The character assassination of Richard Colvin

Afghanistan's intelligence service refused to accept Canadian - captured prisoners over the summer because the military was providing "insufficient evidence" of wrongdoing,...

The Afghan - imposed halt in transfers is at odds with claims by the federal government that the Canadian military refused to turn over detainees because local authorities were not living up to obligations to allow unfettered access to prisoners. Defence Minister Peter MacKay provided that explanation to the House of Commons on Nov. 23, with no mention of the simmering dispute with the National Directorate of Security, the Afghan spy agency.

Former diplomat Ricahrd Colvin told a special House of Commons committee two weeks ago that ordinary Afghans are often caught in security sweeps with little evidence of wrongdoing -- an allegation federal Conservatives and the military deny.

A Sept. 19, 2009, internal memo lends credence to Colvin's assertions.

... The Afghan decision to halt transfers sparked an urgent meeting between Canada's ambassador and the head of the National Directorate of Security in Kabul. Gen. Amrullah Saleh, on Sept. 6, says the memo, widely distributed within the federal government and NATO.

The local NDS commander "was refusing to accept Canadian - transferred detainees due to NDS claims of insuffient evidence being provided," says the document, shown to The Canadian Press on a confidential basis.

"Saleh indicated that it would be helpful if the Canadian Forces could provide additional context surrounding detentions (eg. Details of what was going on in the area at the time of capture) because detainees will inevitably claim they are simple farmers, who were working on their crops when detained," says the uncensored memo.

... And so with little or no evidence to hold suspects, the spy agency has been releasing them - to the dismay of the Canadian military.

Canada's ambassador to Afghanistan, William Crosbie, "indicated that the subsequent release of detainees is having a profound and demoralizing effect on our soldiers" and military headquarters.

Saleh also complained that the continuing political controversy in Canada over alleged torture has led many prisoners to automatically claim abuse, which requires an official investigation.

The resources of the NDS have been tied up investigating claims of abuse, leaving no time for followup investigations into the suspected Taliban picked up by Canadians, Saleh is quoted as saying.

Suspected insurgents are sometimes able to get out of jail through political influence and tribal ties, says the memo.

That was especially true after last summer's fraud-laced presidential election, when village elders routinely lobbied the intelligence service to release prisoners.

There is "often significant political pressure to release certain detainees (especially now, given political uncertainty and widespread deal - making)," said the memo.

It also makes clear the division between the Canadian military, which supported Khalid, and skeptical diplomats, who became increasingly vocal about allegations of corruption, drug-running and prisoner abuse.

Canada ended up withdrawing its support for Khalid in 2008 when former foreign affairs minister Maxime Bernier, in what was widely viewed as a massive diplomatic blunder, publicly declared the governor had to go and that he'd urged Karzai to replace him. Provincial governors in Afghanistan are appointed by the president.

But Colvin's 2007 memo lays out in stark terms how the long-standing association had a corrosive effect on Canada's image in Kandahar. Khalid, Colvin warned, discredited Canada through association.

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/article/738292--canada-...

An unknown number of Taliban insurgents captured By Canadians and turned over to Afghanistan's secret police are unaccounted for - a serious violation of the Harper government's "improved" detainee-transfer agreement and one that may endager Canadian soldiers.

The latest detainee-transfer problem to emerge also threatens to undermine Prime Minister Stephen Harper's assertion that "two, three, four years ago" his government fixed the problems that put Canada at risk of violating the Geneva Conventions by transferring detainees into torture.

"This issue has long since been dealt with," Mr. Harper said last week.

But a few days earlier, Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon had quietly acknowledged that an unspecified number of transferred detainees can't be accounted for because Afghan security forces have failed to keep Canada informed of their fates.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/afghans-violating-detainee-...

Reports from the Canadian embassy in Kabul in September of 2006 reveal there was unease within the military alliance about how Canada was handling suspects it rounded up and transferred to Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service.

One of the complainants was British Colonel Dudley Giles, a senior military police officer with NATO's International Security Assistance Force the 40-plus nation coalition fighting insurgents in Afghanistan. In August of 2006 he brought his concerns to the Canadian embassy in Kabul, saying Canada was stonewalling on providing basic information on the Afghans it was capturing.

"Col. Giles made what can only be described as strong criticisms of the Canadian approach on detainee issues," Canadian diplomat Richard Colvin wrote in a Sept. 28, 2006, memo that was sent to more than 30 Canadian government e-mail addresses - most of them in the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"There are 'issues of trust and openness,' Mr. Colvin quoted Col. Giles as saying. "According to Giles, when he contacts Canadian [officials] in Kandahar, 'their first response to requests is "Why do you want to know?' followed by 'We know what you want, but we won't give it to you.'" The memos add to the weight of concerns already raised by Mr. Colvin, the International Committee of the Red Cross and human-rights groups about Canada's practices in transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities.

Diplomatic reports from the same period show that Mr. Colvin wasn't the only foreign service officer relaying criticisms about detainee transfers to Ottawa. A Sept. 11, 2006, memo from a Canadian NATO staffer alerted the government to the fact that the ICRC had singled out Canada's practice of handing over prisoners to the Afghans on the battlefield, a practice it feared could result in human-rights monitors losing track of detainees.

... Back then, however, Canada wasn't providing details even to its allies on what happened to the suspects it picked up. That is despite the fact that ISAF, the command structure for the war in Afghanistan, imposes legal and operational requirements aimed at ensuring detainees are looked after, transferred and held in accordance with international law.

... Canada's refusal to co-operate with its military allies on the prisoner issue originated at the top of the Canadian defence establishment, according to a Sept. 19, 2006, memo from Mr. Colvin. The diplomat recounted for Ottawa how ISAF political adviser Paul Wyatt told the Canadian embassy that Canada's senior military-police officer in the southern Afghan province of Kandahar fingered his Ottawa superiors as the obstructionists.

"The Canadian provost marshal in Kandahar has told ISAF that he would be pleased to provide the information but that he has received explicit instructions from National Defence Headquarters ... not to do so," Mr. Colvin's memo says.

At the same time, NATO was getting an earful from the Red Cross over Canada's handover policy. "One practice that was particularly criticized was that of the turning over of detainees by international forces directly to Afghan security forces when on joint patrol, as this could result in a circumventing of the requirement to notify the ICRC," Anne Burgess, a Canadian official stationed at NATO, wrote in a Sept. 11, 2006, e-mail distributed widely throughout Foreign Affairs. "Apparently Canadian forces were particularly identified with this practice."

That was long before The Globe and Mail published harrowing accounts of torture and abuse. Those stories, the government has since claimed, were its first inkling that anything was amiss with its transfer policy.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/coalition-allies-faulted-ca...