CAIRO: Egyptian journalists were prohibited from visiting a Canadian warship moored off the coast of Alexandria Sunday because the Ministry of Defense refused to grant permits for the visit.
Journalists from numerous publications in Cairo were invited by the Canadian embassy to board the HMCS Charlottetown III in Alexandria but an embassy official had to cancel the trip because the Ministry of Defense refused to grant the necessary clearance to enter the port where the ship was docked.
According to the official, “the Ministry of Defense does not want press coverage of the ship.
The Canadian battleship is in Alexandria en route to the Persian Gulf and the Arabian Sea as part of a six-month tour of the region as part of Operation ALTAIR, Canada’s effort in the US-led war on terror, known as Operation Enduring Freedom.
The Charlottetown’s directive is to “conduct surveillance patrols and maritime interdiction operations to control sea-based activity in the Persian Gulf and Arabian Sea, according to the Canadian Navy website.
The ship will also “monitor shipping, escort commercial vessels, and help detect, deter and protect against terrorist activity, the website continued.
These are not the only directives in the ship’s mission, there is also the matter of intelligence gathering from the area.
According to an article in The Chronicle Herald, the commander of the ship Patrick St. Denis said, “The focus [of the overall mission] now has changed a little bit to gain the cooperation of the regional locals so we can gain more intelligence in the region, so we can know exactly what the traffic patterns are, if there’s any terrorist act or illegal act.
