B. J. Le Grys, on his country’s recent Strategic Defence and Security Review.
He summarized his remarks on the review and its implications for Vanguard:
“The National Security Strategy produced by the Coalition Government introduced a National Security Council and a National Security Adviser. The four highest priority tasks are: international terrorism (why the U.K. is on operations in Afghanistan), cyber attack, international military crises, and major accidents or natural hazards.
There is a new emphasis on Defence supporting the Foreign and Commonwealth Office and Department for International Development. The Comprehensive Spending Review embarks the U.K. on a journey to eliminate the structural deficit. The Defence budget will rise in cash terms but fall by 8 percent in real terms over four years. There is a two-year pay freeze in Defence. It remains the fourth largest military budget in the world though, and the U.K. is still second in the world as a Defence exporter. The NATO target of Defence spending of 2% of GDP will continue to be met. SDSR is designed to bring plans, commitments and resources into balance.
Afghanistan remains the top priority. NATO continues as the bedrock. New models of practical bilateral defence cooperation are being sought – the U.K. France Declaration on Defence and Security Cooperation is the first, perhaps.
A new National Cyber Security Programme of £650M over four years is underway.
By 2015, Royal Navy reduces by 5,000 to 30,000, Army by 7,000 to 95,000 in 2015, Royal Air Force by 5,000 to 33,000, Defence employed civilians by 25,000 to 60,000.
Two distinct capabilities, Maritime Patrol Aircraft and Carrier Strike Aircraft (until 2020), have been dropped – not salami sliced. The UK Defence Reform Unit will look at the organization of the U.K. Ministry and its business relationships. Defence Reform is one of the Secretary of State’s top three priorities alongside Strategic Review implementation and Afghanistan.
Acquisition is a key topic. The new Chief of Defence Materiel is Bernard Gray; his 2009 review of the UK Defence procurement process is worth reading. Consultation has opened on equipment, support, and technology in a U.K. defence and security green paper, with a white paper due later in the year. The paper makes it clear that at a time of very tight financial constraints, the government cannot afford to spend taxpayer’s money on anything that is not absolutely necessary to protect the nation. In the handful of critical areas where the U.K. needs an operational advantage and freedom of action for a particular capability, it may have to sustain the underpinning technologies and skills on a national basis in order to protect national security. The paper proposes strongly that our default position is to seek to fulfil the U.K.’s defence and security requirements through open competition in the global market. The government judges that this approach maximizes the likelihood of finding a solution at an affordable cost and at best value for money. It is also believed that this offers the best catalyst for U.K. industry to be efficient and competitive, which is essential for both its long-term viability and for U.K. growth. There will be an emphasis on small and medium sized enterprises to fulfil their potential and support to exports within a framework of responsible licensing.
The U.K. is still going to be an expeditionary Defence force, and that will shape purchases of platforms and aids to education and training. Given that we have now declared there will be a formal Defence Review every five years, horizons will shorten. The hope is that by the time of the next Defence Review in 2015 the economy will permit a real increase in Defence spending to be brought about again; business reform will be the prerequisite however.”
Immediate! Exciting! Wrong!
Seventy years ago last July, BBC reporter Charles Gardner took his recording apparatus to the cliffs of Dover to broadcast the war. Listeners in the United Kingdom the next day were electrified by his “live” play-by-play of a Luftwaffe attack on a British convoy and the aerial combat that followed as RAF fighters raced to the rescue.
However, many commentators were scandalized by the tone of Gardner’s broadcast, which seemed to turn war into a soccer game. “We have just hit a Messerschmitt. Oh, that was beautiful. He's coming right down…he's coming down like a rocket now!”
Gardner was wrong about some of the details of his story – the aircraft were not Spitfires but Hurricane and the aircraft knocked down was British, not German – but for better or worse, he brought the war home to his audience in a new way. If nothing else, they knew there was a war on.
Today, reporters from around the world should be assessing their coverage of events in Egypt and in particular, Cairo’s Tharir Square. For days, they broadcast and all but endorsed the message that “Mubarak must go!” But he stubbornly stayed. Then, when pro-Mubarak forces rushed the protestors, they covered what they could see from their hotel balconies – like a soccer game. Journalists in Cairo covered stories with great courage and determination, but like Charles Gardner watching air combat over the English Channel, they did not always understand what they were looking at. If journalism is the first draft of history, live broadcasts allow no rewrites.
To hear Gardner’s play-by-play, see: www.bbc.co.uk/archive/battleofbritain/11431.shtml
FEBRUARY 1
Red Hacker Alliance versus the Total Defense League?
They may sound like comic book clans, but they fight like soldiers. The Estonian Ministry of Defense is creating a cyberdefence unit within its Total Defense League, or volunteer National Guard.
