DND BOTCHED DRUG PROBE AT SPY BASE, MEMO CONFIRMS

PCL Constructors Inc. / Canadian Forces Station Leitrim, south of Ottawa,
handles some of Canada's most sensitive national security work. Last fall's
probe was conducted after an informant told military police of drug use by
staff at the site.

Newly obtained government documents confirm that military police botched a
drug investigation involving staff at one of Canada's top-secret spy bases
outside Ottawa, CTV News reported last night.

The internal Defence Department documents lend credence to a story
initially aired last November by the network. At the time, CTV reported the
1995-96 military probe of alleged drug use at the base was badly mishandled
and, as a result, no charges were laid and there were no reprimands.

The listening post at Canadian Forces Station Leitrim just south of Ottawa
handles some of the most sensitive national security work in the country's
military. It is believed that dozens of communications personnel eavesdrop
on everything from cell-phone calls made by drug dealers to coded messages
from unfriendly foreign governments.

In early November, CTV reported the probe was sparked after an informant
told military police that drug use at the site, where employees have
top-secret clearances, had been going on for years. The drugs allegedly
being used were hashish and cocaine.

The suggestion that the military police raid on the base had been
mishandled caused a furore in the House of Commons, where Defence Minister
Art Eggleton insisted the drug investigation had been "thorough" and had
not been botched.

But now, through the Access to Information Act, CTV has obtained an
internal Defence Department memorandum dated several days after Mr.
Eggleton's public assurances.

The memo summarizes the findings of an internal departmental review that
was conducted "to identify what, if anything went wrong with the conduct of
the investigation into alleged drug usage" at the base.

Contrary to Mr. Eggleton's denial, the review found several serious
shortcomings in the drug probe. Among the main observations:

- - There may have been the "potential" of alleged drug users on the base
passing on "classified information" to the "criminal element," namely drug
traffickers.

- - Military police carried out no surveillance of alleged drug users or
traffickers.

- - Officers involved in the probe were inept at conducting interviews with
informants, meaning the subsequent interviews with alleged drug users "were
virtually non-productive."

- - Military police didn't call local police or other investigative agencies
within National Defence for help in this "sensitive and serious" probe. The
review concludes the drug probe should have been handed over to the
National Investigative Service, a special branch of the Defence Department.

Said the review: "Supervisors did not examine their resources and determine
that this type of investigation requires special handling and a great deal
of experience. Drug investigations have a history of blooming into major
cases. The sheer number of alleged users was a trigger that identified the
potential of a major case operation."

In hindsight, it would have clearly been better "to attack the problem
differently," said the review.

In its report last night, CTV said the internal review appears to show the
former commanding officer at the base wanted to get to the bottom of the
drug scandal but may have been hampered by unnamed "outside pressures."

The network interviewed Reform defence critic Art Hanger, a former police
officer who conducted drug investigations before becoming a politician. Mr.
Hanger said the newly released documents show Mr. Eggleton bungled the affair.

"The security of this country is in jeopardy and he blew it," said Mr.
Hanger, who is demanding an inquiry.

"What other word can you use but coverup? If there is outside interference
into an investigation ... then it's important to find out who did it and
why. Now it's up to the minister to clean it up, but I don't think he has
the will to do it."

Mr. Eggleton was not available to be interviewed for last night's report
because he was on vacation.

Copyright 1998 The Ottawa Citizen

Checked-by: Mike Gogulski