Pages: 1 2 3 [4] 
|
 |
|
Author
|
Topic: Bruises don't warrant a military inquiry (Read 4075 times)
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
 Offline
Gender: 
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Prisoner transfer resume once Canada sees 'improvements' in Afghan jails: MacKay
By Murray Brewster, The Canadian Press
OTTAWA - Canada will resume handing over captured Taliban fighters to Afghan authorities as soon as the army is confident there is no risk of torture, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Saturday.
The agreement signed with President Hamid Karzai's government last May will be honoured, MacKay insisted at the end of a closed-door strategy session by the government caucus.
The handovers will recommence once "we see there are improvements... in the Afghan prison," he told reporters.
But MacKay was adamant that military commanders on the ground will make the determination as to whether conditions in Afghan jails are good enough to allow for transfers.
He threw a blanket of operational security around what criteria field commanders will use to make their decision.
"We are not going to give the Taliban our playbook," he said. "We are not going to discuss the things we are doing operationally."
His comments will likely steel the determination of human-rights activists, who've been fighting in Federal Court to end the practice once and for all.
Amnesty International and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association have fought a protracted legal battle, arguing that Canada is in danger of violating international human rights law when it delivers prisoners into the hands of possible torture.
Government lawyers tried last week to have the case thrown out, arguing the transfers had been suspended, but human-rights groups countered that the handovers could resume at any time.
The international agreement governing the reconstruction of Afghanistan estimates it will be 2010 before that country's prison system is in good enough shape to be considered free of possible abuse.
"I don't think Canada or the Canadian Forces can be confident for a few years that that country will have the capacity to safely manage prisoners," said Paul Champ, the lawyer for Amnesty.
The halt in transfers was kept secret for nearly three months and came about only one day after Canadian diplomats saw a clear-cut case of torture on Nov. 5, 2007 in a Kandahar jail, belonging to the notorious Afghan intelligence service.
A prisoner, who had initially been captured by Canadians, showed signs of having been beaten unconscious with an electrical cable and a hose.
MacKay, who was in Afghanistan at the time, acknowledged that he was made aware of the incident right away, but he defended the decision to keep silent, insisting that Canadian lives were at stake.
Champ said the Canadian army churned out reports all last year that suggested torture might be taking place.
"Mr. MacKay should be asking the army why they didn't stop the transfers earlier," he added.
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
And who sent them out? The same guy that told Buckler what to do in the first place. Dare I say this another example of bullshit baffled brains?
Conservatives send designated MPs to defend Buckler
ALEXANDER PANETTA
The Canadian Press
January 26, 2008 at 6:23 PM EST
OTTAWA — A Conservative MP said it's up to the Prime Minister to decide whether to fire his chief spokeswoman for making false statements about Canada's mission in Afghanistan.
The government sent out two designated speakers Saturday — one English, one French — to defend Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director Sandra Buckler.
Other Conservatives grumbled privately that her misleading remarks are the latest example of how a potential good-news story about the Afghan mission has been plunged into the bowels of public-relations hell.
Alberta MP Art Hanger was not one of the officially designated spokespeople sent out to defend Ms. Buckler.
He offered a curt and unenthusiastic reply when asked whether the prime minister should fire his communications director.
“You ask the Prime Minister that question,” Mr. Hanger replied outside a Conservative caucus meeting.
“I'm not about to answer it.”
And Defence Minister Peter MacKay took steps to distance himself from remarks about the military — which Ms. Buckler has since retracted.
He invited reporters to a news scrum where he lauded the Canadian Forces for maintaining an "information pipeline" to the government and keeping in "constant contact" about what happens in Afghanistan.
Ms. Buckler was quoted in news reports this week saying the military had kept the government in the dark about a halt in the transfer of prisoners to Afghan jails last November.
The transfers were halted amid mounting evidence of abuse by Afghan officials, which would place the Afghans and the Canadians who turned them over in possible violation of the Geneva conventions against torture.
When asked why the government withheld information from the public, from Parliament, and from the blue-ribbon panel hired to chart Canada's future policy in Afghanistan, Ms. Buckler said the Canadian Forces had kept it secret.
Ms. Buckler's statement provoked outrage within her own government and particularly infuriated military officials.
Some news organizations gave little prominence to her remarks because they simply assumed them to be untrue. But at least one newspaper — the Globe and Mail — quoted her in a front-page news story.
Amid outrage at the Department of National Defence, frustration among political staff, a mounting paper trail of contradictory evidence, and the fact that even the opposition Liberals were aware of the new policy, Ms. Buckler recanted Friday.
She told reporters she had “misspoken” — but didn't explain how she'd misspoken and then refused further comment.
At a Tory caucus retreat Saturday, Tory House Leader Peter Van Loan and Quebec MP Christian Paradis issued identical statements in defence of their boss's spokeswoman.
“She's very credible,” Mr. Van Loan told a news conference.
“If everybody on the Hill who misspoke themselves once in their life had to resign, none of you would be here, I wouldn't be here, nobody would be here on Parliament Hill.”
Mr. Paradis later came out and repeated the line that if everybody who “misspoke” were forced to reign, the empty corridors on Parliament Hill would echo with the sound of silence.
