These are the scumbags our troops are fighting to defend

The governor of Kandahar, when he’s not gladhanding with Peter McKay, Stephen Harper, and Generalissimo Hillier, personally takes part in the torture and abuse of detainees in his own private prisons that he keeps for that purpose, it has been credibly alleged. And Canada’s New LiberaTory Coalition Government™ has been trying to keep it a secret in the interests of “national security”.

The [url=http://mostlywater.org/ottawa_kept_abuse_charges_against_ally_secret]Globe and Mail (Feb. 1)[/url] says that “Governor Asadullah Khalid, appointed directly by President Hamid Karzai and a key political partner to Canada's nation-building efforts in southern Afghanistan,” has for a long time been suspected of operating secret prisons. [b]“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,”[/b] the paper says.

The Globe broke the story on April 23, 2007 of the torture and abuse of detainees handed over to the Afghan police by Canadian forces.

Two days later, the Harper damage-control was in full swing. He sent diplomats to inspect the main secret police prison in Kandahar on April 25, 2007.

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“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 [b]interrogated by foreigners and the governor[/b],” said the report by Gavin Buchan, a Canadian diplomat and Linda Garwood-Filbert, the head of the Canadian Corrections team in Afghanistan.

[b]“He alleged that the governor beat him and gave him electric shocks,”[/b] 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. [b]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,[/b] multiple sources have confirmed.

The Harper government has succeeded for over nine months in keeping the governor’s personal role in torturing detainees a state secret.

Meanwhile, Canadians are being killed and maimed in the name of defending the regime of scumbags like Khalid and Karzai.

jester wrote:

If I were to answer my own question, I would say that it depends on whether the accusation fits into the political bias of the poster and that this lynch mob should take a quiet moment to consider how [i]they[/i]are no different than any other lynch mob.

Shameful lack of perspective from otherwise intelligent individuals who [b]do[/b] know better.

You snotty little weasel.

The only thing shameful in this thread is your pathetic attempt to defend the scumbag Asadullah Khalid while casting aspersions on babblers as a "lynch mob".

You're talking about a war in which Canadian and other NATO troops routinely act as prosecutor, judge, jury, and executioner when they [url=http://www.counterpunch.org/khan01302008.html]kill thousands of people every year[/url] - without any presumption of innocence. That's the background against which you make your scurrilous remarks.

These are not allegations dreamed up by a bunch of pinko babblers. They were reported by the leading capitalist daily newspaper in the country. The allegations of the tortured detainee were considered sufficiently credible [b]by the Harpocrats in Ottawa[/b], says the Globe, that they "secretly reported them to the International Red Cross and Afghanistan's main human-rights group" and tried to keep them secret under the phony guise of "national security" by illegally redacting documents that were required to be produced as evidence in court.

We're not talking here about someone in prison awaiting trial, but about a powerful Afghan government appointee who is free to roam the streets and is known to have "close ties with U.S. intelligence agents and special forces". Any reasonable person would regard the allegations of torture as credible, and demand that an investigation, rather than a cover-up, be undertaken.

The fact that you deem it necessary to rush to his defence says a lot more about your own twisted sense of justice than anyone else's.

Foreign Affairs Minister Maxime Bernier ended a visit to Afghanistan by calling for President Karzai to take a hard look at his appointment of Khalid as governor of Kandahar.

Not very diplomatic, but somebody had to say it.

Now Bernier has had to clarify that he wasn't trying to meddle in Afghan affairs.

[God forbid Canada should be seen as meddling in Afghan affairs!]

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In rallying to Bernier's defence, Prime Minister Stephen Harper expressed regret that the comments about Khalid were made in public rather than private.

Private meddling is OK, apparently.

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"We have talked to the government of Afghanistan from time to time about the performance of that government about some of our concerns and we'll continue to express those concerns privately," he said in Winnipeg.

Meanwhile, the NDP has rushed to the defence of Hamid Karzai!

Quote:

New Democrat MP Paul Dewar said Bernier has [b]undermined the credibility of Afghan President Hamid Karzai[/b] and hurt back-room efforts to address concerns about Khalid....

"Instead of [b]assuring people in Afghanistan that we have a clear idea what we're doing,[/b] he'll have to spend time now making up for this intervention."

We wouldn't want anyone to think we don't have a clear idea what we're doing in Afghanistan, now, would we?

source: [url=http://www.thestar.com/News/Canada/article/414402]Canadian Press[/url]