Ben Makuch
Vice: March 12, 2015

[…]
According to the Daily Sabah, Turkish authorities arrested the agent after they helped three British girls recently join the ranks of the Islamic State. Speaking to Turkish television on the flow of foreign fighters into Syria and Iraq from the Turkish border, Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu accused a member of a foreign intelligence service of helping to ferry those British girls into the warzones of northern Syria.

“We were informed by Britain about three girls who left to join ISIS a few days after they departed for Turkey,” said Çavuşoğlu during the interview. “This person was working for the intelligence service of a country participating in the coalition against ISIS. This country is not the United States or a member of the European Union. I told this to the British foreign secretary and he replied ‘as usual.”

The Daily Sabah reports that several Turkish media outlets claim that the individual currently in detention is a Canadian, while it is known that the current coalition against ISIS includes Canada, Australia, and other Arab countries within the region.

A spokesperson for the Minister of Public Safety said the department is “aware of these reports,” but added “(w)e do not comment on operational matters of national security.”

The report comes on the heels of expanded foreign spying powers for the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) and Bill C-51 that promises to bolster the legal capabilities of law enforcement agencies to surveil and arrest terrorist threats in Canada.

(read the full article at Vice)

UPDATE: While the government hasn’t confirmed specifics, they are willing to say that the individual is neither Canadian nor a Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS) spy. Though when asked if CSIS were operating in countries like Turkey, Minister of Public Safety Steven Blaney exclusively told VICE Canada, “I believe CSIS is operating in a region where there is potential high-risk travellers.”

It’s well known that the corridor between Turkey and Syria is the major trafficking point for foreign fighters joining up with ISIS.

One alleged Canadian fighter told VICE in June that the Turkish border with Syria is where foreigners join the militant organization in its fight against Syrian, Iraqi, and Kurdish forces.

While declining to comment on specifics due to operational security, Blaney maintains that any activities CSIS is engaged in “have been conducted respecting Canadian laws.”

(full update at Vice)

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