Praktik
Philosopher
- Joined
- Oct 26, 2007
- Messages
- 5,244
Well like this should be a shock to anyone:
Canada complicit in torture of innocent Afghans, diplomat says
In a damning indictment of how Canada handled prisoners early in its southern Afghan mission, a government whistleblower says all captives that Canadian soldiers transferred to local authorities ended up being tortured – even though many were likely innocent.
The revelation to MPs by Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin, who served 17 months in Afghanistan, is the first ever testimony by a government official that says the country's military handed over detainees to certain torture.
The Harper government has never admitted it knew this was happening.
In his remarks to a Parliamentary committee on the Afghanistan mission, Mr. Colvin also described a startling pattern of indifference and obstruction to his attempts to warn higher ups of what was happening in 2006 and 2007.
He said Canada's “complicity in torture” ultimately thwarted its military aims in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
link
It's not as if its not well known and documented that people were picked up on the basis of score-settling and petty rivalries between Afghans. And no one can ever claim 100% that their own intelligence is correct at all times. The Americans were perfecting a series of torture methods - and some crossed even the "constraints" put on them on a torture regime that was already legally torture by any accepted international standard. The Afghans were no strangers to the practise beforehand, in an environment where the American force essentially setting up the new government and controlling the country was torturing and setting an international precedent relaxing standards of what could be done, it is beyond implausible that an already torture-comfortable Afghanistan wouldn't go as far as the Americans - and much further in fact.
So given what we know - the bad intelligence due to direct errors on the part of NATO and American forces and due to score-settling, the documented torture of the Americans and the Afghanis - how is it any surprise that the Canadians, in handing over prisoners, would be handing some of them over to certain torture?
Is Canadian intelligence infallible? Did we find a way to not be fooled by Aghanis who pretended to bring us solid intelligence but really used us a vehicle for revenge?
Politically speaking, I don't think the Conservatives are sitting on solid ground attacking the messenger. After all, the empirical facts are against them. We'll see if they can convince enough Canadians but the facts have a way of being stubborn.
The opposition is calling for an inquiry. First out of the gate was the NDP. The liberals lost a chance to impress voters like me when the stumbling Ignatieff paused long enough for the NDP to be out in front on this.
Had they been first, or better still, had they banded together with the NDP to do it jointly - it would have gone some way to addressing their credibility gap with me.
We'll see how this plays out. I am in full favour of an inquiry and believe that this provides a great opportunity to come clean and address some of the questions that Canadians, quite frankly, have seen as "American problems".
How soon we forget, the Maher Arar story should have burned Canadian complicity and involvement in these thorny problems into our collective mind.
Canada complicit in torture of innocent Afghans, diplomat says
In a damning indictment of how Canada handled prisoners early in its southern Afghan mission, a government whistleblower says all captives that Canadian soldiers transferred to local authorities ended up being tortured – even though many were likely innocent.
The revelation to MPs by Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin, who served 17 months in Afghanistan, is the first ever testimony by a government official that says the country's military handed over detainees to certain torture.
The Harper government has never admitted it knew this was happening.
In his remarks to a Parliamentary committee on the Afghanistan mission, Mr. Colvin also described a startling pattern of indifference and obstruction to his attempts to warn higher ups of what was happening in 2006 and 2007.
He said Canada's “complicity in torture” ultimately thwarted its military aims in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar.
link
So given what we know - the bad intelligence due to direct errors on the part of NATO and American forces and due to score-settling, the documented torture of the Americans and the Afghanis - how is it any surprise that the Canadians, in handing over prisoners, would be handing some of them over to certain torture?
Is Canadian intelligence infallible? Did we find a way to not be fooled by Aghanis who pretended to bring us solid intelligence but really used us a vehicle for revenge?
Politically speaking, I don't think the Conservatives are sitting on solid ground attacking the messenger. After all, the empirical facts are against them. We'll see if they can convince enough Canadians but the facts have a way of being stubborn.
The opposition is calling for an inquiry. First out of the gate was the NDP. The liberals lost a chance to impress voters like me when the stumbling Ignatieff paused long enough for the NDP to be out in front on this.
Had they been first, or better still, had they banded together with the NDP to do it jointly - it would have gone some way to addressing their credibility gap with me.
We'll see how this plays out. I am in full favour of an inquiry and believe that this provides a great opportunity to come clean and address some of the questions that Canadians, quite frankly, have seen as "American problems".
How soon we forget, the Maher Arar story should have burned Canadian complicity and involvement in these thorny problems into our collective mind.
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