VANCOUVER, July 14, 2004
(CP)

An FBI agent violated strict agency policies when he kept to himself reports from a source that an accused Air India bomber confessed to a terror attack, one of his colleagues testified Wednesday.

"That's not the type of information you would sit on,'' said Jack Cloonan, an retired investigator who was given one of the bureau's highest awards for his work tracking Osama Bin Laden.

He is considered an expert on terrorism and the development of sources and is on contract with ABC Television to provide commentary on anti-terrorism missions in the United States.

Cloonan worked a few desks over from agent Ron Parrish when he was working with an informant who was providing intelligence on Sikh militants.

The source, who was paid $500,000 to testify at the Air India trial, told him that Ajaib Singh Bagri confessed he plotted the 1985 Air India attacks that killed 331 people during a meeting at a New Jersey gas station.

Parrish kept details of the confession to himself, saying he wanted to protect the identity of his informant who can't be named under a court order.

Cloonan said it is extremely rare to get such a candid and important report from a source.

"First thing I'd do is pinch myself to make sure I'd heard everything correctly,'' he said. "Frankly, it's a very unique experience that doesn't happen that often.''

It would have to be put down on paper right away in a report to make sure every detail was recorded properly and safeguarded for future use as evidence at a trial.

Such reporting to a supervisor is important "for your own integrity and the integrity of the organization,'' he said.

Parrish didn't do that. Court heard earlier that he kept the source's information to himself for four years.

Supervisors play a major role in assessing the information, which is supposed to be relayed immediately, in assessing whether or not it is credible, Cloonan said.

Bagri and Ripudaman Singh Malik are charged with conspiracy and murder in two bombings June 23, 1985, that downed an Air India plane off the Irish Coast, killing 329 people, and killed two baggage handlers at Tokyo's Narita airport.