Estonia was the victim of a crippling wave of cyberattacks in 2007 that targeted financial and government institutions. The country was particularly vulnerable. Decades of Soviet domination had left it with little telecommunications infrastructure so it jumped right to Internet technology. The cyberattacks highlighted the country’s vulnerabilities and since then, defence against such attacks has become a national priority. In 2008, NATO established the Cooperative Cyber Defense Centre of Excellence in Tallinn, the capital of Estonia.
Officially, volunteers for the Estonia cyber unit will provide training and advice, but it takes no great leap of the imagination to predict some of the capabilities that organized, motivated and state-sanctioned hackers might come up with. After all, although there is no hard proof, many Estonians believe that the 2007 assault came from Russia and was at least tacitly approved by that country’s security forces. (As one American said, if the attack had been directed against the Kremlin, the hackers could have counted their remaining hours of life on one hand.)
The Estonian defence minister, Jaak Aaviksoo said the cyberdefence unit is the first of its kind, bringing state, private sector and “third sector” together under military command. The government is even considering conscription for cybersecurity personnel in times of conflict.
And the Red Hacker Alliance? One source describes it as a Chinese network security organization. Others assert that it is an umbrella organization for civilian hackers.
Did Atlantic magazine betray Egyptian activists?
“How To Protest Intelligently” is a 26-page guide for Egyptian activists. Written in Arabic, it could be subtitled “Every Egyptian’s Guide To Bringing Down The Government.” The guide specifically asks people to distribute it by photocopier or email, because the authorities were presumably watching sites like Facebook and Twitter. As well, the authors ask that the guide not be allowed to fall into the hands of the police.
On January 27, Atlantic put nine of the manual’s 26 pages up on its website, in Arabic and English. Besides being roundly denounced in its own “comments” section for posting the guide, a Facebook page was quickly put up to organize a boycott of the magazine.
As for the guide itself, if the nine available pages are any indication, the manual will be studied in every dictatorship around the world, by both government and opposition.
Complete with illustrations, the guidebook shows people how to neutralize riot police – spray paint in their faces – and their vehicles – spray paint on their windshields and stuff wet towels in their exhaust pipes.
The manual pages are available at www.theatlantic.com/international/archive/2011/01/egyptian-activists-action-plan-translated/70388/
The Facebook boycott page is here: www.facebook.com/pages/Boycott-the-Atlantic-Monthly-Magazine-and-Its-Sponsors/173960752647255#!/pages/Boycott-the-Atlantic-Monthly-Magazine-and-Its-Sponsors/173960752647255?v=info
JANUARY 20
The Stuxnet message
Enforcing a regional “no more nukes” strategy used to be physical work. Back in 1981, Israel sent F-15s and F-16s to destroy Iraq’s Osirak nuclear plant outside Baghdad. The plant had not yet been completed, and after the devastating Israeli airstrike, it never would be.
Fast forward to Operation Orchard in 2007. Whatever the Syrians were working on out in the desert, it appeared to be part of a secret nuclear weapons program. Once again, Israeli warplanes brought that program to an abrupt end.
Fast forward to late 2010. The Stuxnet worm destroys Iranian centrifuge machines, setting that country’s nuclear weapons program by at least several years. The New York Times writes that Stuxnet was developed and tested over years by at least two governments – the United States and Israel – and with the possible involvement of two others – Germany and the United Kingdom.
For leaders around the world, threat levels around thousands of scenarios should have just gone from “possible” to “probable” and in some cases, “inevitable.” The threats touch every corner of defence and security. Anything that needs software and microchips to operate is now, undeniably, at a higher level of risk – in other words, everything. From network-linked photocopiers in the office to long-distance power transmission lines, from air traffic control systems to autonomous vehicle controllers, the question needs to be faced – is there a spy or a saboteur somewhere in the software code or burned into the chips?
Ten years ago this week, the hacker called MafiaBoy stood up in a Montreal courtroom and pleaded guilty to orchestrating the big and successful denial of service attacks that temporarily crippled some of the world’s largest websites – Dell, Amazon, CNN, Ebay.
In comparison with the Stuxnet attack, that was the equivalent of a rock through a window. Even the crippling cyber attack against Estonia in 2007 was like mindless street violence compared to the surgical sophistication of the Iranian centrifuge virus. Stuxnet changes everything.
JANUARY 11
The F-35 has landed
Pundits and politicians may have their doubts about Canada’s purchase of 65 F-35 Lightning II fighter aircraft, but as far as the air force is concerned, the discussion is over. Not only does the “Canada’s Air Force” website list the F-35 on its “Current Aircraft” site, the Chief of the Air Staff, LGen André Deschamps, makes the decision clear in an article published in the current edition of Canadian Military Journal, “Meet the F-35 Lightning II – Canada’s Next Fighter.”