But one telephone receiver was shaking with the sound of screaming as a livid Department of National Defence official vented his fury at the Prime Minister's Office.
The military official said his colleagues are incensed by the insinuation that they would be incompetent enough to withhold key details on a politically charged file from their civilian bosses.
He said the Canadian Forces should be receiving plaudits for having signed a detainee-transfer deal when Foreign Affairs failed to do so in 2005, and for having then immediately halted transfers when proof of torture was uncovered in November.
“Instead we've been wearing this,” the military official said, shouting loudly enough to shake the phone receiver. He described the mood at DND as ”outraged and frustrated.”
A number of Conservative political staffers appeared to share his frustration. One said Ms. Buckler was made aware of the halt in transfers soon after the policy decision was made on Nov. 6, 2007.
And one said the ensuing communications chaos was the result of bad choices.
He said there were strategic military reasons for keeping the change quiet and he said he understood them.
But the slew of unflattering headlines about secrecy, flip-flops, and of torture revelations being dragged out in court documents could have been avoided in November, he added. And he said it could have been done honestly and straightforwardly, without compromising the mission.
“Things weren't capitalized on when they could have been,” said the government source.
“Why would we not have proactively shouted this from the rooftops (in November) and said, 'Look how well our agreement is working. We have temporarily suspended (transfers) until they get their act together. Things should be back to normal in a few days,” he said.
“We are serious when we say we stand for human rights. . . But this feeds this continuing belief that the government is secretive — unnecessarily so.”
The appearance of secrecy was only fuelled by the sight of dozens of Conservative MPs escaping through back corridors to avoid answering questions as they emerged from a caucus meeting.
Mr. Van Loan and Mr. Paradis were sent before the news cameras.
But their colleague Sylvie Boucher probably summed up the sentiments of many as she beat a hasty path from one meeting room to the next.
“I want to avoid running into journalists,” she said.
When informed she was speaking to one, the Quebec City MP replied: “It's not that I don't like you. I just have nothing to say.”
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Gerry Connors
Veteran 500+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 558
(Optional) Your Text here.
|
Why the f**k would we, the military, decide to withhold info such as this?! We are a democratic society (supposedly); one of the elected government's variouus tools (defence). We, in the military follow orders and pass info. Are (elected) politicians just naive, ignorant, or just too GD lazy to do their homework with their appointed port folios?! Are they just passing the buck (again) when got with their pants down?! J**us H C***st on His cross, I look forward to the day when we have politiciians who show some gonads; owe up when they f**k-up (we are all human afterall); but I fear I'll be long buried, finished feeding the worms, & long turned to dust before that happens...and polls done in the past wonder why there is such a low turn out when voting ( I do vote - just to pivàck the lesser of 2 evils in IMHO )
|
1RCR Duke's Coy '82 - '87; Cyprus '84 / '85
LOTPed medic 1988; CFH Halifax '88 - '90
119 AD Bty medic, CFB Chatham '90 - '95
2RCR medic '95 - '00; SFOR Bosnia, 2RCR Roto 4 '99;
42 Hlth Svc Gagetown '00 - '02
CFRC Gagetown / Fredericton '02 - '06; 'retired' Aug '06
HMCS Jolliet, Sept-Iles QC, medical staff / 'tiffy' (reserves)
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Everybody should vote...
So now what do we do with prisoners?
Since 9/11, questions about torture and who's doing it have been deftly sidestepped and hotly debated. Recent events have dragged Canada deeper into the fray
Jan 27, 2008 04:30 AM
michelle shephard
national security reporter
At a rally in Iowa last year, U.S. presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani told voters that he supported "aggressive questioning" of terrorism suspects and "using means that are a little tougher."
What about waterboarding, the process whereby CIA agents have simulated drowning by pouring water over the hooded head of a terrorism suspect to get them to talk, someone asked? Wasn't that torture?
Giuliani wasn't sure. "I'd have to see what the real – what they really are doing. Not the way some of these liberal newspapers have exaggerated it."
Then, without pausing, he continued: "Now the question of torture. We should not torture. America should not stand for torture. America should not allow torture."
The voters clapped.
Ever since the U.S. administration tried to redefine torture in order to harshly interrogate suspects caught in Afghanistan after 9/11, questions about its practice have been both deftly sidestepped and hotly debated.
The UN definition of torture – the intentional infliction of "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental," on an individual – had always been the international norm. But in 2002, the White House's legal advisers wrote in what's now known as the "torture memo" that CIA agents could push the limits when interrogating terrorism suspects without violating the law. Torture, the memo stated, only occurred when there was "serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death."
The White House eventually backtracked following the memo's leak and scandals such as the treatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, but questions about torture haven't gone away.
What is torture? Does it work? Can it be condoned in limited circumstances?
For the most part, Canada has remained at a comfortable distance from the debate. But with the inadvertent disclosure earlier this month of a Department of Foreign Affairs training manual on torture, along with the lawsuit over alleged torture of detainees handed over to Afghan authorities by Canadian Forces, and a federal inquiry probing intelligence sharing with countries known to torture, Ottawa is having trouble avoiding the issue.Canada's own "torture memo," as it's now being called, is a 93-page Power Point presentation given to foreign affairs consular officials to instruct them how to detect signs of torture of Canadians held abroad.
