Bangladesh and us: outsourcing poverty

Walmart, Las Vegas in 2006. The world's largest retailer was cutting costs to counter a sales slump. It has held out against signing a fire and safety agreement for Bangladesh, saying its own inspections are more efficient. (AP Photo/Jae C. Hong)

After the darkest week in decades for Bangladesh’s workers, glimmers of light are appearing on the horizon. But like all glimmers, they may be an illusion.

Some -- and only some -- of the big brands whose cheap-chic clothes are produced in Bangladesh are ready to sign accords on boosting the appalling safety conditions. And after 1,100 of its underpaid citizens died under tons of rubble in the Dhaka factory collapse, the Bangladesh government is pledging a wage hike.

That wouldn’t be hard, you’d think, with a minimum wage that averages $38 a week.

But think again.

One reason those wages are so abysmally low – and likely not to change very much -- is because wages in the West have also sunk or stagnated while the richest few have burst their metaphorical piggy banks.

That’s created a vicious circle of demand for cheaper goods among the poor and shrinking middle class, increased the pressure from Western-based corporations to keep down costs in their outsourced factories overseas and redoubled efforts of Bangladesh (and other low-waged countries) to stay “competitive” by downloading destitution onto their workers.

“We’re living at a time of year-round deals,” says economist Armine Yalnizyan of the Centre for Economic Policy Alternatives. “There’s a cut-throat level of competition and we’re moving toward lower and lower prices – but somebody is making the sacrifice.

“The flip side of every low price is a low wage.”  

And not merely in the poorest countries. A new report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development – whose 34 members are from advanced and emerging countries -- shows that income inequality  increased more during the slump years preceding 2010 than in all the previous 12 years. And there’s little sign of a turnaround any time soon.

Even where government welfare programs cushion the blow, the OECD said, there is a threat of “greater inequality and poverty in the years ahead” as austerity programs batter social spending at the time of greatest need.

Among the countries with the biggest equality gap is the U.S. – statistically the world’s wealthiest nation. Canada rates a mediocre 22nd out of 34 on the equality scale.

Meanwhile more workers in “wealthy” countries are in temporary and precarious jobs and minimum wages have fallen behind the rising costs of food and shelter.

What does it mean to Dhaka?

“The next generation (in the West) will be paid less,” says Yalnizyan. “There will be less disposable cash. But there will also be a demand for profits. So the way to feed the beast is to squeeze costs.”

Whether the survivors of the factory disaster reap the benefits of the current sympathy surge is an open question. Whether their children will is more in doubt.

Olivia Ward has covered conflicts, politics and human rights from the former Soviet Union to South Asia, winning national and international awards.
 

Right-to-die expands in U.S.

Gloria Taylor, who died in October, fought to overturn Canadian law regarding assisted suicide. (Star file photo)

We Canadians typically consider ourselves more politically left-leaning than our American neighbours.

But when it comes to laws governing physician-assisted suicide, we stand increasingly to their right.

This week, Vermont became the third U.S. state to allow a terminally-ill patient to seek assistance in ending their own life. The bill, which awaits only the governor’s signature to become law, confers upon patients with no more than six months to live the controversial right to ask their doctor for a lethal drug dose.

Terminally ill patients in Oregon and Washington already have that option. And other U.S. states are debating the move.

All of them follow in the footsteps of European countries including Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Luxembourg, all of which have all adopted liberal assisted death regimes.

“It looks like the tide is really turning,” says Wanda Morris, executive director of Dying With Dignity, a Canadian advocacy group seeks the legalization of assisted suicide in Canada.

Not so much in Canada, though.  

Despite a steady crescendo of public debate over self-chosen death, the federal Tories have refused to touch the thorny issue.

That political reality does not, however, mean Canadians themselves are more conservative than Americans on the issue. In fact, the opposite appears to be true.

A recent Angus Reid poll found 80 per cent of Canadians support allowing a doctor to assist in suicide compared to 56 per cent of Americans — a suggestion that Canada’s political reality conflicts with the views of its citizenry.  

