Nothing illegal about spying on Brazil, agency chief says

The head of Canada’s electronic eavesdropping agency, which is alleged to have spied on Brazil, says all foreign-intelligence gathering activities carried out by the Communications Security Establishment are conducted within the law laid down by this country’s Parliament.

John Forster, chief of the Communications Security Establishment Canada (CSEC), was speaking for the first time since a Brazilian TV station alleged that the agency carried out industrial espionage against Brazil’s government.

This is based on leaked documents first obtained by former U.S. National Security Agency contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden.

“Our first mandate, our foreign signals intelligence role, is certainly being talked about – a lot – in the media right now,” Mr. Forster told a conference on technology and government in Ottawa Wednesday.

“Because of the classified nature of our work, I am sure you can appreciate that I can’t say much. [But] everything that CSE does in terms of foreign intelligence follows Canadian law,” he said.

On Oct. 7, the Brazilian news program Fantastico made public documents from the trove acquired by Mr. Snowden. They included a slide presentation that appears to show CSEC was surveying the telecommunications of the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy – a revelation that has sparked outrage.

Mr. Forster made efforts to assure the crowd at the Government Technology Exhibition and Conference that a watchdog reviews all CSEC activity.

“Everything we do, and I mean everything we do, is reviewed by an independent CSE Commissioner. He and his office have full access to all records, systems and staff to ensure that we follow all Canadian laws, and that we respect Canadians’ privacy.”

The CSEC chief, like the Harper government has in recent days, took pains to assure the crowd that no Canadians were targeted. He did not address the question of why the Canadian government is spying on a western ally.

“I can tell you that we do not target Canadians at home or abroad in our foreign intelligence activities, nor do we target anyone in Canada. In fact, it’s prohibited by law. Protecting the privacy of Canadians is our most important principle.”

Coincidentally, Mr. Forster devoted part of his speech to the risks that foreign powers may be spying on Canada.

“More than 100 countries possess the human technology and financial resources to conduct cyber operations on a persistent basis to collect intelligence, disrupt, or in some cases damage, IT infrastructure,” he told the audience.