Most embarrassing for the government in its mistaken release of "Torture Awareness Workshop Reference Materials" in early January was the inclusion of the U.S., Israel and Guantanamo Bay on a list of countries or places where foreign affairs believed torture may occur.
"The truth may set us free, but it can just as easily be embarrassing and, yes, inconvenient," read an editorial last Wednesday in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. "That's a lesson Canada is learning the hard way – publicly – after putting the U.S. on the list of countries connected to `possible torture/abuse' of prisoners."
Traditionally, Canada has given the U.S. the benefit of the doubt. Ever since Toronto-born Omar Khadr was transferred to Guantanamo in October 2002, the federal government has publicly stated that Canada accepts assurances from the U.S. that detainees are being treated humanely.
Back in February 2003, when countries worldwide were starting to question the conditions and interrogation techniques used in Guantanamo, the then-Liberal government was drafting press lines in anticipation of reporters' questions about Khadr's case. An early draft of press lines compiled by foreign affairs and obtained by the Toronto Star under Access to Information legislation, stated: "The United States continues to acknowledge its willingness to treat all detainees humanely and in a manner consistent with the principles of the Geneva Conventions. Given these statements, and our own observations, the Canadian government is satisfied."
The press lines were later changed when it was noted that Canadian officials had not yet seen Guantanamo, so being assured that the conditions were humane by "our own observations," was simply wrong.
Now the release of the Foreign Affairs training manual, which has been used since 2004, shows that while the public message was Canada didn't believe torture existed at Guantanamo, privately consular officials were instructed to be wary.
The ambassadors of Israel and the U.S. lashed out at Ottawa for the inclusion of their countries on the list of possible torture venues, and Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier apologized last weekend, declaring in a statement that the manual "wrongly includes some of our closest allies" and that he had directed the manual be "reviewed and rewritten."
That prompted Khadr's Canadian lawyer, Dennis Edney, to accuse the government of becoming "an apologist for U.S. policy.
"Mr. Bernier's actions are an insult to each and every Canadian. We are a country that has always been prepared to speak out against oppression wherever it occurs. Human rights and the value of the rule of law are important to us. However, this government has now told the world at large that Canadian interests are secondary to the wishes of the Bush administration."
Now some are questioning just how the manual will be revised. It seems the list of countries and places will change. But what about the sections that deal with types of torture and include "verbal abuse" and "sensory" or "sleep deprivation," or the page entitled, "U.S. interrogation techniques?" Questions to Bernier's spokesperson and foreign affairs last week were met with the same response: "The statement speaks for itself. The manual is being reviewed and rewritten."
"It cannot be corrected simply by deleting some of the perpetrators from their list," Almerindo Ojeda, director of the University of California's Center for the Study of Human Rights in the Americas, argued during an interview with the Toronto Star. "To make amends with their `closest allies,' they would have to `review and rewrite' the references to sensory deprivation, forced nudity, isolation, sleep deprivation, and lights as well, as it is undisputed that all of this has been done at Guantanamo."
Alex Neve, Canada's secretary general of Amnesty International, says he's worried that Bernier's backtracking could undo the progress that had been achieved in the past few years, following the Maher Arar federal inquiry. Arar was awarded $11.5 million and an apology from the federal government for Canada's role in his arrest by the U.S and rendition to Syria, where he was held for a year without charges and tortured.
Justice Dennis O'Connor, who presided over the Arar Commission following Arar's return to Canada, found that government officials missed telltale signs that the Ottawa engineer had been tortured into giving a false confession. O'Connor's recommendation for better training helped shape the torture-awareness manual that recently became public.
"The materials that have been developed for this (manual) are commendable," Neve wrote to Bernier last week.
"Minister, we certainly agree that materials and lists of this nature should be regularly reviewed and updated. Any changes made, however, should reflect the human rights reality on the ground, regardless of whether the country concerned is our closest friend or most implacable foe."
Another inquiry – this one presided over by retired Supreme Court Justice Frank Iacobucci and concerning three Canadians who were tortured and detained in Syria when they traveled there – may implicate Canada more directly. While the Arar inquiry found the RCMP gave the U.S. erroneous information about Arar linking him to terrorism, Iacobucci is probing claims by the three men that the Canadian Security Intelligence Service directly provided Syria with information about the Canadians, which they say led to their detentions.
Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association have also taken the government to court, seeking an injunction against the transfer of detainees captured by Canadian Forces into the custody of Afghan authorities.
The foreign affairs torture manual was part of the disclosure released to Amnesty International for this case.
Civil libertarians, along with opposition parties, have warned that Canada could be violating international treaties by turning over captives to Afghan authorities with the knowledge that they could be tortured.
After months of dismissing allegations that detainees were abused while in the hands of Afghan authorities, it was revealed this week in court that a secret policy shift took place three months ago halting the transfer of detainees, because Canadian soldiers feared previous detainees had been abused or killed.
