Pubdate: Wed, 18 Aug 2004 Source: Victoria Times-Colonist (CN BC) Copyright: 2004 Times Colonist Contact: http://www.canada.com/victoria/timescolonist/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/481 Author: Amy O'Brian / CanWest News Service 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. - --- MAP posted-by: Keith Brilhart