“If we had had a similar vehicle of ballot initiatives in Canada it would already be done,” says Morris. “What we’re seeing is there hasn’t been a mechanism.”

Even though those who assist in a planned death in Canada face the threat of long jail sentences, they are happening here — quietly.

A 12-part investigative series in the Star last year documented an undercurrent of Canadians choosing to end their lives quietly and home, sometimes with right-to-die advocates sitting with them as the act is committed.

Others are travelling to a controversial Swiss clinic which commits assisted suicides legally.

Amid federal government intransigence on the issue, the Quebec government is flirting with the notion of sidestepping the Criminal Code with legislation that would make physician assisted suicide a medical decision between a patient and their doctor.

Meanwhile, the case of Gloria Taylor, a B.C. woman at the centre of a legal fight to overturn right-to-die laws in Canada, continues despite her death in October.

Consistent with the American model for assisted suicide laws, Vermont citizens with an “incurable and irreversible disease” and a wish to end their own lives will require two medical opinions and a 17-day waiting period before filling a lethal prescription.

Assisted death reform isn’t getting a smooth ride everywhere in the U.S. Similar laws have failed to pass in Massachusetts, Connecticut and Maine.

And there remains vocal opposition from religious organizations and advocates for the elderly and vulnerable in both countries.

“We do see a big push for legalization and the question to me is why is it now in history that this is occurring?” says Alex Schadenberg, executive director of Canada’s Euthanasia Prevention Coalition. “Canadians fear dying in pain. That’s a natural fear that all Canadians and Americans have. The question is, is this the way to deal with it or should we be looking at the way we care for the dying?”

Robert Cribb is an investigative journalist at the Star. Follow him on Twitter @thecribby

Looks like the loonie will fly south

TD Economics published a paper Thursday regarding a weakening Canadian dollar. (STEVE RUSSELL/TORONTO STAR)

Were you secretly hoping the Canadian dollar was going to continue to hold strong against the greenback so you could vacation and shop in the U.S. with less wallet guilt?

Well, economists are about to rain on that parade.

The weakness shown by the loonie in the last six months is about to become the norm and get a wee bit worse, according to TD bank. TD Economics published a paper Thursday regarding a weakening Canadian dollar.

TD expects the dollar to drop to the 90 - 92 cents (U.S.) range by late 2013 and early 2014.

A 90 cent Canadian dollar isn't exactly weak, said Francis Fong, a TD economist. He pointed out it is a far cry from 2001 when it was in the 60 to low 70 cent range.

But after going strong for the last several years, the loonie has started to look a bit tired. Since last September, the Canadian dollar has fallen from above $1.03 (U.S.) to as low as 97 cents, said Fong.

There are a number of reasons why the decline could continue.

First, the Canadian economy is expected to underperform the U.S. in the next coming months. "That is a major reason why the loonie has been so strong -- we were heavily outpacing the U.S. in job growth, GDP activity and so forth," Fong said in an interview.

And, the fall of the Japanese yen, along with the nation's economy, is bolstering the U.S. dollar.

Not to mention commodity prices, a major driver of Canada's economy, are soft and the slow pace of global growth means the price of precious and base metals are probably not going to magically increase and strengthen the loonie.

While Canadian consumers and those among us eyeing inexpensive property in Florida may not appreciate the loonie's dip, it is a good thing for the Canadian export businesses.

"There is always two sides to the story in economics and we are a very consumer spending economy," said Fong.  

Here's a not so fun, slightly scary fact -- nearly two-thirds of the Canadian economy is consumer spending dependent.

"A weaker dollar helps make a transition away from consumer spending and towards the export sector," he added.

And that, in the long run, will benefit all Canadians.

Tanya Talaga is the Star's global economics reporter. Follow her on Twitter @tanyatalaga

 

U.K. party looks to Canadian Reformers for election inspiration

U.K. Independence Party leader Nigel Farage reacts during a media interview outside the Marquis of Granby pub in Westminster, central London on May 3. (Olivia Harris/ Reuters)

It's unlikely Nigel Farage will be Britain's next Prime Minister, but there's no denying he's good value.

The leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party may be best known -- by those who don't follow U.K. politics obsessively - for surviving the crash of a light plane, which was towing his party's banner, during the 2010 general election. Not funny. (Okay, kind of funny. Now.)

Despite that mishap, Farage hasn't been afraid to get back on the campaign trail, and this morning, he's on the front pages of many U.K. news websites either supping a pint or giving an enthusiastic thumbs-up. This is because Nigel and his party have had a Good Night. 

Thursday saw elections in about 30 county councils, mostly in England, and while these are pretty yawn-inducing for the general public, they're a relatively big deal for Britain's political classes. Many conclusions will be drawn, and with European Union and national elections looming, the results will be scrutinized to within an inch (or centimetre, for those in the EU) of their lives.

Farage's UKIP -- which has always been something of an niche party, focused on issues related to the European Union, of which it is not fond -- appears, so far, to have taken about a quarter of the votes cast where it has candidates. Nick Robinson, the BBC's political editor, summed it up when he said, "UKIP have changed from being a pressure group to a real political party."

Farage hopes this is just the start. And while he isn't fond of the politics across the Channel, he's happy to look across the Atlantic for inspiration.

"We want to fundamentally change British politics. And there is a very good example of this," Farage said Friday morning on the BBC's "Today" program, must-listen radio which often sets Britain's news agenda.

 "You know, 25 years ago, the Reform Party of Canada started, everyone said you're wasting your time under a first-past-the-post system," Farage said. "They won one by-election and then at the next general election they were the biggest party in the Canadian parliament. It can happen."

Just to keep things in perspective, with 32 of 34 races counted, the Conservatives have 970 councillors; Labour has 400; the Liberal Democrats 291 and UKIP 117. It appears that the Monster Raving Loony Party - a perennial also-ran - failed to gain a single seat.

Crazy.

Jennifer Quinn is a foreign affairs and investigative reporter at the Star. As a journalist with the Associated Press, based in London, she wrote extensively about British politics. Follow her on Twitter @JQStar.

Canadian embassy workers target mission in DC

It doesn't matter where you come from, the job of foreign service officer means you are pretty much wired, by tradition and training, not to rock the diplomatic boat.

So it speaks volumes about the unrest within the Canadian corps that frustration is now about to spread to Washington, where the Canadian Embassy will be the target of a picket by its own workers at high noon on Friday.

The DC action is the first of many at Canadian missions around the world, as the 1,350 members of the Professional Association of Foreign Service Workers expand a work-to-rule campaign for a new contract after their last one expired in 2011.

Will the spilling of the Harper government's dirty labour laundry on the steps of the busiest and highest-profile of Canada's embassies make a difference?

Thus far, the official word from Ottawa has remained firm, with the Treasury Board insisting, "The foreign service is a highly sought after and well-paid posting. The government will continue to negotiate in good faith to reach a reasonable settlement with PAFSO that is fair to workers and taxpayers."

PAFSO, as you would expect, has a different view. Union President Timothy Edwards, who will join Friday's picket in DC, says there is as yet little sign the Treasury Board is taking seriously the overriding grievance that foreign service officers lag far behind their Ottawa-based counterparts, earning anywhere from $3,000 to $14,000 less per year for work that routinely has them active in strange, sometimes dangerous places at all hours of the day and night.

The government holds that if the job is so bad, why are so many people lined up to get it? 

Edwards agrees "wholeheartedly -- there has never been a recruitment issue. Thousands line up for these jobs and only about the top 1 per cent make it. But the real problem comes in mid-career, when we see our members picking up and leaving for better pay, taking their experience and their contacts with them after the government has spent tens, if not hundreds of thousands, of dollars to develop knowledge and expertise essential to Canadian interests."

That diplomatic brain drain, PAFSO members tell the Star, comes at a cost. As the best and brightest cave to frustration and seek work elsewhere, the worry is some of the country's most sensitive files will slide down into the hands of lesser-experienced newbies.