What's not clear now is what Canadian troops are doing with their captives – releasing them, or holding them in temporary cells on Kandahar Air Base or, as they have done in the past, turning them over to U.S. forces, which operate a prison at Bagram.
When Khadr was first held in the U.S. prison in Bagram in September 2002, Canada said it was satisfied detainees were treated "humanely" while in U.S. custody.
Three months later, the bodies of two Afghan detainees at Bagram were found dead, hanging by their wrists. A U.S. military investigation concluded they had been deprived of sleep and struck so often their legs looked as if they had been run over by a bus.
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Government lawyers say lawsuit over Afghan detainees is moot
Module body
2 hours, 33 minutes ago
0
* What's this
By Steve Rennie, The Canadian Press
ADVERTISEMENT
OTTAWA - Government lawyers acknowledge the handover of enemy prisoners to Afghan authorities could resume "at any time," but argue a court case aimed at halting transfers is moot because Canada isn't doing it now.
The lawyers make the argument in Federal Court documents filed this week in response to a challenge from Amnesty International and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
The groups want the court to ban transfers until prisoners are considered safe from torture at the hands of Afghan authorities.
But federal lawyer J. Sanderson Graham argues the motion is no longer relevant.
"There is at present no live controversy that affects the rights of the parties," he said in the submission.
"On the facts before this court, there is currently no possibility that any individual detainee may be transferred to the custody of Afghanistan when the CF (Canadian Forces) has substantial grounds to believe that there is a real risk of torture."
Canada halted transfers Nov. 6, a day after officials witnessed credible evidence that a prisoner had been beaten unconscious using an electrical cable and a hose while in custody.
The decision was made by the commander on the ground, Brig.-Gen. Andre Deschamps told Justice Anne Mactavish last week.
Graham acknowledges in the submission that transfers may resume "at any time." But he says human-rights groups could always bring a new motion for temporary injunction if transfers resume.
"Until then, the question is hypothetical and speculative and cannot be decided," he says.
But the onus should be on the government to tell the court if Canada resumes handing over prisoners to Afghan authorities, said Amnesty lawyer Paul Champ.
Otherwise, he said, it would be difficult to find out whether prisoner transfers had started again since a "culture of secrecy" has permeated government.
"The fundamental problem is, we have no idea when they're going to do it. They're going to do it in secret," Champ said.
"They refuse to tell us when they're going to do it. So that's, in my view, a fundamental flaw to their argument."
Mactavish likewise raised concerns last week that she could render a decision while unaware transfers had resumed.
Brian Evernden, another federal lawyer, said he'd been "instructed" to tell her that government attorneys would notify the court if they learned of a "material change in circumstance" - a "big if," Mactavish said.
The "if" referred to hypothetical situations in general, Evernden said in an interview, and not to doubts about whether the government would tell its lawyers if transfers resumed.
The court document "speaks for itself," he said, declining further comment.
The submission says the decision to hand over prisoners rests squarely with the commander in the field. The military's policy is to transfer prisoners only if a "substantial risk test" is met, it says.
A spokeswoman for Prime Minister Stephen Harper angered the military last week when she said the government was kept in the dark about the decision to halt transfers. She later claimed she "misspoke."
It was just revealed Wednesday that Defence Minister Peter MacKay - during a visit to Afghanistan on Nov. 6 - expressed concern about the alleged treatment of the prisoner within hours of officials discovering evidence of abuse.
NDP Leader Jack Layton said the government's position is "totally confusing and contradictory."
"We're seeing contradictory statements in the courts, we're seeing contradictions between the prime minister and his own ministers on this issue," he said Thursday.
Meanwhile, the government lawyers say the court must decide whether the Charter of Rights and Freedoms follows the flag and applies to Afghan PoWs.
The human-rights groups want to extend the Charter of Rights to Afghan war prisoners, but the government attorneys say it only applies within Canada.
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
The PM should know better then to ASSUME anything on such a divisive issue.
MPs fear prisoner `loophole'
Opposition suggests Canadian troops letting Afghan soldiers take detainees into custody
Feb 01, 2008 04:30 AM
Allan Woods
Ottawa Bureau
OTTAWA–Canadian troops may be allowing local soldiers in Kandahar to take battlefield prisoners and send them to Afghan jails, opposition MPs suggest.
Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in the Commons yesterday that soldiers in the Afghan National Army are free to take prisoners during joint operations with Canada, despite Ottawa's fear that detainees stand a good chance of being tortured in local jails.
"I would assume that if Canadian forces seize the prisoners they're in Canadian custody," the Prime Minister said.
"If Afghan forces seize the prisoners I would assume that they're in Afghan custody.
"As we train the Afghan forces to take over more and more of the responsibility for their security operations, of course they will be taking over more and more responsibility for these various aspects of the security operations."
Opposition MPs said Harper's comments appear to contradict those of Defence Minister Peter MacKay, who denied earlier this week that such a practice was occurring.
When asked if Canada was getting around a ban on prisoner transfers by letting Afghan soldiers take prisoners for them, MacKay said: "Quite simply, no, that is not the practice of the Canadian army."
Neither the government nor the military will say how many detainees Canada has taken since it suspended transfers on Nov. 6, 2007.
