RCMP Insists Alliance With FBI Is 'Strong,' Describes Relationship In Terms Usually Reserved For Marriages In Trouble
The RCMP responded to a report that the FBI briefly suspended co-operation over a leaked memo by issuing a statement that relationships with allies remain "strong," a word chosen from a list that also included "fine," "normal," and "we're both just very busy right now."
Security experts note that intelligence partnerships are rarely described as strong unless somebody has recently stopped returning calls. The Five Eyes arrangement runs on a simple principle: five countries share everything, and four of them occasionally find out what the fifth already knew in March.
The memo in question concerned the 9/11 anniversary. The leak concerned the memo. The investigation concerns the leak. At this point roughly forty people are working full time on a document whose original purpose was to remind everyone that a thing happened twenty-five years ago.
Sources describe the current arrangement as functional. Canadian analysts still receive American intelligence, though it now arrives with a slight delay and a tone. The FBI still receives Canadian intelligence, which it has historically filed under "weather."
A senior Mountie stressed that the two agencies share a deep operational trust built over decades, then declined to say whether the RCMP had been told about the Greenland deal before reading it in the news.
The relationship survived. It always survives. Somewhere in Ottawa a communications officer has a laminated card that reads "strong," "candid," and "frank," and he knows precisely which one to reach for depending on how badly the week has gone.
This week it was strong. Next week, keep an eye on "candid."