“As Commander of Air Command, I am delighted that the Canadian Forces will acquire the Lightning II, and I am fully convinced that this is the right fighter aircraft for Canada,” he writes. The article (http://www.journal.forces.gc.ca/vo11/no1/10-deschamps-eng.asp) notes that Canada needs manned fighters at home and overseas and that the air force’s requirements, finalized early last year, pointed to the Lightning II as the one and only choice. LGen Deschamps makes the point, not overemphasized elsewhere, that 5th generation aircraft like the F-35 can be upgraded to keep pace with changing technologies – 4th generation aircraft cannot.
In fact, the CMJ article pretty much confronts every major point in the F-35 acquisition debate except for one that emerged from stealth mode just after Christmas – the Chinese J-20 “Black Eagle,” a 5th generation aircraft whose picture began to appear in the days before U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert Gates was due to visit China. Video of the J-20 actually flying appeared while he was there.
In Internet combat, the very safest kind, some commentators have already given the victory to the Chinese aircraft while others opine that it is way to early to pick a winner. That said, if the Lightning and Eagle never collide, everybody wins.
DECEMBER 21
Decisions, decisions
While Canada is looking at two possible designs for the Joint Support Ship – one developed from scratch and one based on an existing design – the United States has set a very different course with its 55-ship Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) program.
Two teams of contractors, one led by General Dynamics and Austal USA, the other by Lockheed Martin, were selected to build their proposed version of the LCS. The winner would then go on to build 10 ships. The General Dynamics entry, the Independence class, has a trimaran hull. The Lockheed Martin Freedom class has a semi-planing monohull. Both types are built for speed and shallow water and it now looks like both types will be built.
The U.S. Congress is on the verge of allowing the navy to acquire both classes, by authorizing the navy to buy up to 20 ships from either or both contractors. News that bids from both teams came in with prices well below expectations led the navy to propose the two-ship solution. Clearly politicians like the idea.
The U.S. General Accountability Office has taken the line that having two types reduces overall program risk by increasing the likelihood that one of them will actually work. Meanwhile, Canada plans to buy two, and possibly three, Joint Support Ships.
Word Watch: “eye-watering”
There have been epiphoric levels of eye-watering lately. In fact, the flood of references to epiphoria, or watery eyes, has risen to eye-watering levels. In the defence world alone lately, we have been told to watch out for “eye-watering levels of violence,” “eye-watering performance” and “eye-watering prices.”
New year’s resolution – turn the tide of lachrymosity before the eyes glaze over. It’s time to dry up.
DECEMBER 14
WikiLeaks weather
WikiLeaks is not the enemy. It is the weather. On the global battlefield of instant communication and public opinion, climate change has already happened. If people are feeling a chill, it’s because their windows and doors aren’t built to keep out the cold.
In this hyper-connected world, there are few limits on the flow of information. Good or bad, true or false, events now happen instantly and everywhere. For the military, that means the so-called “strategic corporal” can set back a campaign immeasurably, by killing civilians or torturing helpless prisoners in front of a global audience.
With enemies like the Taliban, opposition forces like ISAF are continually in defensive and reactive mode, because the Taliban can get their versions of events out to the Afghan population by text message instantly, hours before ISAF can respond with the truth.
Looking beyond the immediate impact of the latest releases of U.S. diplomatic cables, it is clear that WikiLeaks has established a new level of credibility for itself, not just as a source of perceived accurate information, but also as a conduit for anyone with a grievance and access to secret information.
In a war of choice, like Afghanistan, domestic public support is crucial. In Italy, the Netherlands and Canada, low levels of popular approval sank even lower under a preponderance of negative messages, with decisive effect on the level of force commitment and its role.
In the new media environment, WikiLeaks is just a set of storms. Like the weather, the uncontrolled release of damaging information is not going to stop. We can’t defeat weather, but we can work to mitigate its negative impact.
DECEMBER 7
Boeing pitches V-22 Osprey for Fixed-Wing SAR
In late November, Bob Carrese, Boeing’s executive director for V-22 business development, presented the tiltrotor twin-engine Osprey to the Commons Standing Committee on National Defence as an answer to Canada’s need for a fixed-wing search and rescue aircraft.
Carrese’s presentation pointed out the advantages for search and rescue of the Osprey’s unique blend of horizontal speed and endurance, and vertical flight capabilities: “While many aircraft are capable of long range, high speed, fixed-wing search and assist, only the V-22 has the flexibility to hover or land vertically to complete the rescue in extremely austere environments, and then transfer the rescuee directly to a care facility.”
The U.S. military has taken delivery of more than 400 Ospreys, and the Bell-Boeing product is described as being in full rate production.
With its vertical capability, the Osprey is unique on a list of FWSAR contenders that includes the C-295, C-27J, Viking Air’s Series 400 Twin Otter and Bombardier’s Dash 8.
New plan for Canadian counterterrorism
This week, the government will announce a "comprehensive" plan for counterterrorism that will ensure better communication between law enforcement and security agencies. Jason Kenney, the federal immigration minister, made the announcement during a Montreal ceremony at the site of a memorial to victims of the 1985 Air India bombing.
