A Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) agent who trafficked three British teens to Islamic State (IS) militants could be in Canada following his release from a Turkish prison..The federal government will neither confirm nor deny Mohammed al-Rashed, a human smuggler for the IS in Syria, has relocated to Canada..Rashed had been in a Turkish prison since 2015 when he was arrested on human smuggling and terrorism charges.. CSIS Headquarters .A government source told the Globe and Mail Turkey did not want Rashed, and the two options for deportation were Canada or Syria..If Rashed went to Syria, he would face the death penalty for working with the IS and foreign powers during the Syrian Civil War..CSIS recruited Rashed in 2013 and after his 2015 arrest in Turkey. Canada promised Rashed political asylum after serving his time in the Turkish prison, according to the source..Marco Mendicino, Public Safety minister, would not comment on the whereabouts of Rashed and his asylum claim..“For obvious reasons, we don’t want elected officials commenting on operations. I would leave it at that. Operational questions are best put to the service,” said Mendicino on Thursday. .Brandon Champagne, CSIS spokesperson, did not confirm any details about Rashed..“As you can expect, CSIS cannot comment on investigations, methodologies, or activities in order to maintain the integrity of operations,” said Champagne. .“There are important limits to what CSIS can confirm or deny given the need to protect sensitive techniques, methods, and sources of intelligence.”.READ MORE Book claims Canada's spy agency smuggled British teens to be Islamic State brides, and UK covered it up.Richard Kerbaj, the author of The Secret History of the Five Eyes, told Rashed’s story in the book which included smuggling three British teenage girls from London into Syria to become IS brides..The girls were 15 and 16 years old..According to Kerbaj’s book, CSIS did nothing when they found out about the human trafficking of the teenagers into Syria and provided no information to the London Metropolitan (LM) police during an international search for the girls.. Syrian Civil War .“Instead of providing that information immediately to the British counterterrorism authorities, they just sat on it,” said Kerbaj..Only after Rashed was taken into custody by Turkish authorities did CSIS meet with the counterterrorism unit in LM police to admit their role in the human trafficking..CSIS would not comment on Kerbaj’s book, as they do not comment on “specifics of CSIS investigations, operational interests, methodologies, or activities.”.In August, when the book’s human smuggling allegations were in the British newspapers, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau responded by defending CSIS..“The fight against terrorism requires our intelligence services to continue to be flexible and to be creative in their approaches,” said Trudeau..READ MORE Trudeau responds to allegations Canada smuggled British teens to become Islamic State brides.Two of the teenage girls smuggled by the CSIS agent are dead and the one survivor is in a refugee camp in northern Syria..She wants to return to the United Kingdom, but her UK citizenship was stripped because of her involvement with IS.