Military experts have speculated Afghan soldiers are handling prisoners that Canadians are now barred from taking.
Though the military does not approve of the conditions in Afghan jails, "it's okay with them" to stand aside as Afghans send prisoners into the same situation, charged Bloc Québécois Leader Gilles Duceppe.
"In other words, it's hypocrisy," he said yesterday.
Liberal MP and defence critic Denis Coderre said the government is exploiting a "loophole" in order to keep taking prisoners in Afghanistan.
But a spokesperson for MacKay ridiculed the opposition for suggesting that Canada should somehow prevent Afghan soldiers from taking prisoners in Afghanistan.
"Coderre is saying the Afghan army has to have our `permission' to take prisoners in their own country?" asked Dan Dugas.
He also denied there was a contradiction between Harper and MacKay, saying Canadian soldiers always abide by the rules dictated by Ottawa. He suggested they have no control over the Afghan soldiers in their charge.
Meanwhile yesterday, Harper spoke to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown to discuss conditions for Canada's continued presence in Afghanistan and enlist his support in the fight for more NATO troops in Kandahar.
The telephone call came one day after Harper made a similar call to U.S. President George W. Bush.
Harper wants 1,000 additional soldiers to fight alongside the 2,500 Canadians already there, a demand that was prescribed in last week's report on the future of the Afghan mission by former Liberal minister John Manley.
The opposition rejected a Conservative suggestion yesterday that the report be further studied in a Commons committee, arguing that it was a tactic to delay a vote on the extension of the mission beyond February 2009.
Also yesterday, NDP Leader Jack Layton said the Taliban cannot be defeated by international troops and there's no point continuing to fight an unwinnable war.
"No one has laid out, anywhere, that it's possible to ultimately win a war in this region," he told reporters.
"And historical experience shows that it's been impossible – whether it be Alexander the Great, the British in the 19th century, or the Russians in the 20th century.
The historical portrait Layton paints is far fuzzier in reality.
The British did defeat an Afghan insurgency in the Second Afghan War in 1880, and Alexander's trek through Asia did not stall in Afghanistan.
With files from Bruce Campion-Smith and The Canadian Press
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Ottawa kept abuse charges against ally secret
Kandahar governor accused of beating and using electric shocks on detainees in secret Afghan prisons
PAUL KORING
From Friday's Globe and Mail
February 1, 2008 at 2:00 AM EST
The Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, allegations that the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees.
The allegations against Governor Asadullah Khalid, appointed directly by President Hamid Karzai and a key political partner to Canada's nation-building efforts in southern Afghanistan, were regarded as sufficiently credible that senior officials in Ottawa were immediately informed and Canadian diplomats secretly reported them to the International Red Cross and Afghanistan's main human-rights group.
Government documents detailing the accusations were heavily censored by the government which, claiming national security, blacked out the references to “the governor.” But multiple sources, both inside and outside the government, confirm that the words “the governor” have been censored as have whole passages referring to secret cells allegedly run by Mr. Khalid outside the official prison system.
Rumours have long linked Mr. Khalid to secret prisons. That he had close ties with U.S. intelligence agents and special forces had been known since Canadian troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in early 2006. But Ottawa didn't confront an accusation of the governor's direct involvement in the interrogation and torture of prisoners until it sent diplomats to inspect the main secret police prison in Kandahar on April 25, 2007.
“Another prisoner beckoned to us,” begins the crucial passages describing the first inspection of the secret National Directorate of Security police prison in Kandahar city.
The detainee, like others in the secret police jail, was in leg irons, according to the documents. He told the Canadians his name and described how he initially had been imprisoned for nearly a year, most of the time shackled alone in a room in one of the governor's private prisons. “He went on to state he had been interrogated by foreigners and the governor,” said the report by Gavin Buchan, a Canadian diplomat and Linda Garwood-Filbert, the head of the Canadian Corrections team in Afghanistan.
“He alleged that the governor beat him and gave him electric shocks,” Ms. Garwood-Filbert wrote in her inspection report. Eventually the prisoner was moved to the NDS prison where he gave his account to Canadian officials.
Within days, senior Canadian diplomats had passed on the reports to both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Another document, marked “For AIHRC and ICRC eyes only” was used as a briefing note by Canadian diplomats at two meetings in early May.
One meeting was with the International Committee of the Red Cross; the other with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. When the briefing note was finally made public late last year as part of the government's delivery of documents in the Federal Court case brought by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, it also had the words “the governor” blacked out, multiple sources have confirmed.
Despite sharing the allegations with the Afghan government and outside agencies, Ottawa kept them from a Canadian Federal Court judge hearing a case brought by Canadian rights groups. It claimed the national security exemption.
Canada began follow-up inspections of detainees it transferred to Afghan custody after The Globe and Mail published a series of stories detailing accounts of torture and how internal documents showed that the government was aware abuse was rife in Afghan prisons.
Another diplomatic cable, dated April 26, the day after that first inspection uncovered the direct allegation, says “Governor Asadullah Khalid, in separate discussions, has noted his surprise and unhappiness at The Globe and Mail.”
It remains unclear whether the allegation of torture against Mr. Khalid has ever been investigated, as is required under the new detainee-transfer agreement.
