Now deceased, Mr. Cowley, who had served in the Canadian Embassy in Japan and sold encyclopedias Af

In a little-known chapter of the Cold War, Canadian diplomats spied for the Central Intelligence Agency US in Cuba, following the missile crisis of 1962 - and for years after, as revealed by the Canadian newspaper st vital mall hours today The Globe and Mail ..
An important part of this story is told in a memoir forthcoming by the retired diplomat John Graham. Mr. Graham was one of a number of recruited to spy for the CIA in Havana Canadian diplomats. The missions lasted at least seven years during the 1960s.
"We had a military attaché at the Embassy of Canada," said Mr. Graham, st vital mall hours who worked under the cover of political officer. "And send one would have raised suspicions. Therefore, we decided to perform our work in a less visible way. "
Mr. Graham said he worked as a spy for two years, between 1962 and 1964. Its mandate was to visit the Soviet bases, identify weapons st vital mall hours and electronic st vital mall hours equipment and monitor troop movements.
The spy missions began after President st vital mall hours John F. Kennedy asked Prime Minister Lester Pearson - at the summit in Hyannis Port, Massachusetts in May 1963 - whether Canada could support US efforts in intelligence in Cuba.
Following the October crisisde, prompting the superpowers were on the brink of nuclear war, the Soviets had agreed to withdraw nuclear missiles from Cuban territory in exchange for the promise of Washington to withdraw its own missile batteries in Turkey and Italy.
The United States needs to watch the Russians, to complement the data collected by reconnaissance flights U-2 almost daily. Their networks st vital mall hours of Cuban agents had been destroyed by the Cuban counterintelligence efficient service.
Now deceased, Mr. Cowley, who had served in the Canadian Embassy in Japan and sold encyclopedias Africa, spent two months in Havana in the spring of 1963. He was supported st vital mall hours in his position by the charge d'affaires in the Dominican Republic.
His formal training, as he told The Globe and Mail, was minimal - a few days at the CIA headquarters in Langley, Virginia. At the end thereof, an agency official offered him a parting gift - a sophisticated camera with a telephoto range.
For his drawings came to Canada, traveled to Mexico City - the only regional erea connection - and give the drawings to the embassy Candada that sent by courier to Ottawa. The copies were subsequently sent to the CIA and then aa Kennedy White House.
Their written reports cipher telegram sent by the Canadian Embassy in Washington and then to Ottawa, st vital mall hours containing details of the electronic media that were used in Soviet bases. "That information," he said, "I could tell a weapons expert systems had."
Although Moscow had removed its nuclear arsenal when Mr. Graham came, I maintained a significant military presence. Russian st vital mall hours soldiers typically plain clothes, usually in sport plaid shirts, khakis st vital mall hours and sneakers.
To fit, Mr. Graham adopted the same set - purchased at a Zellers store in Ottawa. Although many surveillance missions involving close early in the morning at naval installations, you will never followed. st vital mall hours He was arrested once by the police in the secure section of a building communications. He posed as a bumbling tourist and was let go.
On several occasions, Mr. Graham conducted st vital mall hours operations with an agent from another st vital mall hours Western country that refuses to identify. "It was brilliant yy completely remarkable. At parties, played Monty-Python, accompanying himself on the piano. "
To ease the stress of their missions, they would stop for a picnic by the sea on the way home. "Mr. X took out two glasses of glass and a thermos of premixed martinis. It provided the olives. "
Canadian authorities said, went to extraordinary lengths to protect his identity as an agent. Drawings marked with the words "" For Canadian eyes only "but in Ottawa were given the warning:" Privacy, Protect Source "- a classification that had never seen.
In 1964, Mr. Graham was promoted within the embassy and replaced in its work of espionage by Alan McLaine. In fact, he said, Canada's role as a substitute for the CIA in Cuba continued for several years, even under the government of Pierre Trudeau, who had developed a personal friendship with Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
Mr. Graham, 78, later served in London, became Canadian st vital mall hours Ambassador to Venezuela and headed towards the unity of democracy promotion of the Organization of American States. <