Last summer, a report by a former Supreme Court Justice, John Major, blasted the government for a series of security lapses before the bombing and in its aftermath. Among other things, Major called on the government to give the national security adviser more power. That position is currently held by Stephen Rigby, former president of the Canada Border Services Agency.
His immediate predecessor was Marie-Lucie Morin, who spoke to Vanguard last year about the responsibilities of Canada’s national security adviser: www.vanguardcanada.com/StrategicAdviceMorin
NOVEMBER 30
Wikileaks and truth to power
In today’s Afghanistan, many men formerly described as “warlords” have been transformed into “power-brokers.” In Kandahar province, none are more powerful than Ahmed Wali Karzai, half-brother of Afghan president Hamid Karzai.
The power-broker, known by his initials AWK, does hold an official government position, but a U.S. diplomatic cable released by Wikileaks gives him another job description: “Note: While we must deal with AWK as the head of the Provincial Council, he is widely understood to be corrupt and a narcotics trafficker.”
In meetings with western diplomats, one of which included then Representative of Canada in Kandahar (RoCK) Ben Rowswell, AWK points out that elections are a difficult concept for Afghans to understand. "They think: The president is alive and everything is fine. Why have an election?"
Not surprisingly, Ahmed Wali Karzai “has aggressively lobbied the Canadians to have his security services retained for the Dahla Dam refurbishment. Both he and the governor have tried to exert control over how contracts are awarded in the province.”
Back in May, MGen Nick Carter, Commander of ISAF’s Regional Command (South) told a news conference that he hoped AWK would play a less significant role and, “increasingly stand out of the way and allow the governor to do that governing.”
The leaked diplomatic cables make it clear why that would be a good idea: “The meeting with AWK highlights one of our major challenges in Afghanistan: how to fight corruption and connect the people to their government, when the key government officials are themselves corrupt."
NOVEMBER 23
Brave new world of military procurement?
A news report Monday that Canadian Forces have quietly – if not secretly – leased Russian-made Mi-17 helicopters to supplement the Chinooks, Griffons and Skylink machines in Afghanistan underscores the changes military procurement has undergone under the pressure of combat operations.
In recent years, the Canadian military has acquired billions of dollars worth of new and upgraded equipment – including transport aircraft, helicopters, artillery pieces, tanks and armoured vehicles – through a variety of procurement mechanisms, including ACANs (Advance Contract Award Notice) and IORs (Immediate Operational Requirements). Both contracting types bypass the “normal” procurement process.
Canada’s biggest defence procurement ever, the announced purchase of 65 F-35 aircraft, was never the subject of a competition in Canada. The controversy around the selection of this weapons system is really about the value of the existing RFP-bid-award-challenge process.
By some measures, we are using that system less and less, even as the importance of the procurements to our warfighters is increasing. It may be time to figure out new ways to achieve “fair, open and transparent.”
NOVEMBER 16
True Patriot Love gala raises millions for military families
Head, hands and heart tell the story of last Wednesday evening’s True Patriot Love Foundation gala evening at the Metro Convention Centre in Toronto.
The head calculates that 1,800 people at $750 a ticket will raise $900,000 to support Canada’s military families, and that a combination of donations, and live and silent auctions will raise the total gathered to more than $2 million.
The hands that made the evening possible include those of Defence Minister Peter MacKay and General Walt Natynczyk, Chief of the Defence Staff. The evening’s founder, former CDS General Rick Hillier, lent an extra hand by allowing a day of his time turn into three – there were three competing bids in an auction for a day of Hillier’s consulting time and a clever auctioneer brokered a deal that saw the three bidders each get a day, with more than $100,000 raised for the cause.
The heart of the evening was Canadian Forces Private Jackie Girouard whose husband, Chief Warrant Officer Robert Michael Girouard, died in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan in 2006. In a moving speech, Girouard described how the loss of her husband had led to her own military service, and the positive impact that organizations like the True Patriot Love Foundation have had on the lives of military families.
Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison honoured by CANSOFCOM
Congratulations to Vice-Admiral Greg Maddison (Ret’d) on his appointment as the first Honorary Commandant of Canadian Special Operation Forces Command (CANSOFCOM).
When he was Deputy Chief of Defence Staff with responsibility to the Chief of the Defence Staff for the conduct of CF operations at home and abroad, Maddison said he witnessed firsthand the professionalism and dedication of Canada's Special Operations Forces.
“I am truly proud to have this opportunity to act as a liaison between CANSOFCOM and Canadian citizens,” said Vice-Admiral Maddison, a member of Vanguard’s editorial board.
Brigadier-General Mike Day, the Commander of CANSOFCOM said, “Vice-Admiral Maddison provided excellent leadership and guidance to Canadian Special Operations Forces at a formative period in our development.”