So the union is banking on that message hitting home in DC, epicentre of the Harper government's most intense lobbying efforts. PAFSO, after all, includes among its membership the senior political officers involved in the eggshell-delicate effort to advance the Keystone XL pipeline.

"DC is our largest mission abroad and it has our largest complement of foreign service officers working on the key issues in Canada's international agenda," said Edwards. "Our goal is to raise the profile of this issue and there's no question Washington is the place to do it."

Mitch Potter is the Star's Washington Bureau Chief, his third foreign posting after previous assignments to London and Jerusalem. Potter led the Toronto Star’s coverage of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he won a 2006 National Newspaper Award for his reportage. His dispatches include datelines from 33 countries since 2000. Follow him on Twitter: @MPwrites

Hezbollah global terror network shows 'spike' in Canadian connections

Hezbollah, the powerful militant movement based in Lebanon, has increased its global tentacles of terror -- including worrisome Canadian connections -- according to the author of a new report published this week by the U.S. Military Academy in West Point.

 “We are seeing a recent spike in incidents with Canadians” carrying out Hezbollah activities, Matthew Levitt told the Star in a phone interview.

Levitt, a former Treasury Department intelligence official who is now a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, says Hezbollah needs Westerners such as Canadians, Australians and Swedish nationals who have been implicated in recent terror attacks or operations.

“You have people who have lived abroad or have foreign passports, they have reasons for travelling, they speak foreign languages, they are comfortable abroad,” Levitt said. “The whole idea is to operate somebody so you don’t bring undue attention to yourself. That’s when you can be the most dangerous.”

His study, “Hizb Allah Resurrected: the Party of God Returns to Tradecraft,” appears in the CTC Sentinel, published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point.

Levitt’s report examines the inner workings of Hezbollah’s international network based on details that emerged after Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, a dual Lebanese-Swedish citizen, was found guilty last month by a court in Cyprus of being a Hezbollah operative and participating in deadly bombing that killed six people last July in Bulgaria. 

The bombing of the bus that killed five Israeli tourists and a Bulgarian national has led to disturbing revelations of Canadian ties to Hezbollah’s international network.

Bulgarian officials identified two suspected Hezbollah operatives in that blast as dual Canadian-Lebanese and Australian-Lebanese citizens.

"The Burgas bombers were maintaining part of Hezbollah's structures in Canada and Australia and had contacts with other representatives of this organization," Bulgarian Minister of Interior Tsvetan Tsvetanov recently stated. 

Canada has offered its “full support” and is working closely with Bulgarian authorities because of “convincing evidence” of Hezbollah’s involvement in the bus-bomb attack, foreign minister John Baird has said in February.

 Last week, the Jerusalem Post reported that Bulgarian police officers last summer “arrested a Canadian citizen linked to the Iranian government who engaged in surveillance of the local Chabad center” in the Bulgarian capital of Sofia.”

The newspaper said according to “a well-placed and reliable local source," the Iranian-sponsored female agent in her 50s, holding a Canadian passport, travelled from Istanbul to Sofia several weeks after the bus bombing.  

 ProPublica, the New York-based investigative journalism foundation, also recently published a detailed report on Hezbollah’s global use of foreign nationals based on depositions Yaacoub made to Cypriot police.

Canada, along with the United States, has designated Hezbollah as a terror group but most European nations do not.

As both a close ally of Iran’s along with a deep war chest fuelled by profits from the drug trade and international money-laundering, Levitt says Hezbollah has become a formidable global force with a growing “cadre of terrorists.”

 Levitt’s article describes how the Cyprus police investigation and court case revealed the meticulous ways Hezbollah set about to out its foreign operatives in the field, with extensive military training, secret codes and secret agent-like arrangements for  “drops” and meetings.

 He says that while Hezbollah initially decided “to stay out of the crosshairs of the war on terrorism after 9/11” and allowed “its global terrorist capabilities to decline,” the group has since rebuilt the networks of its international wing, the Islamic Jihad Organization.

“New operatives were recruited from the elite of (Hezbollah’s) military wing for intelligence and operational training, while existing IJO operatives were moved into new positions,” he writes in the West Point article. “Some of these new recruits are Western citizens.”

