U.S. INTENSIFIES CANADA WATCH

U.S. surveillance of the B.C.-Washington border will tighten this week with
the addition of U.S. helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft, and two marine
units scanning nearly 400 kilometres into B.C.

Its reach will extend beyond Williams Lake in the Central Interior to
Creston in the Kootenays, and the northwest coast of Vancouver Island.

The initiative is part of America's first northern border branch of air and
marine operations and is intended to target terrorism and the cross-border
flow of weapons, drugs and illegal migrants.

"Intelligence indicates there is a threat up there (in Canada) that needs
to be responded to, so we're providing the air and marine capability to
respond to that, in support of both U.S. and Canadian authorities," Gary
Bracken, communications director for the U.S. Office of Air and Marine
Operations, said Tuesday from Washington, D.C.

Based at Bellingham airport, the unit will be the first of five northern
border branches that will be established between the states of Washington
and New York during the next few years.

Bracken said the unit in Washington state will eventually include about 55
staff and will conduct surveillance in a 400-kilometre radius of
Bellingham, which is about 25 kilometres south of the Canada-U.S. border.

Until it becomes fully operational and acquires its own equipment, Bracken
said it will share a Black Hawk helicopter and some of its other equipment
with similar units on the U.S. southern border. An official with U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement said there is nothing in the plan for
weapons on the Black Hawk, which is described by the U.S. army as a utility
tactical transport helicopter.

The air and marine unit will work closely with border patrol and other
agencies to provide support and reinforcement, but will also act as an
investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We're kind of like an extra cop on the beat, if you will," Bracken said.

"We're providing support across a wide range of agencies and using our
expertise that we've built on the southern border and we're bringing that
capability to the northern border."

Bracken said the 400-kilometre radius from Bellingham is a rough guideline
of how far the aircraft and boats might venture during a surveillance or
investigative mission. A second northern border air and marine unit is
scheduled to begin operations in October in Plattsburgh, New York and
similar units will eventually be established on the border in Montana,
North Dakota and Michigan.

Bracken said the Washington-B.C. border was chosen to be first for a
variety of reasons, including the 1999 arrest of Ahmed Ressam, a terrorist
and explosives smuggler who was caught crossing into the U.S. on a ferry
from Victoria to Port Angeles.

Ressam was convicted in 2001 of nine charges connected to a bomb plot
possibly aimed at Los Angeles International Airport. The plot caused the
cancellation of Seattle's millennium celebrations.

In addition to the Ressam case, Bracken said "activity with B.C. bud
(marijuana)" illegal migrants, and the flow of money and weapons into
Canada are indications of security threats.

Joe Giuliano, assistant chief of border patrol operations based in Blaine,
Wash., noted there has been an air operations unit working in northern
Washington for about 30 years, and the border patrol has two of its own
boats in coastal waters.