Police investigating after Bank St. offices of U.S. Defense Department agency ransacked and torched

The U.S. State Department is investigating whether national security was threatened after someone broke into a secure American military procurement agency on Bank St. last week and ransacked offices before torching the place.

The RCMP and Ottawa police are also investigating the Sept. 15 arson at 275 Bank St.

"Whenever something like this happens it falls into the general realm of a security matter," U.S. Embassy spokeswoman Lynda Cheatham said.

Someone broke into the secure building -- only accessible after-hours with a swipe card -- and set five fires on the second and fourth floors. Locked cabinets and drawers were pried open, employees said.

The first and third floors, which house the Bangladesh High Commission and Gold Key Management, were untouched.


A high-ranking police officer speculated a possible motive could have been to embarrass the U.S. and Canadian governments on the eve of elections in both countries by exposing their lax security.

It was news to the building's landlord that the entire second floor was home to a satellite office of the U.S. Defense Contract Management Agency, a wing of the Department of Defense that handles $90 billion in military contracts worldwide.

"I'm not sure who's in there or what they're doing," Gold Key Management president Luigi Caparelli said.

The Ottawa police file said there was a rumour a U.S. intelligence agency was working out of the building.

But University of Ottawa professor Wesley Wark, a national security expert, says it looks more like commercial espionage. Competing bids, contracts and specifications could be stolen by companies looking for the inside line on the lucrative deals, Wark said.

The only classified documents DCMA Americas' offices would contain would be information about the purchase of sensitive military materials, Wark said.

The U.S. State Department would be part of the investigation to make sure certain information didn't get out, he said.

"There would be concern of commercial espionage."

A security representative with the U.S. State Department is working with police on the case, Cheatham said.

The DCMA is responsible for managing the contracts for everything the U.S. military needs, from rifles to tanks to missiles.

DCMA Americas has offices in countries all over the world, including one in London, Ont. Canada is one of America's main suppliers of military goods.

ALLOWED BACK

Staff who work on the second floor of the 40,000-sq.-ft. building were allowed back in the day after the fire, but people who work on the other floors had to wait more than a week to get back in and assess the damage.

The fourth floor houses the Canadian Co-operative Association, a non-governmental organization which represents the co-operatives and credit unions of Canada.

The crime has left DCMA staff shaken, said U.S. military Capt. Eric Wilson, who works in the Ottawa office.

"We're feeling violated," he said.

"It's like someone breaking into your home away from home."

DCMA staff have been moved to a temporary location. It's unknown when they'll be allowed back to 275 Bank St., Wilson said.

He declined to comment on whether any confidential documents or computers were stolen.

"All I know is that there are a lot of police agencies working together," he said.

Wilson referred calls to the agency's public affairs office, but no one returned calls. Calls to the U.S. Department of Defense and the CIA were not returned.

RCMP are still standing guard at the building's entrances, which is protocol, under the Geneva Convention, when a crime occurs at a building that houses a foreign agency, said RCMP spokesman Corp. J.J. Hainey.

MOUNTIES ASSISTING

He said the Mounties are assisting the Ottawa police in the investigation, but couldn't confirm which unit is handling the case. Ottawa police say the Mounties aren't involved with the arson investigation.

Ottawa police have a video surveillance photo of the suspect, but arson investigators aren't releasing it. They didn't return calls for an interview.

Caparelli, who estimates the fire caused $6 million in damage, said crews have been cleaning up and securing the building. He said lots of law-enforcement types have been hanging around.

Gold Key employs commissionaires as security, but each tenant has the option of increasing their own security.

Ottawa police said it was leased by the Canadian Department of Foreign Affairs, who then leased it to the U.S. Embassy, who then leased it to the DCMA.

Caparelli, who hasn't received the fire marshal's report yet, found the break-in and arson "very strange."

"There's only documents in all those offices," he said.

"Nobody looking for a few bucks is going to break into an office building."

Fire investigators have been tight-lipped about the case.