If there was an investigation, it may be one of the nine, bundled together, that were reported as “groundless” by the secret police in a conversation with Canadian diplomats last month. No details of any investigation were disclosed and the quality of the probes remains in doubt because Canada withholds the name of the accuser in passing along the allegations.
Canadian ministers continue to meet Mr. Khalid, but the Prime Minister broke with usual practice when he went to Kandahar less than a month after a prisoner told the Canadian diplomats that Mr. Khalid had tortured him.
In response to written questions, the government declined to directly confirm that it knew of the allegations against Mr. Khalid. However, when asked if Mr. Harper had raised “the governor's alleged personal involvement in the interrogation of detainee” in his talks with Mr. Karzai, the carefully worded response was: “The Prime Minister, the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and National Defence, as well as Canada's Ambassador to Afghanistan have had a number of frank discussions with President Karzai on a range of issues, including the treatment of detainees.” The government response also pointedly distanced Mr. Harper from Mr. Khalid in the period after April of 2007.
“As stated previously, the Prime Minister has met only briefly with Mr. Khalid in March, 2006, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs has never met Mr. Khalid. The Minister of National Defence raised Canada's concern about the treatment of detainees with Mr. Khalid in November, 2007,” it said.
It also sought to play down the first meeting. “During his first trip to Afghanistan in March, 2006, the Prime Minister was met at the Kandahar airfield briefly by Governor Asadullah Khalid and senior tribal elders. The Governor is the senior ranking government official in Kandahar and, as such, he would greet the Prime Minister upon his arrival in Kandahar.” But that courtesy was omitted in Mr. Harper's May, 2007, visit, after the allegation of torture by the governor was reported to the ICRC by Canada.
Nevertheless, Mr. Khalid remains a key player in Kandahar and senior Canadian commanders and diplomats deal with him weekly. He is a regular visitor to the main Canadian base on Kandahar air field and Brigadier-General Guy Laroche and ambassador Arif Lalani routinely visit the governor's compound.
In Afghanistan's centralized government, governors are directly appointed. Mr. Karzai sent Mr. Khalid to Kandahar, the heartland of the Taliban, as governor in 2005.
Previously, Mr. Khalid had been governor of Ghazni. Mr. Khalid says he fought the Taliban alongside the famous Northern Alliance warlord Ahmad Shah Massoud, killed by al-Qaeda suicide bombers two days before Sept. 11, 2001. Mr. Khalid's age is not clear, although he appears to be in his late 30s or early 40s. According to some reports, he attended Kabul University but dropped out to fight the Taliban.
Who knew?
When The Globe and Mail learned from multiple sources that the governor of Kandahar was alleged to have personally abused detainees, and the Canadian government knew about it, the following written questions were posed to Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, Defence Minister Peter MacKay and former defence minister Gordon O'Connor. Mr. Bernier's office responded on their behalf with these answers:
Q: Have the Prime Minister and ministers Bernier and MacKay met with Kandahar Governor Asadullah Khalid in Afghanistan or elsewhere? If so, could you please provide dates and locations and whether the discussion at the meeting(s) involved the treatment of detainees?
A: During his first trip to Afghanistan in March, 2006, the Prime Minister was met at the Kandahar Air Field briefly by Governor Asadullah Khalid and senior tribal elders. The Governor is the senior ranking government official in Kandahar and, as such, he would greet the Prime Minister upon his arrival in Kandahar. Minister Bernier has never met with Governor Khalid in Afghanistan or elsewhere. Minister MacKay has met with Governor Khalid three times in Kandahar during three visits – twice as Minister of Foreign Affairs in May, 2006, and in January, 2007, and once as Minister of National Defence in November, 2007. During the last visit, the Minister of National Defence raised Canada's concern about the treatment of detainees, including allegations of mistreatment in the NDS facility in Kandahar. The minister reiterated Canada's expectation that Afghan authorities will respect their agreement with Canada on the treatment of detainees.
Q: When were the Prime Minister and ministers Bernier and MacKay briefed about the allegations reported to Canadian diplomats and officials on or about April 23, 2007, that Asadullah Khalid was personally involved in the interrogation of detainees and that “the governor” had beaten and administered electric shocks to a detainee?
A: The Prime Minister and ministers Bernier and MacKay are briefed regularly on various aspects of Canada's mission to Afghanistan. Last May, we signed an arrangement with Afghanistan that strengthened the previous Liberal arrangement regarding the transfer of Taliban prisoners. Since signing this supplementary arrangement there have been real improvements in the monitoring and tracking of detainees. Since May, 2007, Canadian officials have visited detention facilities in Kandahar and Kabul on 30 occasions. The arrangement is working.
Q: Was the Prime Minister or ministers Bernier and MacKay briefed on the meeting between Canadian officials and ICRC officials when the allegations about the personal involvement of the Kandahar governor in interrogation of detainees were passed on to the ICRC? When were they told of that meeting?
A: The Prime Minister and ministers Bernier and MacKay are briefed regularly on various aspects of Canada's mission to Afghanistan, including allegations of mistreatment of detainees.
