ALIEN AGENTS PROWL AMONG US TO THWART TRAFFICKERS AND TERRORISTS

New York Police Department officers are coming to Toronto; the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Agency has offices in Vancouver and Ottawa; U.S. Customs
officers are prowling the ports of Montreal and Halifax; and FBI agents are
said to be all over the place while CIA spooks could be anywhere in the
country.

And it's not all about Sept. 11.

Two years ago, the CIA declared Canada "a major marijuana exporting nation."
Sections of the border were declared "high intensity drug trafficking areas"
and placed under the jurisdiction of the U.S. Office of National Drug
Control Policy, which co-ordinates the DEA, local enforcement and U.S.
Customs.

The number of U.S. law enforcement and intelligence agents operating in
Canada has risen steadily since. More are on the way.

Ten Integrated Border Enforcement Teams (IBETs), composed of law enforcement
agencies from both sides of the border, have been created since December.
Two weeks ago, as U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft looked on, Canada's
Solicitor-General Lawrence MacAulay announced five new IBET units, four of
which will be stationed in Quebec. "IBET's are the future of cross-border
law enforcement co-operation," he said.

You bet.

Ashcroft praised Canada for its post Sept. 11 co-operation, but cautions
much more needs to be done. One major concern he cited is Canada's weird
law that requires U.S. police officers to check their guns at the border
when entering the country. American law officials "need a seamless border"
to facilitate entry into Canada in hot pursuit of terrorists and drug
traffickers.

"We should be concerned about all this," says B.C. lawyer-activist John
Conroy. "I don't know the actual numbers, but I understand there are
already quite a few DEA and undoubtedly some FBI and CIA already here."

And Canadian cops, he adds, support these incursions. For the money.

"Our cops," he said,"welcome the U.S. ability to finance various 'fun' -
from a police perspective - projects that otherwise wouldn't be funded.
There are more of them and they have way more money."

Twenty-year-old Mohamed Mansour Jabarah is one recent example of renewed
cross-border co-operation. A Kuwait-born Canadian, Mansour was recently
handed over to U.S. state department officials by CSIS, Canada's own spy
agency, without warrant, charge or accusation.

"We facilitated his transfer into U.S. hands," explained CSIS spokesman Phil
Gibson. "Draw your own conclusions."

Finding out how many U.S. law enforcement personnel are in this country,
with or without Canadian approval is difficult. Those who know aren't
saying and prying straight answers from the U.S. intelligence community
gives new meaning to the word "futility."

Sweet-voiced Jenny at the CIA switchboard - "Sorry, no last names, how may I
help you?" - transfers my call to media relations officer Paul "last name,
N-o-w-a-c-k" who, as expected, "can't comment on anything of that nature."

DEA spokesperson Tom Hinojosa was no less helpful.

"Normally, for security and operational reasons," he said,"we don't put out
officer strength in any certain area, but we presently have 78 offices in 56
countries. We're just not used to thinking of Canada as a foreign country."

Pressed to discuss how many U.S. Customs agents are deployed in Canada,
information officer Jim Michie, drawls in his flawless Tommy Lee Jones:
"Sir, I don't rightly know for a certainty that that is the case...you tell
me? How many officers do you think we have in your country?"

As the line between the wars on drugs and terrorism continue to blur, so do
boundaries.

Recently, the NYPD announced it would assign detectives to Toronto to weed
out potential terrorists. Sept. 11 notwithstanding, the spectre of New
York's finest stepping so far from their jurisdiction is troubling.

"There need to be very strict guidelines about just what these NYPD
officials can and cannot do," cautions Guy Caron, spokesperson for the
Council of Canadians. "Co-operation is one thing, but if they're here to
tell Toronto officers that they should do this or that because U.S.
interests are at stake, we can't accept that."

How should concerned Canadians respond to this surreptitious but certain
invasion of U.S. lawmen?

"Other than letters and calls of protest," suggests criminology professor
Neil Boyd of Simon Fraser University, "probably not a lot can be done. Civil
disobedience is, I suppose, one possibility."

Another possibility is to follow the advice of federal Marijuana Party
leader Marc-Boris St-Maurice. No stranger to the often-times strange
workings of police state mentality, Boris favours our traditional "polite
Canadian" approach:

"So long as they check their guns, egos and stupid drug policies at the
border," he said, "treat 'em as any other American tourist and charge them
double."