Gordon O'Connor Once Again Under Pressure

[jdobbin]

The Conservatives were denying abuse claims last week. This week Day says his officials did know about about abuse claims.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2007/04/30/...-detainees.html

The federal government admitted for the first time that it has received specific allegations of torture from some Afghan detainees.

Abuse claims were made to two Canadian corrections officers in discussions with prisoners held in Afghanistan, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said Monday.

Corrections Canada has deployed two officers in Kandahar since early February to help train and mentor Afghan jailers

"Yes, they have actually talked to detainees about the possibility if they were tortured or not," Day told reporters. "They actually had a couple of incidents where detainees said they were."

Of course O'Connor wasn't in the House today to answer questions.

[newbie]

The "right" seem to either have lapses in memory or outright confusion when it comes to answering for their actions. Tears are beginning to show in Harper's accountability fabric. So, where the hell is Gordon and his explanations?

[weaponeer]

The MND could be Celine Dion, she would still be in the "hot seat" as long as we have troops in Afghanistan. It will not matter which party governs Canada, as long as we are at war, MND will have to deal with big questions. Think of the poor old MND at the time of the Dieppe raid in 1942....

There has been no formal investigation into what happened, if anything. The G&M posted a story, no prof other than "the talis said so", and we jump all over ourselves to create a crisis where none exists. Even if they were beat up by the Afghan police, they lived to tell about it, which over here is progress.

Canada is by no means the "moral" yardstick we should be using, we have alot to learn ourselves....

[jdobbin]

The "right" seem to either have lapses in memory or outright confusion when it comes to answering for their actions. Tears are beginning to show in Harper's accountability fabric. So, where the hell is Gordon and his explanations?

He remained rooted to his seat in the House during Question Period. The National Post says that MacKay kept looking at O'Connor to answer questions but O'Connor wouldn't get up so MacKay had to answer for him.

[August1991]

The Tories should just stonewall this issue.

Let the bureaucrats at Foreign Affairs and the generals at DND throw Cheerios at each other across the kitchen table.

"We were not consulted,” said one, adding that Foreign Affairs was shunted aside by the Department of National Defence and Canada's top soldier, Rick Hillier, when he signed the accord in 2005. The deal has become mired in controversy because it includes no follow-up role for Canada on the fate of detainees in Afghanistan's notoriously brutal prison system.

Another senior foreign-service officer gave a longer explanation: “Hillier went to Kabul thinking of them [the detainees] as ‘scumbags' and made the deal. Hillier wanted to sign it; he insisted on signing it,” he said. “Defence took the file and messed it up.”

G & M

[scribblet]

I don't see why the Liberals should be getting a free pass over this when they knew about it around 2003s They were warned by their own official in Kabul and Paul Martin agreed in Dec. 05 to hand over suspected Taliban Afghanistan's security forces.

Not only that, the Liberals failed to include a provision in the deal that Canadian officials would be able to visit the prisons to make sure detainees weren't being tortured. All of this is reported in Quebec's French-language La Presse newspaper on Saturday, did I miss it in the ROC?

[jdobbin]

I don't see why the Liberals should be getting a free pass over this when they knew about it around 2003s They were warned by their own official in Kabul and Paul Martin agreed in Dec. 05 to hand over suspected Taliban Afghanistan's security forces.

Not only that, the Liberals failed to include a provision in the deal that Canadian officials would be able to visit the prisons to make sure detainees weren't being tortured. All of this is reported in Quebec's French-language La Presse newspaper on Saturday, did I miss it in the ROC?

Slam the Liberals by all means. However, that would mean acknowledging that torture is taking place and that the Tories have known about it for just as long as they have been in office and have done nothing about it.

[Canadian Alien]

I don't see why the Liberals should be getting a free pass over this when they knew about it around 2003s They were warned by their own official in Kabul and Paul Martin agreed in Dec. 05 to hand over suspected Taliban Afghanistan's security forces.

Not only that, the Liberals failed to include a provision in the deal that Canadian officials would be able to visit the prisons to make sure detainees weren't being tortured. All of this is reported in Quebec's French-language La Presse newspaper on Saturday, did I miss it in the ROC?

The reason is because it's not just the situation that's the problem. It's the way the Conservatives have chosen to respond to the situation that's the problem-indeed the main problem. The blatant deception, misdirection, or incompetence (take your pick) is what has turned this whole thing into a mess.

[jdobbin]

Still no answers on the detainee issue.

And now this:

http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2007/05/02/hillier-abuse.html

Some Canadian soldiers in Afghanistan are angry that allegations about abuse of detainees are deflecting attention away from their mission, Canada's chief of defence staff said Wednesday.

Speaking to reporters in the southern Afghanistan city of Kandahar, Gen. Rick Hillier said he had been talking to soldiers in the previous few hours who were upset that the allegations have taken the focus — especially back in Canada — away from all the positive things that they feel they're accomplishing.

"And let me just come out and say very frankly here, I met a variety of soldiers who are pissed off," Hillier said

Hillier of course has his part in all of this and perhaps the troops should be pissed at him.

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national...a65010db&k=3763

But Hillier defended his decision to sign the deal - in part a consequence of convenience, he said, as he was in the country at the time - as the right move for Afghanistan and for Canada's role in helping the fledgling Afghan government find its feet.

"At the time, we felt that was the right thing to do, that we were comfortable with our approach," Hillier said, a backdrop of military vehicles behind him.

"Obviously, we would reassess that as allegations come out that perhaps that was not sufficient."

The agreement, which did not include any provisions to allow human rights officials to visit prisoners once they'd been handed over by Canadian soldiers, helped to foster Canada's effort to support the local government, to build its capacity and strengthen local police and military forces, he said.

[scribblet]

he Torch has more on the man NDP defense "critic" Dawn Black calls to ask "what she needs to know";

http://toyoufromfailinghands.blogspot.com/...er-anymore.html

According to the Canadian news media, Michael Byers is nothing more than a "human rights activist," a "political science professor," and an expert on international law. Somehow or other, on a file so politically charged that it has dominated the news columns and airwaves for weeks, so politically dangerous that it threatens to sack the Minister of National Defence, it has been deemed irrelevant by the Canadian journalistic establishment that one of the key instigators of this drama is a declared partisan for one of the parties in opposition to our effort in Afghanistan.