DAMASCUS (Al Jazeera) – Mohammed al-Rashed, a spy working for Canadian espionage agency, smuggled British schoolgirl Shamima Begum and her two friends into Syria in 2015, according to a new book and British media reports that prompted demands for an official inquiry.
The Secret History of the Five Eyes by Richard Kerbaj, a former security correspondent of The Sunday Times, said that the United Kingdom later conspired with Canada to cover up the role of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) in the case of Begum, who married a Daesh terrorist.
A CSIS spokesperson told the BBC he could not “publicly comment on or confirm or deny the specifics of CSIS investigations, operational interests, methodologies or activities”.
Kerbaj’s book based on interviews with world leaders and more than 100 espionage officials was published on Wednesday.
Five Eyes is the intelligence-sharing alliance between the UK, the U.S., Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
In February 2019, Begum expressed her desire to return home, but the British government revoked her citizenship, leading to a legal battle for the restoration of her citizenship.
Begum, now 23 years old, remains detained in a camp in northern Syria.
The explosive book makes startling disclosures about the case, saying the Scotland Yard [London police] knew the teenage girls were trafficked into Syria by a smuggler who was working as a double agent for Daesh and the Canadian intelligence.
“Canada knew about the teenagers’ fate but kept silent while the Metropolitan Police ran a frantic, international search for the trio,” British newspaper The Times cited the book in a report on Tuesday.
“Canada privately admitted its involvement only when it feared being exposed, and then successfully asked the British to cover up its role,” it added.
In a report on Tuesday, BBC said it has seen files that show Rasheed claimed to have shared Begum’s passport details with Canada and smuggled her and other British nationals to fight for Daesh.
Rasheed, it added, provided information to a Canadian spy agency while smuggling people for Daesh.
The British broadcaster said it had received a dossier “that contains information gathered by law enforcement and intelligence, as well as material recovered from his hard drives, which provide extraordinary detail about how he operated.”