[R-G] B.C. pipeline explosion likely terrorism: ex-CSIS official

[tchilds at resist.ca]

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/british-columbia/story/2008/10/15/bc-explosion-pipeline-terrorism.html

B.C. pipeline explosion likely terrorism: ex-CSIS official
Last Updated: Wednesday, October 15, 2008 | 5:27 PM ET
CBC News
Former CSIS strategist David Harris says a weekend explosion near the town
of Dawson Creek in northeastern B.C. fits the description of terrorism,
despite police statements to the contrary.

Sometime overnight Saturday, someone detonated a large explosion next to
the sour gas pipeline about 50 kilometres from the B.C.-Alberta border.

The blast did not rupture the pipeline, but blew a 1.8-metre crater in the
ground, which was discovered by a hunter on Sunday.

The previous week, suspicious handwritten letters arrived at newspapers
and a TV station in Dawson Creek calling EnCana Corp. and other energy
companies "terrorists" for expanding "deadly" gas wells and giving the
firms a deadline to shut down operations, including the gas plant served
by the pipeline.

RCMP spokesman Sgt. Tim Shields called the blast a serious criminal matter
but he stopped short of calling the explosion terrorism.

"It was set there 
 with the intent to blow up that pipeline. That's a
threat to the infrastructure of this province," said Shields. "We're not
categorizing this as terrorism."

Police view disputed

But Harris, former chief of strategic planning for the Canadian Security
Intelligence Service and now a private security expert, thinks that's
exactly what the explosion was.

"How on earth anyone could declare this was not terrorism at this early
stage is beyond me. Terrorism is associated with an attempt by threat or
actual violence 
 to change policy," Harris said.

Police would not comment on whether the blast had any connection to the
recent theft of a huge cache of dynamite from a work site in nearby
Chetwynd in July.

The pipeline is owned by EnCana and carries sour gas to the Steep Rock gas
plant, police said. Sour gas is a form of natural gas that contains
hydrogen sulphide, a toxic substance that is removed through a treatment
process at the plant.

The RCMP investigation is being conducted by members from the force's
explosives disposal unit, the forensic identification section and the
integrated national security enforcement team.