Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

‘Incredibly stupid’

by Aaron Wherry on Monday, September 19, 2011 8:45am - 13 Comments

CSIS officials both exonerate and ridicule Bob Dechert.

Senior CSIS and RCMP officers confirmed to CTV that the Chinese news agency functions as an intelligence arm of China. Officials say Rong was on their radar, but the Chinese news agency is involved in a different type of espionage than spying on political figures…

One senior security officer told CTV News that Dechert displayed a “colossal lack of judgment. He was incredibly stupid to get involved with her.” The official said Dechert should “have known better.”

Tags: Bob Dechert, China, csis, RCMP, Shi Rong, Xinhua

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Anonymous

Even more stupid is the prime minister who should know better and who should have removed Mr. Dechert from this position for the benefit of Mr. Dechert and his family, for the benefit of the relations between China and Canada and the relations between Canada and its allies.
Anonymous

Even more stupid is the prime minister who should know better and who should have removed Mr. Dechert from this position for the benefit of Mr. Dechert and his family, for the benefit of the relations between China and Canada and the relations between Canada and its allies.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4465WSJ36YDGXAJZUXDNIM64M4 Dan

I hadn’t thought that Mr. Dechert necessarily had to resign over this but this article has made me realize he needs to be moved to another department. How can you have an important political post in the Department of Foreign Affairs when our Security Intelligence Service publicly calls you “incredibly stupid?” He’s basically the office’s walking punch line at this point.

Anonymous

Why move him to another department? Once somebody is deemed to be stupid, maybe they should remain on the back bench so the damage they can do is limited.

Anonymous

Vote Conservative, we’re too stupid to be dangerous.
Anonymous

Vote Conservative, we’re too stupid to be dangerous.
Anonymous

Only for a while. He can have Maxime Bernier’s old seat.
Anonymous

Do they have anyone smarter to advance? If so, they need to improve their vetting process or relax the PMO’s control obsessions. They’ve been the government for how many years?

http://pulse.yahoo.com/_4465WSJ36YDGXAJZUXDNIM64M4 Dan

I hadn’t thought that Mr. Dechert necessarily had to resign over this but this article has made me realize he needs to be moved to another department. How can you have an important political post in the Department of Foreign Affairs when our Security Intelligence Service publicly calls you “incredibly stupid?” He’s basically the office’s walking punch line at this point.
Anonymous

What really surprises me is that China Daily appointed someone naive/stupid enough to get caught in all this. Their CPC is usually much better than our CPC at avoiding public displays of stupidity.
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_Z4UWLSSOOCOIUJ3IAC6OPVGREU d.

Don’t know why Fadden has nothing to say.

Harper has been wrong before (prorogation) and admitted it. He’ll be wrong again in 2020 (totally obsolete fighter-jets), and he’s wrong to keep Dechert now. This is not about handing over American submarine stats off Vancouver Island for sex, money, or blackmail.

It’s about compromise. I would like to think that Dechert was actually involved here with our security in smoking out Beijing’s intelligence/journalism compromise-framework itself: sending signals down the rat-holes and seeing what comes of it.

But the assessment of the one official would no doubt have covered that possibility.

And if that was one possibility, Beijing/’angry husband’ response was a possible response: pulling a reversal on the trick: ‘you smoke us out, we tattle; that’s what’s gonna happen’.
Anonymous

It’s one thing to be denounced as a clueless idiot by CSIS but it’s another thing altogether to be excused as a clueless idiot by your own party. But, sure enough, that’s what the Conservative line seems to be… Tim Powers was on CFRA a couple of hours ago assuring anyone who cared to listen that Dechert _couldn’t_ reveal any state secrets because he doesn’t know any.

I know you have to be shameless to run for political office but if you want to be a Harper Conservative, you also need to be completely devoid of self-respect.
Anonymous

The Canadian Keystone Kops Brigade is calling him stupid. Does that mean he’s stupid squared?