 “This is not a problem that is unique to Canada,” said Levitt,  the author of a forthcoming book that looks in part at Hezbollah’s connections to Canada. “They (Hezbollah) are taking a deep breath and returning to tradecraft, no longer feeling restrained from doing things in the West.”

Julian Sher is a foreign affairs and investigative journalist with the Star and can be reached at jsher@thestar.ca and on Twitter @juliansher 

 

Canadian man jailed on child sex charges in Cambodia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

Vigai Indra Komar has been jailed in Cambodia. (Photo: Phnom Penh Post)

A Canadian man appeared in a court Monday facing child prostitution charges in Cambodia and was remanded into custody to a provincial jail, the Star has confirmed.

Vigai Indra Komar, who had his Canadian passport issued in Vancouver, could spend up to six months in jail awaiting a trial, Seila Samleang, country director of a child protection advocacy group known as Action Pour Les Enfants told the Star in a phone interview.

Seila said his group had a lawyer representing the victim in the provincial court of the northwest province of Siem Riap.

He said the passport information indicated Komar, who listed his place of birth as the Indonesian island of Savu, would be 70 years old in July.

Police raided Komar’s hotel room on Friday and allegedly found him with a 14-year-old girl "cowering naked in the bathroom," according to a  report in the Phnom Penh Post.

Seila said on Monday he contacted Canadian police with whom he has worked in the past with on child sex tourism cases.

“After the charges (were) confirmed, we brought the case to the Canadian RCMP for their information and we hope that they will be working on it carefully,” Seila said.

Seila, whose group works closely with police to help victims of sex tourism, said he has dealt with “several cases from Canada” and that while some progress has been made in fighting the crime, “it is very prevalent here.”

“We don’t have a strong criminal justice system here, so children are still adrift,” he said.

In a recent series on child sex tourism, the Star reported that since 1998, more than 200 Canadians have been convicted abroad of sexual crimes against children and asked for help from their government, according to figures released by Public Safety Canada.

But here at home, under a 1997 law which makes it possible to prosecute Canadians for crimes committed outside our borders, there have been only five known convictions for child sex tourism.

The Phnom Penh newspaper said Komar was arrested by police at the Hilton Angkor resort in Siem Reap, a popular tourist destination near the famous Angkor temple ruins.

“This wealthy, elderly retiree left Canada to come to Cambodia to buy child prostitutes,” provincial chief prosecutor Ti Sovanthal told another national newspaper, the Cambodia Daily. “Now he is jail.”

Chea Heng, deputy chief of the anti-human trafficking and children protection office for Siem Reap province, said the police found the girl in the bathroom, "along with what they described as pornographic materials and erectile enhancement pills." 

None of the charges or the circumstances of the case have been tested in court.

The latest Trafficking in Persons Report for 2012 by the U.S. State Department says that the government of Cambodia “does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking” but is making “significant efforts” to do so.

It says there were convictions of 62 sex trafficking offenders during the year -- an increase from 20 offenders convicted during the previous reporting period.

In an interview with the Star, Phnom Penh Post editor in chief Alan Parkhouse said his reporters frequently report on cases of Western tourists arrested on child sex charges while local police and NGOs continue to work hard to combat the crime.

"They are definitely trying, but they are under-funded and under-resourced," Parkhouse said.

 

Julian Sher is a foreign affairs and investigative journalist with the Star and can be reached at jsher@thestar.ca and on Twitter @juliansher

 

Tallinn's mayor says fare is fair

A public bus and tram move side by side in the Estonian capital. Tallinn is the world’s first capital to introduce free public transport for all of its residents. (AP Photo/City of Tallinn)

You walk to the nearest streetcar, hop on, and carry on without passing go – or dropping your fare in the box.

You're not dreaming, you're in Estonia’s capital Tallinn, where an electronic uhiskaart, or free pass, is your ticket to a transport of delight.

