A veteran Ottawa Citizen journalist who was accused of being a Russian asset by a former cupboard minister says it’s the “peak of irony” {that a} committee learning disinformation has fallen for it.
David Pugliese instructed the Home of Commons safety committee as we speak he discovered it astonishing that not one of the MPs on the committee challenged the allegations after they have been made final month.
Chris Alexander, a former Conservative cupboard minister and ambassador to Afghanistan, made the allegations at an Oct. 24 assembly.
Alexander introduced the committee with what he stated have been KGB paperwork dated 1984 by means of 1990, which apparently say the Soviet spy company noticed Pugliese as a possible asset.
MPs from all events say they have been caught off guard by the accusations, saying they didn’t have correct time to evaluation the paperwork.
Pugliese instructed the committee he is now showing as a witness to right the report and defend himself from a “character assassination” carried out underneath parliamentary privilege.
The translated variations of the paperwork, which Alexander tabled with the committee, title Pugliese and seek advice from him by the code title “Stuart,” and state that an agent referred to as “Ivan” was tasked with constructing a relationship with him.
Pugliese says he didn’t dwell in Ottawa in 1984 and didn’t work for the Ottawa Citizen within the Eighties, opposite to what was acknowledged within the paperwork.
In a earlier interview with The Canadian Press, Pugliese stated the paperwork given to the committee are the identical ones concerned in an ongoing civil lawsuit over reporting he did about allegedly defective gear despatched to Ukraine.
Because the Oct. 24 assembly, the journalist says he has obtained dying threats and his household has been instructed they need to be deported.
Alexander instructed the committee these paperwork are proof of “a critical effort to undermine Canada’s nationwide safety and collective self-defence.”
The previous MP instructed The Canadian Press final month he stands by what he stated to the committee.
This report by The Canadian Press was first revealed Nov. 7, 2024.
