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Canada Complicit in TORTURE
November 18, 2009 - 11:43pm
Even the bourgeois press is taking notice. The Conservatives have moved heaven and earth to silence this witness ... without success.
Canada complicit in torture of innocent Afghans, diplomat says (Globe and Mail)
On 570 News
http://www.570news.com/news/national/more.jsp?content=n175675330
Canadian diplomats ordered to hold back information on Afghan prison torture: sources November, 17, 2009 - 08:14 pm Brewster, Murray - (THE CANADIAN PRESS)OTTAWA - Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan were ordered in 2007 to hold back information in their reports to Ottawa about the handling of the prisoners, say defence and foreign affairs sources.
The instruction - issued soon after allegations of torture by Afghan authorities began appearing in public - was aimed at defusing the explosive human-rights controversy, said sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
There was a fear that graphic reports, even in censored form, could be uncovered by opposition parties and the media through access-to-information laws, leading to revelations that would further erode already-tenuous public support.
The controversy was seen as "detracting from the narrative" the Harper government was trying to weave around the mission, said one official.
"It was meant to put on happy face," he added.
What is fascinating is the Canadian Ambassador in Kabul at the time is now in China and he was outted as a "turn a blind eye" participant. I can just imagine how China will receive any holier than though "rights" talk from Harpo when he arrives on his latest political junket.
This report implies that our PMO is complaisant in war crimes and if true it is a very very serious accusation that the NDP and Bloc need to not allow to disappear.
A high level civil servant [Colvin] raises an alert about prisoners of Canadian troops in Afghanistan being tortured after they are turned over to Afghan officials, and nothing is done.
Peter MacKay says it wasn't a credible alert, and that is why they didn't look into it. However, any alert from a respected civil servant should be taken seriously, especially where there might be torture occuring.
MacKay's stated defence for inaction has very little credibility.
That is, they were un-Canadian, counterproductive and probably illegal.
There should be calls to action going out about this to MP's......as a bolster to this:
"The only way to get to the bottom of this is a full public inquiry. The women and the men of the Canadian Forces deserve nothing less."
List of MP's with email addresses
I am charmed by the way the MSM, pretends they haven't heard the detainee torture story before and that this is "news".
That's good! Keep this story fresh in the minds of Canadians. Hopefully this will turn enough Canadian voters in the next federal election so that the Cons[ervatives] will be voted out of office!
CBC last night did not do this, Susan O, stated straight out that when rumblings of this were happening the Cons started to change actions, which indicates full well they knew what was happening, and indeed her and Peter stressed that the proof went well beyond the plausible denial meme. hey showed dlips of Sue's coverage about it back in the day....
The At Issue panel discussed this last night too, and Coyne was trying to share the blame with the Liberals, which really does not fully wash in my view as detainees and detainee transfers went way up under Harper's regime.
Also covered was Ignatieff's inability to carry this into the public light given his approval of toruture in his book.
Gulbuddin Heymatyar was infamous for throwing acid in the faces of women at the University of Kabul! He was the recipient of billions in aid from the CIA and Saudis in the 1980's during their anticommunist jihad!
And now Pete Mackay's bosses in Warshington and London are offering Hekmatyar a power sharing role in Karzai's government!
Someone should tell Pete Mackay that his imperialist masters aided and abetted the throwing of acid in women's faces not so long ago.
This morning The Current interviewed Peter Desbarats, former commissioner of the Somalia Inquiry. His opinion was that Canadians didn't seem particularly interested, much less out-raged about that incident. And he wasn't confident we would be about this one. And if we aren't, no loss for the Conservatives.
"We have seen the enemy - and it is us"? Pogo, I think.
Not only that, but Peter MacKay makes the assumption that these prisoners were "Taliban". An assumption that has yet to be proven.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar does not belong to a member organization of the Taliban. He is the commander of an insurgent group known as the Hezb-i-Islami Gulbuddin or the HIG Hekmatyar network. Hekmatyar and and his network usually operates on its own. Hekmatyar and his HIG network usually operates in northeast Afghanistan, not Kandahar province, south Afghanistan.