Last year controversial left wing Mayor Edgar Savisaar wheeled out a scheme to green the city, cut congestion, and give austerity-stung residents a break. He calls it the “13th month salary,” claiming that families can save that much by foregoing the fare cost for a year.

As the average monthly income in the eurozone’s poorest country is about $1,200, that means a lot. In the first quarter of 2013, passenger numbers climbed 10 per cent and auto traffic has fallen by up to 15 per cent.  A city opinion poll says that 90 per cent of residents are happy.

But not all of them.

The tough-minded Reform Party (no connection with Canada) calls it populist propaganda and a waste of taxpayer’s money. There are mutters of city bankruptcy. And taxi-drivers have seen a disastrous 25 per cent decline in fares.

But free riders aren’t complaining – yet.

Savisaar’s scheme has a catch. Only registered Tallinners are eligible for a pass (sorry tourists.)  And that means a tax bill will be landing sometime soon.

In the first quarter of this year, the city’s registration rolls have increased by a record 5,000, and Deputy Mayor Taavi Aas says that will make up for $16 million in lost ticket sales.

The no-pay system could become a magnet for new housing and development. Or it could begin to crumble under the weight of its growing success.

For now, Tallinners are just relaxing and enjoying the ride.

Olivia Ward was the Star’s European Bureau Chief from 1997-2002. She has covered conflict, politics and human rights from the former Soviet Union to the Middle East and South Asia, winning national and international awards.

Canada joins outrage over Richard Falk's Boston Marathon comments

UN Human Rights Council's Palestine monitor, Richard Falk, gives a speech in Istanbul in 2005. He is at the centre of a controversy over a blog on the Boston Marathon bombings. (Cem Turkel /AFP/Getty Images)

Now it’s Canada’s turn.

As Britain, the U.S. and numerous media bloggers swiped UN special rapporteur Richard Falk for his “anti-Semitic” remarks following the Boston Marathon bombings, Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird issued his own statement Wednesday.

“Once again, United Nations official Richard Falk has spewed more mean-spirited, anti-Semitic rhetoric, this time blaming the attacks in Boston on President (Barack) Obama and the state of Israel,” Baird said. “There is a dangerous pattern to Mr. Falk’s…comments. The United Nations should be ashamed to even be associated with such an individual.”

The offending comments -- which steamed up the social media -- came from a lengthy blog written by the 83-year-old Falk, an emeritus professor of Princeton University and international law expert. In a rambling discourse on the aftermath of the bombings, he mused that they might be laid at the feet of the “American global domination project,” which was “bound to generate all kinds of resistance in the post-colonial world.”

This, of course, was not what a grieving and fearful nation wanted to hear. And Falk, who is Jewish, added that America’s closeness to Israel and policy on Iran’s nuclear program could spark more attacks, “if there is no disposition to rethink U.S. relations to others in the world, starting with the Middle East.”

Cue the calls for his ouster as special rapporteur on the Palestinian Territories at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

But from there things get more complicated. And the solution, for his critics, is unclear.

A Wall Street Journal blogger took UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon to task for “shirking” his responsibility for “(doing) anything about his Falk problem.” 

Another, at undispatch.com, blamed the Bush administration for allowing Falk to be appointed in the first place.

It’s not the first time the prickly Falk has raised international hackles and brought down calls for his removal. Geneva-based UN Watch, one of his fiercest critics, called on Western countries to repudiate “Falk’s recidivist pattern of indicting America for the acts of jihadi terrorists.”

In a 2011 blog, Falk questioned the “official version” of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and was sharply reprimanded by Ban and Washington’s UN ambassador Susan Rice. He wrote earlier pieces maintaining that the U.S. government’s lack of investigation of the event “subtly taints” its legitimacy. Meanwhile his blistering condemnations of Israel’s policies in Gaza outraged its supporters and brought more calls to roll up his rapporteur’s role.

So, you may wonder, with such powerful opposition why is he still serving the last of a six-year term at the UN?

 The answer lies in the complex structure of UN bodies and appointments.

