Canadian Media Diary

SALIM JIWA
Author of two major books on the Air India Bombing and the twin explosion at Tokyo Airport on June 23, 1985. Award winning senior investigative reporter. Distinguished 30-year career in Journalism. Eight citations for journalistic merit in the National Newspaper Awards, the Webster Awards, the British Columbia Newspaper Awards and the MacMillan Bloedel Journalism Awards. Among the awards are two citations by the Law Society of BC for excellence in legal writing. Specialized in national security issues, counter-terrorism, the post-9/11 geo-political scene and the Air India bombing which killed 329 passengers and crew. Travelled extensively to research and write reports that have won praise from colleagues in the media world. Newspaper articles published in major Canadian and foreign media. Numerous radio and television appearances. Currently working on my Master of Journalism thesis at Carleton. Carried out research studies in Journalism and Society, Gender and Media, Trans-Atlantic Security, Conflict reporting, Law and Journalism. Teaching assistant at Carleton fall 2007 to Prof. Christopher Dornan, Associate Dean and Director of Arthur Kroeger College of Public Affairs.

JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE
THE VANCOUVER PROVINCE, JUNE 1983 – January 31, 2009.

Covered numerous high-profile stories as a senior investigative reporter.

• Uncovered a Sikh separatist group in Vancouver which was intent on creating havoc in India. Traveled to New Delhi in early 1984 to continue the investigation of separatists and the turmoil caused by them prior to the invasion of the Golden Temple by Indian troops. Wrote a feature upon return which warned of grave danger to Mrs. Gandhi and the risk of increased conflict.
• Led the way nationally with ground breaking stories and investigative accounts on the worst case of aviation bombing in world history – 329 lives were tragically lost in the bombing of Air India Flight 182 in June 1985. A bomb boarded in Vancouver also killed two Japanese baggage handlers.
• Covered the 1989 extradition hearing of bomber Inderjit Singh Reyat at Bow Street Magistrate’s Court in London, England.
• Wrote ground breaking pieces for The Province and ABC News New York which put national and international spotlight on Millennium Bomber Ahmed Ressam. Investigative accounts (1999 to 2005) shed light on Ressam’s training at a Bin Laden camp in Afghanistan and the dangerous lessons he was taught. First to report that Ressam warned the U.S. two months prior to 9/11 that bin Laden was planning to attack several U.S cities.
• Covered the trial of Ahmed Ressam in Los Angeles and his conviction on charges of plotting terrorism. This effort won the Law Society of BC First Award for excellence in legal writing and was presented at the Jack Webster Awards.
• Hundreds of front line stories on crime and terrorism and the victims of crime and terrorism. Wrote articles for Toronto Star, National Post, India Today and The New York Post. Numerous radio and television appearances on issues dealing with the Air India bombing, national security and the U.S intervention in Iraq and its implications.

ABC NEWS I-Team Consultant

Was a consultant to ABC NEWS New York on issues of terrorism and national security. Covered US and Canada based terrorist groups and their infrastructure for the ABC NEWS I-Team. Investigations in Portland, San Francisco, San Jose, Phoenix, Seattle, Los Angeles, Sacramento, Toronto and Vancouver:

• Probed the recruitment of San Francisco area youth John Walker Lindh by the Taliban. Also uncovered his conversion to Islam by a fundamentalist sect known as The Tabligh Jamaat. (Oct. 2002)
• Investigated the activities of Aly Mohammed As Saud, convicted for his role in the East African Embassy bombings. Mohammed was a double-agent who pulled the wool over the eyes of his FBI handlers while actively pursuing terrorism for his real master, Osama bin Laden. Mohammed had close ties to Essam Hafez Marzouk who lived in Vancouver. Marzouk participated in the EA embassy bombings but fled from Canada leaving behind his wife and child. Marzouk is currently in a prison in Egypt. (July 2005)
• Investigated fund raising trips to the United States by Bin Laden’s second-in-command Ayman Zawaheri in Sacramento and San Jose. Assisted producers in securing on-camera interviews with those who hosted Zawaheri and gave him donations. The money was subsequently used to blow up the Egyptian embassy in Pakistan. (July 2005)
• Investigated a terrorist cell run from a prison in California by Sheikh Sudani. The team was intercepted before Jewish and US targets were attacked. Interviewed the Imam of the Folsom Prison and the Emir of the largest mosque in Sacramento. (August 2005.) Carried out investigations of several teams of terrorists in Portland and in Seattle. (2001-2003.)
• Visited flight training schools near Phoenix, Arizona to investigate how terrorists plotting the 9/11 disaster got into American Flight Schools and went undetected. Investigated suicide pilot Hani Hanjour and his associates. (Oct. 2001)
• In June 2006 interviewed Dr. Aly Hindi and other Muslim leaders and scholars and carried out an investigation of the Toronto 17. Worked in Toronto, Pickering, Mississauga and Scarborough to learn about the recruitment of the group of youngsters by a single fanatic who convinced them that Canadian troops were raping women in Afghanistan. He forced one youth to leave his home because his mother was a Palestinian Christian and his father a Palestinian Muslim. He falsely convinced the youth that it was illegal under Islam to live with a Christian mother.

