Tracking terrorists in Brazil

A close look at the CSE slides shown by the Brazilian TV show Fantastico yesterday reveals that one of the nine "DNR selectors", i.e., telephone numbers, targeted by CSE was 55 61 3319 5509.



Could this be the phone number of the secret nuclear weapons project at the Brazilian Ministry of Mines and Energy?

No, it's worse than that! It's the number of the MME's Department of Renewable Fuels!

Here it is linked red-handed to the International Energy Agency's Bioenergy Task 38 on Greenhouse Gas Balances of Biomass and Bioenergy Systems.

And here it is again, insinuating itself into the ECOWAS Observatory for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency.

Not suspicious enough for you?

Consider this: One of the phone calls tracked by CSE went to the headquarters of OLADE, the Latin American Energy Organization, in Quito, Ecuador.



Judging from this slide, the call went to a number ending in 1672, i.e., to the OLADE Department of Studies and Projects -- which just happens to host (among other staff members) the organization's Sustainable Energy Development and Energy Efficiency Coordinator!

How is a mild-mannered Middle Power like Canada supposed to pursue its top foreign policy priority -- becoming a Petro-Superpower -- when crazies like the Brazilians are out there yammering about greenhouse gases and alternative fuels?

Clearly, this is the kind of thing the Harper government needs to stay on top of.

So...

Economic espionage -- or counter-terrorism?

You decide.

[Update 8 October 2013: More information on the actual targets of the operation, which apparently covered more than just the Renewable Fuels department. According to Glenn Greenwald, interviewed on CBC Radio's As It Happens on 7 October, "we know which offices they targeted, and those offices have to do with regulating and helping Brazilian industry to explore mining and the mineral industry..."]

[Update 9 October 2013: Not directly related, but illustrative of the government's keenness to provide at least some forms of intelligence support to Canadan resource companies: Martin Lukacs & Tim Groves, "Canadian spies met with energy firms, documents reveal," Guardian, 9 October 2013.]

[Update 10 October 2013: Jason Fekete, "Spy agency meets regularly with energy firms, says its foreign intelligence follows Canadian law," Postmedia News, 9 October 2013.]