WASHINGTON (Sputnik) — Toronto’s Globe and Mail reported last week that Canada’s intelligence chief Michael Doucet said Ottawa may have to rethink how it provides intelligence to the United States if Trump makes good on his vow to torture prisoners.
“Any such crack in the edifice of intelligence sharing with key allies would probably damage US security… Is this a big deal? Potentially yes, a very big deal,” Schirach said, pointing out that Canada was a founding member of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing alliance with the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand.
And now, he argued, other members of the alliance may refuse to continue their decades-long cooperation with Washington.
During the presidential campaign, victorious Republican candidate Donald Trump's casual remarks about the legitimacy of extreme interrogation techniques, described by many analysts as torture has caused potentially serious trouble with Canada, an old and trusted US ally, Schirach recalled.
“Obviously we do not know much about the systems and operational effectiveness of FVEY, this multinational intelligence sharing network. Still, it is reasonable to assume that this cooperation is very useful and that it benefits all participants,” he remarked.
The United States needed its intelligence alliances with other major nations more than ever because of the emergence of new and more sophisticated security threats originating from unfriendly governments, and from a multitude of hostile non state actors, Schirach explained.
“The loss of a key instrument for intra-Western intelligence sharing and cooperation would amount to a huge blow, as it would hamper US ability to identify and hopefully prevent possible new terror attacks and other security threats,” he concluded.
Paolo von Schirach is President of The Global Policy Institute, and Professor of International Affairs at BAU International University, Washington, DC. He is also Editor of the Schirach Report.
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