1976 to 1983

• Covered municipal and provincial politics for The White Rock Sun. First full-time job for a Canadian newspaper.
• Covered crime and politics for The Columbian Daily Newspaper in New Westminster.
• Chief crime reporter for The Edmonton Sun.
• Researched and reported for the BCTV’s evening news program “The News Hour.”
• Worked for the Abbotsford News. Broke a story about Sikh militants establishing a consulate of the Republic of Khalistan in Vancouver. Introduced Babbar Khalsa leader Talwinder Singh Parmar to the world (Parmar would go on to execute the Air India bombing and was shot dead by Indian police after he fled Canada).
• Temporary two-month reporting job at the Vancouver Sun led to an offer of full time work. At the same time The Province offered a senior reporter’s job which was accepted over the Sun offer.

AWARDS

• 2004, Jack Webster Awards – (Law Society of BC Award for excellence in Legal Writing) - Finalist in Excellence in Legal Writing sponsored by the Law Society of British Columbia, for coverage of the trial of Vancouver youths Atif Rafay and his friend Sebastian Burns. The pair killed the Rafays and their autistic daughter with baseball bats in bizarre plot to cash in on life insurance money. The family had moved to Bellevue, near Seattle from Vancouver.
• 2003, Jack Webster Awards - Finalist in the Webster Awards along with other colleagues for news reporting on the sinking of a fishing vessel and the consequent loss of life.
• 2001, Jack Webster Awards (Law Society of BC Award For Excellence in Legal Writing) - First place award for extensive work, including trial coverage in Los Angeles, on “Millennium Bomber” Ahmed Ressam, a refugee in Canada who planned to blow up Los Angeles International Airport with a pair of suitcase bombs.
• 1995  Jack Webster Awards Finalist, along with two colleagues, for a series of investigative news stories on the murder of a family living in Seattle. (Atif Rafay and Sebastian Burns case).
• 1993, National Newspaper Awards Finalist in the special projects category for a 26-page feature on the psychology, activities, recidivism, and victimization patterns of sexual predators. Series written with a colleague after weeks of research, interviews with sex offenders in jails in the US and Canada, treatment providers, and victims.
• 1990, Aga Khan Council For BC Winner, award for high achievements in the category of “professional development.”
• 1987, BC Newspaper Awards Second place in news category for a series of news articles.
• 1986, MacMillan Bloedel First place in Hard News category for extensive and exclusive work on the Air India Bombing. MacMillan Bloedel was the only major journalism contest in B.C. at the time.
• 1979, MacMillan Bloedel Second Award for a series on juvenile crime while working for The Columbian.

BOOKS AND PUBLICATIONS

• MARGIN OF TERROR, KEY PORTER BOOKS, Toronto, 2006 – Second book on the Air India bombing, Margin of Terror, incisively exposed the truth behind Canada’s tragic failure to defuse a terrorist plot and the country’s failure to find final answers to what happened. The book has provided Air India Inquiry lawyers with a road-map of what went wrong. It highlights catastrophic intelligence failures and mistrust between CSIS and RCMP and the inability of national security guardians to work with ease within Canada’s ethnic communities because of a lack of cultural knowledge, linguistic abilities and the shortage of ethnic manpower.
• THE DEATH OF AIR INDIA FLIGHT 182, W.H. ALLEN, England, 1986 -Death Of Air India Flight 182 was the first book ever written on the subject. Although it was written just eight months after the disaster the facts of the case presented in it remain intact even today. The book provided journalists globally with their first real look into all the facts surrounding the bombing.

SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS, RADIO, TELEVISION

• 2003, Keynote Speaker at The Vancouver Club Speech centered on dire consequences for the Middle East and Western Allies, and the certainty that the United States would get bogged down in Iraq. Highlighted the potential for involvement by Al Qaeda. The gathering was attended by lawyers, scholars, and businessmen.
• 2005, Annual Conference of the BC Aviation Safety Council Provided an analysis of Canada’s failure to protect Air India Flight 182 despite the fact that CSIS was following suspects who subsequently blew up the jet. Speech also focused on Canada’s failure to recruit linguists and more ethnic police officers and security service employees. Additional topics included the dismal 20-year police investigation which produced the trial debacle in the Air India case and the acquittal of two suspects.
• 2006, Langara College Forum on Domestic Violence in the Indo-Canadian Community. Topics included media coverage of recent murders of Indo-Canadian women, cultural aspects which would cause this to happen, and advised younger generation that was part of the audience to work diligently to strive for a top-class education so that their lives can be better than those of women who face domestic abuse and violence including murder.

Radio, Television Appearances – Front Page Challenge, numerous CBC Television shows, CTV Television, ABC News Affiliate Station in Los Angeles, Fanny Keefer show on Rogers, The Standard, TV stations in India, CKNW Radio, Variety of CBC Radio shows including Sounds Like Canada and As it Happens. Regular guest on local TV stations to talk about the failure of U.S. intervention in Iraq and the significant alienation of the Islamic world because of a perception that the war on terror is a disguised attack on Islam.

LANGUAGES
Multiple European, African and Indian languages