Toronto Star: Signs point to PMO in NAFTA leak

OTTAWA–Fingers are pointing at Conservatives close to Stephen Harper for leaking a diplomatic memo that badly embarrassed Barack Obama and put Canada's vital cross-border interests at risk. Multiple sources say the Canadian note questioning the Democrat frontrunner's public promise to reopen NAFTA was leaked from the Prime Minister's Office to a Republican contact before it made American headline news.

Their claims come days after an internal probe threw up its hands at finding the source. Contradicting Friday's inconclusive report, they claim the controversial memo was slipped to the son of Wisconsin Republican Congressman James Sensenbrenner. Frank Sensenbrenner is well connected to Harper's inner circle and, at Ottawa's insistence, was briefly on contract with Canada's Washington embassy to work on congressional relations.

Contacted yesterday morning, Frank Sensenbrenner did not seem surprised and agreed to an afternoon interview. But he did not call at the agreed time and did not respond to repeated emails.

A determined reader will find many of the dots – but not the conclusion – in the probe report strategically released on the cusp of a spring weekend. It confirms a few U.S. citizens could have been in contact with government officials who had the report, but finds no evidence of irregularities. Instead, the report makes a distracting fuss about clearing Ian Brodie, the Prime Minister's chief of staff, and Michael Wilson, Canada's ambassador in Washington, of revealing classified information that never carried that secretive label.

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http://www.thestar.com/News/USElection/article/431367

gee, a "report by Kevin Lynch, Canada's top civil servant and Harper's deputy minister" being a POS, who'd a thunk it.

In the Globe article, Ms. Coulliard claimed:
- her bedroom was bugged.

"Obviously shaken, Ms. Couillard said she recently learned her bed had been fitted with a microphone. Ms. Couillard said she had her house checked by experts after she came back from a supper with a friend and found that her alarm system had been disarmed. The experts, she said, found clear marks that a microphone had been tacked to her bed, and removed in a “classic clean-up operation.”"

- George Bush said something to Bernier about Ms. Coulliard.

"Recounting last year's meeting with George W. Bush, Ms. Couillard said the U.S. President had a few choice words for Mr. Bernier when he saw her.

“Well, well, well,” Mr. Bush said, “haven't you been keeping good company.”"

Then, some of Bernier's briefing notes disappear, to cause a scandal later.

A possibility that occurs to me, is that the Americans weren't happy with Harper's interference in their politics. Even though his interference was directed at the Democrats, the U.S. doesn't like foreigners messing with them. So perhaps certain agencies in the U.S. decided to send Harper a message by embarrassing him via a key minister.

Just idle speculation.