F-35 runs into headwinds
Last week, the draft recommendations of a presidential panel advised the U.S. government to cancel the Marine Corps short takeoff and vertical landing “jump jet” version of the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. That would slice a possible 340 copies of the aircraft from the Department of Defense shopping list of 2,443, and presumably raise the cost of the remaining aircraft to the eight other countries that have indicated they might buy it.
The panel also said the U.S. government should chop in half the remaining orders for land and carrier-based versions of the aircraft. The aircraft’s manufacturer, Lockheed Martin, issued a statement saying: “We are currently reviewing the commission's proposed defense spending recommendations; however we believe it is premature to discuss any potential impact to the F-35 program.”
The Marine Corps version, the F-35B, has already been struggling in flight tests, and the entire JSF program has run into delays and ever-increasing costs. In October, the United Kingdom served notice it was cancelling its proposed purchase of F-35Bs and substituting the “C” or aircraft carrier version of the aircraft instead. The reasons given were the cost of the “B” model, and the need for the longer range and heavier payload of the carrier variant. There have been reports that the British order could drop to as few as a dozen aircraft from about 140.
CEO Robert Stevens of Lockheed Martin concedes that the F-35 will likely be over budget and run over its timetable before the fighters are delivered. In just over a week, the U.S. Defense Acquisition Board will hold a Technical Baseline Review of the F-35 program. More details of any delays or cost overruns should emerge shortly thereafter.
NOVEMBER 9
Why we fight
Over the weekend, at the Halifax International Security Forum, U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham (Rep. SC) singled out Terry Hackett of Correctional Services Canada for his contribution to penal reform in Afghanistan.
Graham said, “Terry Hackett, the prison warden for Ontario, has single-handedly changed their approach to prison.” The senator may have transplanted Hackett to Ontario from British Columbia, where he made his mark in corrections working with aboriginal communities, but the point remains – Canada has made a singular contribution to the reform of civil society in Afghanistan. (Sen. Graham would know. He has been to Afghanistan several times in uniform as a reservist, serving in the Judge Advocate General branch.)
Hackett, who serves as the director of correctional operations with the Kandahar Provincial Reconstruction Team, mentors and monitors the staff at Sarpoza Prison, on the edge of Kandahar City. Perhaps best known for the mass escape of hundreds of prisoners in 2008 when the Taliban blew out the wall with a massive truck bomb, Sarpoza Prison is symbolic of Canada’s efforts to serve Afghanistan civil society while fighting the insurgency.
Perhaps with a nod to Canada’s “whole of government” approach in Afghanistan, the very next day, Sunday, another prominent Republican, Sen. John McCain of Arizona, broadened the praise of Canada to include the military contribution to prison reform. “A Canadian general literally turned around the penal system there in Afghanistan, and we are grateful.”
In recent weeks, news reports have indicated that our allies in Afghanistan want a continued and significant Canadian presence there. While it is hard to believe that the current government will get too far ahead of public and political support for a major presence in Afghanistan after the summer of 2011, Defence Minister Peter MacKay did say on Sunday that Prime Minister Harper would pronounce upon Canada’s role sometime in the next two weeks.
For more on Terry Hackett, see the April profile in Vanguard’s sister magazine, Canadian Government Executive: http://cge.itincanada.ca/index.php?cid=317&id=12099&np=3
You can bank on it: IRB enhancements start to take effect
With about $20 billion in Industrial and Regional Benefits “under management” and more contracts in the pipeline that could double that figure, recent changes to the IRB policy were designed to create efficiencies, stimulate creativity and extract more benefits for Canada. Issued in September of last year, the first five of seven published changes (details here http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/ad-ad.nsf/eng/ad03921.html#phase3) are now working their way through the system.
Last week at the Unmanned Systems Canada annual conference in Montreal, Industry Canada IRB senior manager John MacInnis announced that the first “IRB bank account” had been opened the day before. As MacInnis said, banking IRB credits “in advance of award, and in the event of over-commitment of IRB transactions for high value activities” only sounds easy. On closer examination it proves more difficult, dictating a crawl-walk-run approach, “and we’re definitely crawling right now when it comes to banking,” he said.
The first bank account was opened by a company that did not choose to be identified directly, but the credit for banking the first credits goes to a “large European aerospace and defence company.”
The F-35 Industry
The government of Canada says that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has already generated $350 million worth of business for Canadian companies, a figure it says could pass $12 billion if sales eventually exceed the original estimated orders from partner nations for 3,173 aircraft. Vanguard has been speaking with some of the Canadian companies in the Joint Strike Fighter Global Industry Team.
