There were no terrorists in Salem, either

The witch-hunt continues...

There are gaping holes in Canada's national security net, Auditor-General Sheila Fraser says in a blistering report to Parliament on how the government spent $7.7-billion to beef up security after the 9/11 terrorist attacks... Ms. Fraser estimates, for example, that as many as 4,500 people with criminal links may be working at five major Canadian airports. Sixteen businesses associated with biker gangs, drug dealers and other crime organizations are operating at those airports, she says.... Watch lists used by front-line border officials to identify terrorist suspects are in disarray and do not contain current data on the 25,000 Canadian passports that are lost or stolen each year or people who are wanted on 162,000 outstanding Canada-wide arrest warrants. The names of thousands of international terrorism suspects are not entered on the watch lists or in other security-screening data bases for months at a time...

Warren's right! This woman's outta control! Why, just listen to the headline-hungry, self-mandating rhetoric!

"The government as a whole did not adequately assess intelligence lessons learned from critical incidents such as Sept. 11 or develop and follow up on improvement programs," her report added.

Over the top, or what! And where'd she get this?

In a startling admission, Fraser said Transport Canada does not necessarily consider drug smuggling or "other criminal activity" grounds for denying clearance.

Or this?

There were no updates to the immigration department's watch list from June to November, 2001. When the department finally updated its records, more than 1,500 names were added. "Those left off the list included two of the Sept. 11 hijackers whom U.S. authorities had identified in August, 2001."

She's making it up! It's part of her publicity-loving, Ken Starr-of-the-north witch-hunt tactics! Why we haven't seen this sort of stuff since Salem! If I may quote from The Crucible... UPDATE: Reached for comment, former Prime Minister Jean Chretien added: "For me, it's an administrative problem. That's nothing new. It's a problem of accounting. But I've said 300 times, if someone blows something up, put them in jail. But I'm not for finding fault." UPPERDATE: More hysteria from The Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail, John Ivison, Don Martin ("For $7.7 billion, Canadians have bought themselves a security perimeter that can be breached using stolen passports or licence plates by known terrorists or criminals as they pass through disconnected border checkpoints or airports serviced by known criminal associates.... If a security fence is only as strong as its weakest link, Canada's protected by a chain of fools."), and that right-wing attack dog Susan Riley:
"Auditor General Sheila Fraser's latest report on almost comical lapses in national security in the wake of Sept. 11 is her most worrying so far -- and not only, or even primarily, for the Martin Liberals. Innocent commuters, frequent flyers -- anyone who lives in a major urban centre is the real potential victim here." Oh come on. It's not like we're a target or anything. Just because Richard Clarke says the risk of a major terror attack is growing and that "Canada is as likely to be hit as anyplace else." Just because "a new al-Qaeda manual posted on the Internet is calling for terrorist attacks against Canadians, and specifies that businessmen, politicians, scientists, soldiers and tourists should be targeted." Just because the former head of the CIA warns that "the threat of a major terrorist attack on Canadian soil could increase dramatically when Prime Minister Paul Martin calls a federal election" (another reason to hold off on dropping the writ -- or would that mean the terrorists had won?). But this is all fear-mongering, the stuff of right-wing Republican wannabes. People like... Herb Gray (Ex-deputy PM attacks Canada for weak security controls):

He [said] the federal government in Canada had failed to take charge of many security aspects of Canada's international waterways. In 1998, he said, his commission "recognized the potential transboundary and domestic impacts of a dam or bridge failure on the border, for whatever reason." However, none of the structures involving boundary waters in Canada under which his commission had responsibility were subject to Canadian federal government safety inspections.

People like... the Senate Committee on National Security and Defence (Report: Canada unprepared for emergencies):

The main federal agency charged with emergency preparedness is unprepared for emergencies, a Senate committee report concludes. On top of that, Health Canada has stashed emergency supplies across the country, but won't tell municipal officials where they are. They even moved one stash when a city disaster official found it.

Why are these people so paranoid? Why won't they just trust the government to look after them?