Meetings between Canadian and ICRC officials occur periodically. As is our policy and practice, Canadian officials inform the AIHRC [Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission], the ICRC [International Committee of the Red Cross] and Afghan authorities of any allegations of mistreatment of detainees.
Q: Have the Prime Minister and ministers Bernier and MacKay ever discussed the governor's alleged personal involvement in the interrogation of detainees with Mr. Khalid or Mr. Karzai?
A: The Prime Minister, the ministers of Foreign Affairs and National Defence, as well as Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan have had a number of frank discussions with President Karzai on a range of issues, including the treatment of detainees.
As stated previously, the Prime Minister has met only briefly with Mr. Khalid in March, 2006, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs has never met Mr. Khalid. The Minister of National Defence raised Canada's concern about the treatment of detainees with Mr. Khalid in November, 2007. The minister reiterated Canada's expectation that Afghan authorities will respect their agreement with Canada on the treatment of detainees.
Recommend this article? 58 votes
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
End of story?
Charter does not apply to Afghan detainees: ruling
Updated Wed. Mar. 12 2008 3:36 PM ET
CTV.ca News Staff
Canada's Federal Court has rejected Amnesty International's bid to have the Charter of Rights and Freedoms apply to Afghan detainees captured by Canadian soldiers.
Justice Anne McTavish ruled that Afghan detainees do have rights under the Afghan constitution and international law, but they do not have rights under the Canadian Charter.
"(The court has) accepted the government's arguments. We are obviously very pleased about that," said Prime Minister Stephen Harper in question period.
Amnesty International had hoped to stop Canada from transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities. The move followed reports that some detainees were being tortured by the Afghans.
"Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person under the Charter and international law. Individuals detained by Canadian Forces must not face the threat of torture after being transferred," Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, said in a press release last year.
While calling today's ruling a "big loss" for Amnesty International, CTV Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife noted that the human rights group did win on another matter today. "The (Military Police Complaints Commission) is going to hold public hearings on the way Afghan detainees have been transferred by military police," reported Fife.
Public hearings
The move announced Wednesday comes more than a year after the commission first started to investigate the matter.
"The principal difficulty which has given rise to this decision has been the government's refusal to provide the commission with full access to relevant documents and information under the control of the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (DFAIT) and the Correctional Service of Canada (CSC)," commission chair Peter A. Tinsley said in a news release.
"Ordering a public interest hearing is necessary to ensure a full investigation of the grave allegations raised in this complaint."
In question period, the prime minister said his government has been cooperative.
"There is no refusal to cooperate. In fact, the Justice Department has made very clear that it will provide all information that it can provide under the law," said Harper.
The commission began its investigation on Feb. 26, 2007 following a complaint by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association.
Those groups allege that military police allowed detainees to be transferred to Afghan authorities even though they knew of evidence the detainees could be tortured.
But in investigating that claim, "there's been roadblocks put up all along the way," Robert Fife, CTV's Ottawa bureau chief, told Canada AM on Wednesday.
Jason Gratl, a spokesperson for the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, said he believes the Tories will not be forthcoming with relevant information.
"The government is going to squirm and squirrel and use every means at its disposal, hoping to avoid disclosure," Gratl told The Canadian Press.
"We're expecting Mr. Tinsley to be up to the task of holding the government to account."
Tinsley said the probe could cost up to $2 million and add months to the investigation.
"However, we are simply left with no other choice. Given the relevance of the information under the control of DFAIT and CSC, the Commission must now seek to compel those documents which the government has failed to provide voluntarily," he said.
The hearings will have the power of subpoena -- and the commission promised it will be used. The hearings will begin in about one month.
"It will be aired in public, so we should be able to get to the bottom of whether ... we knew they were going to be tortured," Fife said.
Late last year, Canadian officials appear to have come across at least one case where an Afghan detainee was tortured. Canada stopped transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities after the revelations, but has recently resumed the practice.
The announcement of a complaints commission probe precedes Thursday's vote on whether to extend the current Afghan mission until July 2011.
The extension is contingent on NATO providing at least 1,000 more troops and some additional equipment to help Canadian troops.
Fife said Prime Minister Stephen Harper wants the resolution passed before he goes to a NATO meeting in Bucharest, Romania on April 2.
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
Smoke and mirrors?
Tories stalling abuse probe, watchdog says
Military Police Complaints Commission orders public hearings to get access to key uncensored reports on treatment of detainees
PAUL KORING
From Thursday's Globe and Mail
March 13, 2008 at 2:00 AM EDT
Thwarted for more than a year by the Conservative government's refusal to co-operate, the independent Military Police Complaints Commission announced Wednesday it would hold public hearings to try to force disclosure of documents that will show whether the military knew detainees transferred to Afghan custody were likely to be tortured.
The decision sets the stage for a confrontation between the Harper government and the independent civilian oversight body.
“Ordering a public interest hearing is necessary to ensure a full investigation of the grave allegations raised in this complaint,” said Peter Tinsley, chairman of the MPCC.
The government has refused to release uncensored versions of hundreds of pages of documents – many of which are entirely blacked out – although it provided no reasons.
“The commission will use subpoena power to compel the various government departments to provide uncensored documents,” the MPCC said in announcing the public hearings.