JSF puts NGRAIN on global market
NGRAIN, the Vancouver visualization and simulation company, has been involved with the Joint Strike Fighter program since 2005, when it received funding from Technology Partnerships Canada to apply its simulation-based equipment maintenance expertise to the maintenance lifecycle of the F-35. The first deliverable is a software program that enables maintainers of the F-35 to record and track areas of damage or repair on an interactive 3D representation of the aircraft.
According to CEO Paul Lindahl, “our Damage Assessment and Repair Tracking software is integrated into the F-35 Autonomic Logistics Information System and will be provided to F-35 customers around the world.”
Aircraft maintainers traditionally make notes on a 2D diagram, which is limited because it does not admit a high degree of detail, Lindahl noted. “In addition, there’s a need to streamline the process of capturing field data and inputting it into the logistic system. To maximize operational readiness, the process must automate the collection and dissemination of important information to the supporting engineers and provide a platform for quick assessment and resolution.”
The NGRAIN solution allows maintainers to point to very specific areas on the aircraft, transcribe the data directly onto an exact virtual 3D representation that is loaded on a Panasonic Toughbook, and instantly enter the information into the logistics system.
NGRAIN is doing original research and development for the F-35, with Canadian government funding and close collaboration with Lockheed Martin, to deliver a solution that runs on a common computing platform and one that meets their requirements for integration.
Lindahl indicates that just about everyone at NGRAIN will touch the F-35 program over its lifecycle. “The first application we have deployed is just the first of the opportunities. We believe there are larger opportunities for us when the aircraft are deployed,” he noted.
Because NGRAIN’s core competency is maintenance training and it has already created realistic simulations of the aircraft, the company is positioned to offer maintainers training solutions to help manage the maintenance lifecycle of the aircraft from the outset. “For new airmen entering the force or for those new to the F-35, we can deliver training solutions that help them maintain the aircraft and its subsystems,” Lindahl indicated.
While he did not want to talk about specific numbers, Lindahl would tell Vanguard that the company expects its involvement in the F-35 program to “result in multi-million dollar contracts for our company.”
Even if Canada were to cancel out of the Joint Strike Fighter program, Lindhal believes that NGRAIN is already a key part of the F-35 program. “We will support the global program and if the Canadian government stays on track to acquire the F-35, we hope to provide training solutions to our forces to help them minimize training costs, increase training throughput, and maximize student performance.”
Beyond the F-35 program itself, Lindahl believes that involvement in a global program like the JSF puts NGRAIN solutions in the hands of the global market. “We have already secured relationships overseas through our connection with the program. We are bidding with these new partners on business totally unrelated to the F-35,” he indicated. “The program is a springboard for significant international business growth.”
In Lindahl’s words, “I think it’s important to recognize that there are global opportunities for Canadian companies involved in this program and that is in large part due to the investment the Canadian government has made in the program thus far. I would point out that we secured a significant place in the program prior to the Canadian government’s announcement they are proceeding with the procurement.”
If your company should be included in this series, please email editorvanguard@netgov.ca
NOVEMBER 2
F-35 “debate” taking shape
In the three months since the government announced plans to buy Canada’s new fighter, the F-35, there has been no shortage of verbiage and last week yielded a bumper harvest. Some picks from the crop:
· "These guys were sent out to buy a Chevrolet and they came back with a Ferrari and they still haven't got the keys,” said Liberal leader George Ignatieff.
· By threatening to compete the new fighter jet, the opposition is trying to score “cheap political points,” said Industry Minister Tony Clement at the annual meeting of the Aerospace Industries Association of Canada. He insisted that a competition would leave the Canadian industry “out in the cold for months or years” while foreign companies snapped up all the jobs. The United Kingdom, he said, despite the deepest cuts to defence spending since 1945, “reaffirmed their commitment to the F-35 last week.”
· In a debate in Ottawa – a real debate – Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia suggested that Canada’s F-35 purchase not only frightened Russia, it showed we are “no longer searching for peace but preparing for war.”
· Byers’ opponent, Rob Huebert of the University of Calgary, pointed out one of the advantages of an aircraft like the F-35, built from scratch for low radar visibility: “Stealth matters because of the proliferation of surface to air missiles” in today’s threat environment. “In an ideal world, we would have a competition,” Huebert conceded, but in his opinion, when it comes to a Canadian fighter for the next forty years, it is the F-35 or nothing. Byers quickly pointed out that stealth technology was unnecessary for the defence of Canada, but was only useful for combat offshore: “There is no other argument for stealth,” he said. “Do you want to be the sharp end of the spear?” Byers also picked up on breaking news that the Auditor General was unhappy with both the Chinook and the Cyclone helicopter procurements to link the F-35 purchase with “the incompetence of the Department of National Defence.”
· Auditor General Sheila Fraser had last week’s last word on the purchase of 65 F-35s: “I would hope that nobody is assessing those as low risk.”