“The key fact is that rapporteurs and experts are appointed in their personal capacities and emphatically do not represent their governments,” says Jeffrey Laurenti of the Century Foundation in New York, an expert in UN machinations. “They are intended to be insulated from political pressures; the political responsibility is that of the states on the council when they decide how to respond to the rapporteur’s reports.”

The 47-member council is made up of country representatives from regional blocs that do not take direction from the West.  Falk was elected by consensus, and can’t be fired by the UN chief or the U.S. government.

Will he be retired at the end of his term next year?

Stay tuned.

Olivia Ward has covered the UN since the early 1990s, as well as international conflicts, human rights and politics, winning national and international awards. She is still struggling to understand how the World Body works.  

Train terror plot: Al Qaeda deja vu?

Chiheb Esseghaier, one of two men accused of plotting a terror attack on rail target, is led off a plane by an RCMP officer at Buttonville Airport on Tuesday. (The Canadian Press/Chris Young)

Once upon a time there was a man named Ahmed Chalabi.

You may remember him as the one who told the CIA that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction – and that it was linked with deadly Al Qaeda groups that plotted to destroy the U.S.

In London, Chalabi’s Knightsbridge office (handy to Harrod’s) was busily dispensing such vital information to the British government and media. It represented the Iraqi National Congress, a loose coalition of Shiite Muslim, Kurdish and royalist exiles hoping to garner Western support to topple Saddam Hussein and catapult them to power.

When I met with their local point man, behind an unmarked door, he was eager to tell me of a convoluted plot involving Sept. 11 mastermind Mohamed Atta – whose life I’d researched in Germany. Atta, he said, in ominous tones, had met with an Iraqi agent in the Czech Republic.

“We’re sure that Mohamed Atta, who was one of the main planners of the U.S. attacks, met (Iraqi) Col. Muhammed Khalil al-Ani in Prague,” he said. “Al-Ani is one of the most highly skilled intelligence officers, and his special expertise is terrorism and killing.”

Amazing detective work!

It was especially amazing because Saddam – who used savage methods to crush religious extremism in Iraq, and terminated enemies of his Ba’ath Party with extreme prejudice --  had never been spotted under the covers with the most violent proponents of radical Islam.

The CIA had doubts too. But in spite of internal grousing, the INC allegations became Washington’s official position, and eventually the casus belli that the U.S. Bush administration needed to launch an invasion of Iraq. The rest is history – a scorched chapter for more than 100,000 Iraqis who died since 2003, and at least four million others who were forced to flee their homes. Some who fled to Syria have now been driven back by the murderous conflict there.

Flash forward to Canada, 2013, where the RCMP announced that an alleged “Al Qaeda-supported plot” to blow up a VIA Rail passenger train had ties to Iran. The detective work, we were told, was assisted by the FBI  and Washington's Department of Homeland Security.

But isn’t Iran the place where “apostates” who deviate from Shiite Islam (such as the ultra-Sunni Salafists of Al Qaeda) harshly punished? And which has one of the highest numbers of political prisoners in the world, including two Canadians sentenced to death? Thousands of student protesters have been rounded up, jailed and tortured, opposition leaders put under house arrest and even relatives of suspected dissidents harassed, blackmailed and detained. Ordinary Sunnis have also been seized, their mosques and holy books destroyed.

But like Iraq, Iran is on the political radar of Washington’s far right, which sees a military strike as the answer to its prayers for halting Tehran's ongoing nuclear ambitions. Yet President Barack Obama has not been convinced to fire up the war planes.

So far talk of an Iranian state-sponsored plot against Canada by way of AQ has been dialed back to zero, and perhaps that is where it will stay. Iran, naturally, denies any links with the alleged terrorists and the train plot. But the conjunction of “Iran” and “terrorist” is catnip to the hungry (or agenda driven) denizens of cyberspace. Viral conspiracy theories will proliferate beyond our borders.

And Ahmed Chalabi?  By all accounts he’s very rich. But he has given up his ambition to rule Iraq.  

Olivia Ward was European bureau chief based in London from 1997-2002. She has covered conflict,  politics and human rights from the former Soviet Union to the Middle East and South Asia, winning national and international awards.