“The government's refusal to provide the commission with full access to relevant documents and information” left no choice but to order the hearing, Mr. Tinsley said.
In the Commons, opposition MPs hammered the government for stonewalling on whether it knew transferred detainees faced torture.
“The Prime Minister's government stands accused of withholding key information, witnesses and the kinds of documents that are essential to get to the bottom of prisoner abuse that has been alleged in Afghanistan,” NDP Leader Jack Layton said.
“There is no refusal to co-operate,” Prime Minister Stephen Harper responded, adding the government would “provide all information that it is able to provide under the law.”
In an unrelated development, the Federal Court ruled Wednesday that prisoners held by Canadian Forces abroad aren't protected by the Canadian Constitution.
That ruling will likely be appealed and is expected to eventually reach the Supreme Court, where the extraterritorial reach of Canada's Charter of Rights will ultimately be decided.
The commission is investigating a complaint from Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association that alleges the government and the Canadian Forces knew, or should have known, that torture and abuse were rife in Afghan prisons and that international law bars transferring prisoners from being handed over under such circumstances.
“The government's continuing attempt to stonewall and delay are consistent with its communication strategy on detainees and torture,” Jason Gratl, president of the BCCLA, said Wednesday.
“But it's only a matter of time that the issue of torture catches up with them.”
After insisting for nearly a year that safeguards to prevent torture existed, and repeatedly changing those safeguards as they proved inadequate, the military stopped transferring detainees to Afghan security forces in November after credible evidence of torture was reported by Canadian diplomats.
A transferred prisoner was able to tell them were the electrical cables used to beat him were hidden under a chair.
The government kept the cessation of transfers secret for more than two months before government lawyers told a Federal Court proceeding that no prisoners were being handed over to Afghan custody pending an investigation and more improvements in monitoring.
Detainee transfers resumed last month. Once those detainees being held by Canadian Forces at Kandahar air base were handed over, the government made the resumption public.
Efforts by rights groups to get an injunction failed.
“If Canada can't engage in combat without breaking its international obligations about torture, then it shouldn't engage in combat at all,” Mr. Gratl said.
The Geneva Conventions outlaw transferring prisoners to those who would torture or abuse them or can't properly look after them.
Ordering a public-interest hearing gives Mr. Tinsley the authority to issue subpoenas for witnesses and documents. Those documents include reports from the Foreign Affairs and corrections departments detailing conditions inside Afghan prisons and the harrowing accounts of transferred detainees who have alleged beating, abuse and torture by Afghan prison guards and police officers.
A handful of documents have been leaked. For instance, the government censured every reference to torture in its routine annual human-rights and governance summaries. It also blacked out the reference to Asadullah Khalid, governor of Kandahar, when a detainee alleged he had been tortured by him.
However, the details of most of the heavily censored documents remain completely unknown.
The Harper government has insisted national security concerns justify its refusal to make them public or deliver them to the court.
But the MPCC was expressly set up to be able to deal with top secret and other classifieds documents and matters pertaining to national security.
It is a government agency, its chairman and key staff all have the highest security clearances and it is bound not to reveal details that could imperil national security.
“This is not a security or classification issue,” Stanley Blythe, the MPCC chief of staff, said yesterday. “We are a part of the government; the public isn't going to see these documents.”
The documents will help the MPCC understand “what did they know or should have known” when decisions were made to transfer detainees, Mr. Blythe said.
“We have tried at every level we can,” including writing to ministers to seek the release of the uncensored documents, he said.
Mr. Tinsley said he didn't “take this decision lightly; it is estimated the hearing process could cost in the range of $2-million and will easily add months to the investigation. However, we are simply left with no other choice.”
|
1RCR 1977-79 Depot (Italy PL), B Coy, Mortars, Pioneers, D Coy (CFB London)
3RCR 1979-82 M Coy, Pipes & Drums, Sigs, Mortars. (CFB Baden-Soellingen)
1RCR 1982-88 Mortars. Dukes, Cyprus-Welfare NCO 84-85, Injured, WO&Sgts Mess, (CFB London)
1988-92 Med-remuster to HELL/ 35 DU, CFB Baden
1992 Medical release. God Bless you all!
Pro Patria
|
|
|
ranrad
Ron [Andy] Andrews
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 2331
|
Ho boy , this all bad news thing just wont go away.. perhaps the gov needs to find the experts on the topic and set up a system to do this which will allow transparency as well as justice....what is seen is not always as it seemed at the time...most humans do not naturally toture other s, people or animals....so what . how much actual bad stuff has/is going on..people directly in charge are able to quickly weed out those who have a sadistic nature...and then of course i would think they might then want to keep a closer eye on those found .. forever..for as i said , normal people are not like that...ranrad
|
RCAF,CAF, converted RCR?,1RCR 74-77 CD: SSM (Nato);CPSM,;UN-Cyp.; UN- Golan
|
|
|
Mike Blais
SSM (NATO Bar), CPSM, UN-Cyp, CD
Ultimate 2000+ Member
Offline
Gender:
Posts: 3496
A ROYAL CANADIAN "NEVER PASSES A FAULT"
|
| | | |
Logged
