quote:The Toronto Sun
October 27, 2001 Saturday, Final Edition
BODY:
The conspiracy theory put forward by an accused fraud artist, who claims he knew in advance about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, was described by a Toronto judge yesterday as having "no air of reality."
Delmart Edward Vreeland, 37, who is fighting extradition to the U.S., says he had worked for the U.S. Navy on undercover drug investigations and was involved in spy missions to Russia. But Justice Archie Campbell wasn't buying Vreeland's story.
"There is no independent evidence to support his colossal allegations and the allegation of conspiracy on its face has no air of reality," said the judge.
Vreeland was arrested Dec. 6, 2000, in Canada for fraud-related charges. The next day he was arrested on an immigration warrant. On May 8 of this year, while still in custody, he was arrested again on a warrant for extradition to the U.S. on credit card fraud and breach of probation charges.
Then again, he's not totally down for the count...
quote:The Ottawa Sun
December 9, 2001 Sunday, Final Edition
HEADLINE: DIPLOMAT'S DEATH REMAINS UNSOLVED;
WHAT KILLED HIM: A THIEF, NATURAL CAUSES, OR CLOAK-AND-DAGGER?
BODY:
Russian and RCMP major crime investigators are probing the death of a young Canadian diplomat in Moscow -- a puzzling case with hints of foreign espionage, drug-assisted robbery and sealed government information.
Marc Bastien, a 34-year-old Ottawa computer analyst working for Foreign Affairs at Canada's embassy in Moscow, was found dead in his apartment a year ago. Russian police and Canadian officials initially reported that Bastien died of natural causes the morning of Dec. 12, 2000.
But the Sun has learned that investigators are exploring other explanations for the mysterious death of the vibrant, healthy Hull-born man.
A source close to the criminal investigation said police are hunting for a woman suspected of drugging Bastien in order to rob him. A combination of alcohol and a drug administered to him likely caused his heart to stop, the source said. A cleaning woman found his body lying on his bed.
But a jailed American who claims to be an ex-naval intelligence agent is spinning another story about the death. Part of his fantastical conspiracy theory is that Bastien had been working as an intelligence agent and was murdered because he knew too much. Delmart Vreeland, 35, has sworn information in a Toronto courtroom that suggests Bastien obtained highly sensitive information about terrorist plots -- including foreknowledge of attacks that took place Sept. 11 on U.S. targets.
A year after their son's death, Monique and Gaston Bastien don't know what to believe. They are still waiting for answers from officials.
This just gets dirtier by the minute...
quote:The Ottawa Sun
December 10, 2001 Monday, Final Edition
HEADLINE: 'I DON'T TRUST ANYONE';
SLAIN FOREIGN AFFAIRS WORKER EXPRESSED MISGIVINGS ABOUT POSTING
BODY:
IN THE weeks before his mysterious, sudden death, Marc Bastien told a close relative he felt he could trust no one.
"He didn't come out and say it, but I think he was starting to realize something was going on," said his uncle Denis Richard.
Bastien, a 34-year-old Ottawa computer systems specialist working for Foreign Affairs at Canada's embassy in Moscow, was found dead in his apartment almost a year ago. Russian police and Canadian officials reported that Bastien had died of natural causes the morning of Dec. 12, 2000, but the Sun has learned major crime investigators are exploring other explanations for the death. Richard said his nephew -- who was godfather to his own son -- usually kept quiet about details of his job, which he says involved dealing with high-security communications between foreign embassies. But before he departed for Moscow, Bastien told his uncle he was briefed by RCMP and told to "watch out for" three men.
SECOND THOUGHTS
Bastien did not say who the men were, or whether they were Russian, Canadian or other foreign nationals.
In one of his last e-mails, Bastien sounded as if he was having second thoughts about his Russia posting, Richard said.
"He said, 'It's different here, I don't trust anyone,' " he recalled.
Richard was also puzzled when an e-mail to Bastien containing a picture of his son and his report card grades went unanswered. It was highly unusual, given Bastien's close relationship with the boy.
"The more questions we have, the more confusing it gets," Richard said.
An official source close to the criminal investigation said police are hunting for a woman suspected of drugging Bastien in order to rob him, but relatives insist it would be out of character for him to bring a stranger home to his apartment. His parents question the robbery motive because all of Bastien's belongings were returned to Canada a month agao, including jewelry, a watch and his wallet with cash and credit cards intact.
'SET UP'
"I think he was set up," the uncle speculated. "Then it was that he knows too much, let's get rid of him."
Bastien's unexplained death has also been the subject of speculation by Delmart Vreeland, a jailed American who claims to be a former navy military intelligence agent.
He believes Bastien was murdered because he had obtained highly sensitive information about terrorist plots -- including information about planned attacks on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon and other sites, including Ottawa.
DFAIT has confirmed that two RCMP investigators travelled to Moscow this fall to make sure Russian police had conducted a "thorough, professional investigation."
An official cause of death has never been given to the family by the coroner's office, which is awaiting results of the criminal investigation.
Bastien's family has been told there were traces of clozapine in the body, a medication used to treat schizophrenia that can cause drowsiness.
quote:Toronto Star
January 21, 2002 Monday Ontario Edition
HEADLINE: Was embassy worker poisoned?
BODY:
A Quebec coroner's report suggests poisoning was behind the mysterious death 13 months ago of Marc Bastien, an employee at Canada's embassy in Moscow.
The report says Bastien, 34, died Dec. 12, 2000, after drinking a mixture of alcohol and clopazine, an anti-depressant used to treat schizophrenia. Initially, Canadian officials said the death was of natural causes.
Bastien had been drinking in Moscow bars and coroner Line Duchesne said a concentrated form of clopazine may have been slipped into his drink.
Bastien, who handled information systems at the embassy, was found dead the next morning in the bed of his Moscow apartment.
Duchesne said she agreed with RCMP and Moscow police in believing the computer specialist was the victim of a person - "maybe a woman" - who slipped a clopazine tablet in his drink.
Foreign Affairs spokesperson Reynald Doiron said late last week police continue to study the circumstances of Bastien's death. "There's still some information to be obtained. We may eventually find out the details that we're missing."
Monique Richard, Bastien's mother, dismissed the coroner's report as guesswork.
She said she and her husband Gaston Bastien had waited six months for the report and were disappointed: "It's full of hypotheses, possibilities and undecided elements. There's nothing official in it."
American Delmart Edward Vreeland, who is fighting extradition from Canada on fraud charges, says he tried to warn Canada's spy service of the Sept. 11 attacks. He claimed Bastien was murdered in Moscow.
[ 04-02-2002: Message edited by: grant ] |
elmart Edward "Mike" Vreeland, an American citizen whose claims to being a U.S. Naval Lieutenant assigned to the Office of Naval Intelligence (ONI) are being increasingly corroborated in open court, has been in a Canadian jail since December 6, 2000. On August 11 or 12 of 2001, the date is uncertain, after trying to verbally alert his Canadian jailers to the coming World Trade Center attacks, he wrote down key information and sealed it in an envelope which he then had placed in jailers' custody. This event is not disputed by Canadian authorities. The letter specifically listed a number of targets including The Sears Towers, The World Trade Center, The White House, The Pentagon, The World Bank, The Canadian parliament building in Ottawa and the Royal Bank in Toronto. 
'The greatest trick Satan played, was to make man think he didn't exist'