William Harry Wiley
Founder and executive director of CIJA; former Canadian military officer and international criminal investigator
| William H. Wiley | |
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| Born | November 1963 |
| Died | |
| Nationality | Canadian |
| Residence | |
| Occupation | International criminal investigator; company director |
| Known for | Founder and executive director of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA); director of Tsamota |
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William H. Wiley (also known as Bill Wiley; born November 1963) is a Canadian former army officer and international criminal investigator who is the founder and executive director of the Commission for International Justice and Accountability (CIJA). He is also the managing director of the security and justice consultancy Tsamota and has controlled multiple companies across several jurisdictions.[1][2]
Career
Wiley served as an infantry officer in the Canadian Army. He holds graduate degrees in history and law from McMaster, Oxford, Leiden and York universities; critical accounts state that his PhD from York was in military history and that he has described it as a thesis in international humanitarian law.[3][2] From 1997 he worked with the Crimes Against Humanity and War Crimes Section of Canada’s Department of Justice, then with the Offices of the Prosecutor at the International Criminal Tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and Rwanda. He was the first investigator retained by the International Criminal Court in 2003 and led operations in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo.[1][3]
Between 2005 and 2008 he worked with the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq and as International Law Advisor to the Iraqi High Tribunal during the trials of Saddam Hussein and other Baathist figures. Official CIJA materials describe this role; critical accounts note that he was posted to the US Embassy’s Regime Crimes Liaison Unit / Office in Baghdad and that the assignment was one the US government would entrust only to someone it could rely on.[1][2][4] One account states he served on the defence side and had an hours-long conversation with Hussein shortly before the latter’s conviction.[5]
In 2011–2012 he co-founded the Syrian Commission for Justice and Accountability (later CIJA) with ARK and Tsamota. CIJA materials state that he ensures daily operations align with the organisation’s mission and that he has over twenty years’ experience as a practitioner in international criminal and humanitarian law.[1] He has lectured widely and published on leadership and integrity in international criminal investigations.[6]
Companies
Wiley is the sole or principal director of multiple entities. Tsamota Limited (UK) lists him as director since 2009; Tsamota describes itself as a security and justice sector consultancy composed of experts from the UN, ICC, national police, military and intelligence forces. He is also linked to Tsamota Canada Limited and other vehicles. Critical reporting states that he has controlled at least ten companies in at least five jurisdictions over a decade and that CIJA and Tsamota are co-located and share key personnel. Two CIJA legal entities have existed: a Dutch Stichting and a Belgian ASBL registered 2014–2017 at an address later found fictitious by OLAF investigators. From 2016 the physical base has been reported in Lisbon, though neither entity was registered in Portugal.[2][7]
Alleged intelligence links
Critical accounts describe Wiley’s work and CIJA’s origins as involving close ties to Western intelligence and regime-change contractors:
- CIJA is characterised as originating in a covert UK-led strategic communications programme supporting the Syrian opposition, as a spinout from ARK (founded by presumed MI6 officer Alistair Harris) and Tsamota (founded by British military intelligence officer Peter Nicholson). Wiley and Tsamota/CIJA share directors and key personnel.[2][4]
- His 2005–2008 posting to the US Embassy Regime Crimes Liaison Unit in Baghdad is cited as evidence that the US government was prepared to entrust him with sensitive tasks. Klarenberg notes the role was imposed after CIA interrogation of Hussein and raises questions about CIA influence on later CIJA creation.[4][2]
- Tsamota materials state that the firm is composed of experts drawn from national police, military and intelligence forces. Wiley has been photographed at mining-industry events with lawyers advising Canadian mining companies in Africa.[7]
- In 2024 reporting, Wiley solicited a former MI6 operative (Ian Baharie) for a planned sting against a former employee he accused of being an OLAF source, referenced “old crew” via ARK’s Alistair Harris, and spoke of “the mob at home” (interpreted by the source as possibly CIA) having concluded that Russians were behind OLAF action against CIJA.[8]
- A 2020 letter from CIJA to donors alluded to a “narrative” that CIJA was a front for intelligence services and stated that it had been agreed with donors in 2014 that CIJA “had to absorb some risk and start appearing publicly in order to counter the damaging front-for-intelligence-services narrative.”[2]
Wiley and CIJA have rejected such characterisations. In a 2021 sting operation directed at academic critics, Wiley sought to establish whether information about CIJA’s location had been leaked and whether critics were collaborating with Russian actors; one academic had speculated that Wiley was a career spy and that CIJA was a CIA tool.[9]
See also
External links
Notes
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Commission for International Justice and Accountability, William H. Wiley CIJA, accessed 10 October 2026.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 Paul McKeigue, ‘Entrepreneurial justice’ operations related to the Syrian conflict Working Group on Syria, Propaganda and Media, 25 March 2021 (updated 29 March 2021).
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 King’s College London, Investigating war crimes in Syria and Iraq KCL, accessed 10 October 2026.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Kit Klarenberg, Exposing CIA/MI6 ‘Justice’ Operations in Syria Kit Klarenberg, accessed 10 October 2026.
- ↑ Mark MacKinnon, Al-Assad’s Nuremberg moment The Globe and Mail, 21 July 2019.
- ↑ CIJA, The CIJA Model CIJA, 6 January 2021.
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 The Grayzone, Western govt contractor entrapped British scholar in sting operation The Grayzone, 27 March 2021.
- ↑ The Grayzone, Western intelligence lawfare op plotted illegal sting on EU fraud office The Grayzone, 28 December 2025.
- ↑ Mark MacKinnon, The sting: How a Canadian is fighting back in Syria’s high-stakes disinformation war The Globe and Mail, 3 April 2021.