The F-35 Industry
The government of Canada says that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has already generated $350 million worth of business for Canadian companies, a figure it says could pass $12 billion if sales eventually exceed the original estimated orders from partner nations for 3,173 aircraft. In the weeks ahead, Vanguard will speak with some of the Canadian companies in the Joint Strike Fighter Global Industry Team.
Avcorp takes flight
Avcorp Industries Inc. of Delta, British Columbia, fabricates and assembles the outboard wing of the Joint Strike Fighter aircraft carrier variant. At a time when critics of Canada’s F-35 purchase worry about the volatility of the aircraft’s potential market, Avcorp president Paul Kalil points out that change can cut both ways. Because the United Kingdom has just decided to switch its purchase of 138 F-35s to the carrier version, Kalil said, “it’s a windfall for us.”
Kalil says Avcorp will be the first international supplier to deliver assembled structures to the F-35 program. “Many of the other suppliers on the international program are building up slowly towards that, so they are essentially making components and then they’re making sub-assemblies and then they are finally going to ship in a large structure at some point in the future. In our case, we’re going straight there,” he said.
At present, before full production begins, Avcorp employs about 35 people on its F-35 program. When production does start, Kalil thinks the number will stabilize at between 50 and 70 people, in direct and indirect positions. “They’re good jobs,” he said. “These are our most advanced, most skilled mechanics that are on these jobs, in terms of the direct workforce. And then, of course, our manufacturing engineers and our quality engineers and the like are all supporting the program.”
In the decades ahead, Kalil believes the Lighting II program could be worth as much as half a billion dollars to Avcorp. “It will represent pretty significant revenue for this business and will also be, we believe, highly profitable. Obviously we are still behind the folks like Northrop and Lockheed and BAE themselves, but we feel, for a relatively small company, that we are right up there with the big guys.”
Being up there with the big guys means Avcorp can vault over existing, legacy capabilities and prepare for future programs based on new generations of technology. “The techniques that we are learning on the F-35 are going to stand us in good stead when we compete for work on the 737 replacement or the A320 replacement. It is a huge benefit to the industry,” Kalil emphasized.
F-35 observers also worry that benefits to Canadian industry would abruptly cease, should this country decide not to buy 65 F-35s. Kalil said, “the scenario is interesting. We feel that at least initially we would probably hang on to the work, just given the cost and the timing issues of moving it.” Right now, because of the way the U.S. government is funding the Joint Strike Fighter, work is only being awarded to the company on a year-to-year basis, “so we fully expect that the other participants would then start to go down the path of establishing a capability to do this work.”
In Avcorp’s case, because they are a sole source, Kalil believes Lockheed Martin would look at the risks and costs before moving the work. “But other Canadian companies are in a worse situation, where they’re actually already dual-sourced, so the program could just suck up the work they’ve got into the primary source and go set up another dual source somewhere else.”
Because the F-35 program is so big and Canada has the world’s fourth or fifth largest aircraft industry, Kalil thinks the prime contractor would need some Canadian capacity anyway.
“However, it does become a very dog-eat-dog environment as opposed to what we have today; because of the Canadian investment, Canadian industry is getting preferred access to this work,” he said. The company still has to perform to keep the work, but “we are being given the opportunity to get up the curve, to learn the new technologies and become real players on the program.”
In testimony to a Parliamentary committee in September, Kalil said, “continued participation in the program by Canada is essential. It will ensure that more opportunities will be forthcoming for other Canadian companies, and obviously it will allow companies that have contracts to continue to participate. We believe the important issue for us now should be to focus on driving more of the subcontract work into the Canadian SME supply base, because, again, we see the technology transfer opportunity and growing the capabilities of the industrial base.”
The rest of his testimony as well as that of Minister of National Defence Peter MacKay, Industry Minister Tony Clement, and Public Works Minister Rona Ambrose is available at http://snipurl.com/1c0njd
Next week:
Tony Lindahl, CEO of NGRAIN: “The great thing about our involvement in a global program like this is that it will put NGRAIN solutions into the hands of the global market. We have already secured relationships overseas through our connection with the program.”
If your company should be included in this series, please email editorvanguard@netgov.ca
OCTOBER 26
Losing the battle for legitimacy
In the inverted, reversed world of Afghan politics, news of corrupt election practices is proof that democracy is catching on. Several weeks ago, in Kabul, a senior Canadian diplomat declared the September 18 Afghan national elections for the lower house – Wolesi Jurga – a success. But the diplomat immediately qualified the statement. Everyone assumed the process would be flawed, he said, and indeed it was. But the fact that the government is catching the cheaters should legitimize the elections, the argument goes.
Late last week, election officials in Afghanistan said they had concluded that a full one-fourth of the ballots cast were illegal. Some 4.3 million votes have been deemed legal – for now – but almost 11 million people were eligible to vote. Many voters in many districts of Afghanistan have good reason to believe they will not be fairly represented in Kabul.
