"'No doubt' Air India attack was coming"

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

'No doubt' attack was coming 
Pearson Mountie says threats were daily 
Canada - The Mississauga (ON) News


It was only a matter of time before something happened to an Air India
flight in 1985 given the almost daily threats, says a former senior RCMP
officer responsible for overseeing security at Mississauga's Pearson
International Airport.

"It seems to me they (the threats) were coming in almost on a daily basis
... there was no doubt in our mind that something was going to happen ...
the vibes were there that were reaching a peak," retired superintendent Gary
Clarke told the inquiry into the June 23, 1985 bombing of Air India Flight
182 yesterday.

But, despite the constant stream of threats, no bomb-sniffing dog was on
duty at the Mississauga airport that weekend because the Mounties had sent
the canines away on a training course, the inquiry was told.

That left the baggage loaded on to the doomed flight to be screened by an
electronic detector that had failed a test six months earlier.

The inquiry has heard much testimony about threats - specific and otherwise
- from Sikh extremists, but few witnesses to date have put that fine a point
on the seriousness of the situation.

"We all knew there was a severe danger," said Clarke, who was responsible
for policing and security with O Division in Toronto, which encompassed
Pearson.

Yet the inquiry heard about a litany of problems at Pearson on June 22,
1985, the night before Flight 182 was blown out of the sky off the coast of
Ireland. The bombing killed all 329 people aboard, including 29 Malton
residents.

The security missteps included an effectively useless electronic
explosive-sniffing machine, a baggage X-ray machine breaking down with about
70 bags left to check, and the absence of a bomb-sniffing dog, even though
it was required by the high security level assigned to Air India's weekly
flights.

RCMP dog handler Gary Carlson and his canine partner Thor weren't at Pearson
on June 22, 1985 to check luggage or the aircraft because he was in
Vancouver on a week-long course along with all the other RCMP bomb-sniffing
dogs.

There was no contingency plan in place to cover off Carlson and Thor, the
inquiry was told.

"In retrospect, that was an unfortunate set of circumstances that all bomb
dogs for the RCMP would be in Vancouver at one particular time in June. It's
very ironic that they would all be there at one time," Clarke said.

Given that the dog was not available, Clarke said, Air India should have
taken some other precautions to check the bags. The suitcase containing the
bomb was transferred to the Air India flight from a connecting Canadian
Pacific flight from Vancouver.

Dog handler Carlson said despite the fact there was a high security alert
attached to Air India flights he was not once asked to search any of its
flights.

Hearing yesterday's testimory left Mississauga's Haran Radhakrishna shaking
his head in disgust and wondering whether his wife and two children might
have been alive if airport security had taken the threats more seriously.

His family was among the passengers aboard the doomed flight.

"Nothing seemed to have worked ... it was not taken seriously at all,"
Radhakrishna told reporters, adding it was "very painful" to hear that the
bombing could have been avoided if everyone had done their job.

"We feel they could have been saved," he said, adding he still questions why
authorities did not notify the public that Air India was the target of
constant threats so that people could have decided whether to fly with the
airline or not.

Earlier in the day, the inquiry heard there was a flurry of meetings by
Canadian security officials regarding the mounting Sikh terrorist threats
against Air India and Indian diplomatic offices and the pressing need to
improve security in the weeks leading up to the bombing of Flight 182.

Retired RCMP superintendent Richard Muir, who was head of the VIP security
branch, said there was a general feeling the security at Indian commissions
was "inadequate" and had to be improved, especially leading up the first
anniversary of the deadly Indian army raid on the Sikh's holy Golden Temple
in the Punjab and the visit to the United States by then-Indian Prime
Minister Rajiv Gandhi.

The bombing of Flight 182 has been blamed on Sikh extremists campaigning for
a homeland in northern India, but only one man has ever been convicted.
Another was shot dead by police in India in 1992 and two more were acquitted
at trial in Vancouver two years ago.

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