Jim Judd - War On Terrorism

War On Terrorism

On March 8, 2005, Jim Judd was asked by Canadian Senator David Paul Smith about whether Canadian mosques were being monitored by CSIS, to which Judd replied that he was unaware of any such policy. Assistant Director Dale Neufeld then interjected, and confirmed that CSIS was indeed monitoring Canadian mosques, which it suspected of recruiting and funding terrorism.

Later that month, Judd addressed the Canadian Senate and said that Kassem Daher was a Canadian citizen, and member of Usbat-al-Ansar.

In August 2005, Judd announced that Canadian citizens were fighting as part of the Iraqi insurgency, an announcement that was met with derision from the Prime Minister's office.

In October 2005, Judd said that the 2003 Invasion of Iraq was creating "long-term problems" for other countries, including Canada. While facing criticism for CSIS's role in handling the case of Mohamed Harkat and other Muslim-Canadians detained under Security certificates in November 2005, he offered the Members of Parliament the chance to "ride along with agents" as they conducted interrogations of others.

In July 2006, he announced that several hundred Canadians were being investigated for "pro-al-Qaeda sympathies"

In September 2006, he referred to the concept of racial profiling as "fundamentally stupid", pointing to cases like Richard Reid and the 2006 Toronto terrorism case where the suspects were not Arab.

On March 31, 2009, veteran CSIS lawyer and advisor Geoffrey O’Brian told the Commons Committee on Public Safety that CSIS would use information obtained under torture. Testifying on the same committee on April 2, 2009, Jim Judd said O’Brian would be recanting his statement in a letter.