Chris Arsenault interviewed Malalai Joya recently:
The CIA is still funding warlords. Karzai's brother is a drug baron on the CIA's payroll, just as the CIA were funding drug barons and the most vicious of warlords and mercenaries in the 1980's. Gulbby, their coalition partner in crime in waiting, is still dealing drugs after all these years. What a mess. After 30 years of US meddling in Afghanistan, nothing has changed for ordinary Afghans living in grinding poverty and despair.
Many detainees were just local farmers
Overall, though, I'm guessing that the locals are overwhelmingly grateful to their Canadian saviours for building schools etc.
edit
Sure it is. US-managed election results in Afghanada reveal as much. Democracy is the right's most hated institution and always will be.
The U.S. offers bounties to those who bring in "Al-Qaeda" and "Taliban" "terrorists". Anyone wanting to make a quick buck can either make a "citizen's arrest" or "finger" (along with two, or more, others who bear false witness) a totally innocent person to U.S. or Canadian or other NATO/ISAF troops (think Afghans can tell them apart, or care? They're all hated feringhees or foreigners or "Americans" to them.) Off to Bagram prison for them.
Anyone seen "Taxi to the Dark Side"?
The following Globe and Mail article paints a picture that the political storm that is about to break with extreme violence in Ottawa is only just brewing:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/tories-work-to-undermine-di...
Where's the petition to see charges laid against Hillier, Harper and MacKay? I want to sign.
Anyone remember the Euro classic movies "Battle of Algiers" and "Z"?
Yes.
But it does have a lot of upchuckability.
In Afghan tribal culture, revenge doesn't always involve direct violence. Many of the innocent victims of false terrorism charges are simply fingered due to domestic or financial disputes.
Another example of culturally insensitive American expediency being utilised by Afghans to settle scores. As in Iraq, American policies have turned the population against them. The sad part is that Canada's feeble aid efforts are marginalised by a tribal culture that does not differentiate between occupying nationalities - they are all enemies.
Ah, tribal culture - so that's why those Afghans aren't thanking us...
Why stop there? The whole pack of 'I didn't see that email' jowly porkers in expensive suits should walk the plank.
What is the symbolism of the dude in the hoody?
In his book, (just out) A Soldier First: Bullets, Breaucrats and the Politics of War, tricky Rick attempts to cover his ass on the earlier controversy, and plows on in singularly insensitive fashion:
"Things had changed after spring 2006, however, when we moved south of Kandahar and our soldiers would often take prisoners after firefights with Taliban or in other operations...the decision was made...that the right thing to do was transfer prisoners to the Afghans and let the Afghan judicial system, fledgling though it may have been, handle them. After all, Afghanistan is a sovereign country and, almost without exception, it was Afghans that we were detaining."
Hillier writes - in classic Blimp fashion: "We thought we had a good process in place, although obviously it was not perfect. Eventually - no surprise - people back in Canada started squawking about the issue. Opposition politicians and several specific individuals were trying to spin the story for their own purposes, and the result was that screaming newspaper headline insinuating that Canadian soldiers were abusing detainees."
He continues: "This suggestion that Canadian soldiers were not abiding by the laws of war coincided with complaints that the Afghans were abusing some of those handed to them. Their judicial and prison systems were still somewhat nascent, and there was always some risk that abuse would occur. That, unfortunately, is not abnormal in failed states and occurs even in solid countries like Canada. After indications that some abuse might have occurred (ed. the Globe pointed out that it had) the CF felt it was a necessity to have Candian officials make regular, unannounced visits to Afghan prison to ensure the people we transferred were being treated humanely. "
He plows on, about the Manley Report of January 2008 and the "improvements in prison infrastructure and Afghan police training..." But, of course, the general's concerns came late, after admitting that, yes, shit happens. Which makes the sounds from the government benches these days, expressions of pure flatulence.
Ever hear of Abu Ghraib?
Whassamadda? Fish not biting? You run out of friends to chat with in your 'the Afghan people will win' fantasy world?
You're pushing it.
How about some substantive comments instead of this trash.
He's an Islamophobic troll, not worth responding to - I forgot for a moment, and I apologize for commenting on one of his posts.