The SIS is attempting to save face (and get in a final smear) over Ahmed Zaoui by claiming that he has since been "more candid in his disclosures" and
offered new information that he had not previously disclosed, even to the authorities that decided his refugee status.Reading their final decision [PDF] there are also repeated mention of Zaoui now explaining "for the first time" about his associations with his former colleagues in the FIS who moved to the GIA. The implication here is that Zaoui had deliberately withheld this information, and that this is supsicious. But on Checkpoint tonight, Zaoui's lawyer Deborah Manning provided the real answer: the SIS had never asked. They ruined a man's life for five years on the basis of his past associations, and never bothered to ask him about them. The information was only revealed when Zaoui was asked questions about classified information that had previously been kept secret and which he had no idea was even relevant.
So, the SIS could basically have resolved all this easily, and found out that Zaoui had political differences with his former associates, if they'd only bothered to ask. Instead, they were so obsessed with secrecy that they felt they couldn't even do that, in case it gave anythign away. They truly are the keystone spies.