The Afghan government has put a lot of effort into garnering the elections some credibility, especially after last year's violent, fraud-beset election gave President Hamid Karzai a very tenuous grip on his office. In a cavernous, heavily guarded building in Kabul, more than a hundred people – mostly young – sat at computer terminals and logged in the election results as they came in from across the country. It was clear from the processes and safeguards in place that no matter what had happened in polling stations out in the provinces, the work at headquarters would be honest – and seen to be honest. Every night, even several weeks after the election, Afghan TV and radio ran lengthy news items about the election process itself even though everyone knew it would be weeks, if not months, before the real results were all in. Among other stories of misdeeds, viewers were treated to amateur videos of election officials cheerfully stuffing ballot boxes.
With NATO/ISAF giving safe passage to Taliban leaders for talks in Kabul, and allegations on the front page of the New York Times that Iranian money is being channelled through President Karzai's own chief of staff, the Afghan government may well need the veneer of legitimacy that a broadly representative lower house of Parliament can give. It is not yet clear that the September 18th elections can deliver even the appearance that it reflects the popular will.
The F-35 Industry
The government of Canada says that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program has already generated $350 million worth of business for Canadian companies, a figure it says could pass $12 billion if sales eventually exceed the original estimated orders from partner nations for 3,173 aircraft. In the weeks ahead, Vanguard will speak with some of the Canadian companies in the Joint Strike Fighter Global Industry Team.
Small company struck by Lightning
Handling Speciality builds the work platforms that literally surround subsections of the F-35 Lighting II as it is being assembled. "We were in on this program very, very early," said Handling president Thomas Beach. The company has been part of the Joint Strike Fighter Global Industry team since 2004, and about 16 people are now directly in F-35 work.
“The great thing about the F-35, it reached out very far into the economic mass of Canada and found this little tiny company in Grimbsy, Ontario," Beach said. "We do big business with them on this. The opportunities were there for SMEs and we're absolutely a flagship for them on that regard."
Involvement with the F-35 program puts companies like Handling Specialty in contact with Lockheed Martin partners like Grumman, BAE, Pratt&Whitney.
"We're getting into business opportunities in a much more efficient manner because we are able to wear this really large crest that says, 'we're on the Global Industry Team of Joint Strike Fighter,'" Beach explained. Handling Specialty has already obtained business with some of the other partners of the Joint Strike Fighter and Beach says that speaks volumes about the F-35 involvement, because everybody knows who the partners are.
"You've got Rolls, you've got Pratt, you've got BAE, you've got Northrop Grumman. For a little guy to stand up in front of Northrop Grumman and say, 'hey, we're really terrific, you should buy off us', is one thing. To stand up and say, 'we're on the Joint Strike Fighter Global Industry Team, we know Tom Burbage [Lockheed Martin vice-president responsible for the F-35] and those guys, we'd like to do business with you', you get a little bit more air time, if you will."
Beach thinks that kind of “domino” benefit for his business will last for years. “I give a great deal of credit to this relationship and this megaproject that has come to our books.”
Even if Canada does cancel out of the F-35 Lighting II project, Beach believes the relationships his company has already built will survive and serve Handling Specialty well in other ventures. “There are still relationships there. Lockheed Martin is a viable client of our business now with or without the fighter aircraft being purchased. We would continue to CRM [Customer Relationship Management] that account and partners as well. Aerospace business is a target industry for us."
For a Youtube video of Tom Beach and Handling Specialty, see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k4asF7HQFo8
Next week: Avcorp Industries of Vancouver
Avcorp president Paul Kalil - "The techniques that we are learning on the F-35, are going to stand us in good stead when we compete for work on the 737 replacement or the A320 replacement."
If your company should be included in this series, please email editorvanguard@netgov.ca
OCTOBER 19
With service under six prime ministers over 34 years, Anthony (Tony) Campbell has earned the wisdom of his years. The Canadian public service veteran delivered the John Tait Memorial Lecture last week in Ottawa, at the 2010 CASIS (Canadian Association of Security and Intelligence Studies) Conference.
Campbell believes that government employees have a duty to deliver honest opinions to their political leaders, but in Ottawa today, he believes, “truth to power is in a state of crisis.” Not restricted to Canadian public affairs, he told the audience that public servants in many countries had failed their governments by not speaking truth to power about the real state of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq. Campbell pointed out that Canada had several good reasons for not joining in the invasion of Iraq: lack of a UN resolution was one, but a straightforward intelligence assessment that said there was no evidence of WMDs may have been decisive. In fact, he said, that assessment to Prime Minister Jean Chretien from the Privy Council Office Intelligence Assessment Secretariat may have been Canadian intelligence's “finest hour.”
To date, Canada's intelligence services have prevented and disrupted terrorist attacks and obtained convictions under the counter-terrorism legislation but most importantly, they have successfully avoided providing the United States with a reason to close the border with Canada. In Campbell's opinion,
