The Colvin Affair: Who knew what when? (1)
I confess to some bafflement at the government’s handling of the Afghan prisoner story: a story that would be more of a crisis if Canadian forces were still handing over captured prisoners to the Afghan government without insisting on adequate safeguards and outside supervision. But everyone agrees, I think, that that is no longer the case.
It was the case in 2006-07, when a previous prisoner transfer agreement was in force, and Richard Colvin was writing all those memos warning his superiors of what he was hearing about conditions in the Afghan jails. And presumably it was the case before then, when the Liberals, who negotiated that earlier agreement, were in power. But the agreement was changed in 2007, by the Tories. So you’d think that would be the Tory story: We fixed the problem.
Granted, it’s a scandal if anyone was tortured on our watch at any time, the more so if, as Colvin alleges, senior government officials knew about it, and did nothing. But it’s much less of a scandal if, once apprised of it, they acted to stop it, albeit after much delay. Afghanistan is a chaotic place, and it’s conceivable that it would have taken some time to investigate the charges and verify their accuracy.
[More]
Notes:
Coyne raises some good questions but in my view he misses the entire point. Canada was invited to Afghanistan and as part of that agreement we were required to turn over prisoners to their government. We have done so and NOW we find after a year or so that the “official opposition” AGAIN brings up the fate of “brutal captives” simply because they have no other axe to grind.
In other words they support the worst of the worst simply because they think it gains political points.
My view — they could not be more wrong because they are attacking our troops and therefore the reason their stats continue to decline in Canada. There is nothing so low as a “leftie” unhinged and in Canada we know how to deal with that problem.
Fire. Them. All.
Popularity: 7% [?]
Male, retired and the rest is of little interest to anyone. The site keeps me busy and if it helps others to stay abreast of daily events then my time is well spent.
Peter Says:
Geeze, Taliban bad guys got beat up by their own….well, who could’ve seen that coming? Never forget that these same bad guys would eagerly and very happily gouge your eyes out with a plastic spoon at the drop of a hat. Somebody enlighten me, we are out to WIN this war…aren’t we?
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 4:12 pm
mike Says:
Peter: Don’t you know it is better to lose, if winning means being as brutal as your enemies. I say lets turf the Geneva conventions and let the strongest and most brutal win. The Geneva conventions are just handcuffs to the western civilized nations.
mid island mike
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 4:35 pm
Undecided Voter Says:
Hypocritical of the liberals saying anything about this as Ignatieff was on record in states as supporting Presidents Bush’s torture of prisoners during the Iraq Invasion.
‘Ignatieff supports Regulated Torture’
http://www.agoracosmopolitan.com/home/Frontpage/2006/11/29/01271.html
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:24 pm
Jack Says:
Not torture at all. What you do is stuff them into a metal tank somewhere and then play the Beatles 24/7 very loud. They will soon give up.
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 5:30 pm
Cunctator Says:
Colvin’s testimony sounded very scripted, as though it had been written by a speechwriter. If so, who did it for him and why? One wonders if senior officials at DFAIT, long chafing at the government’s refusal to acknowledge them as the “best and brightest”, are not somehow involved.
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
willowway Says:
It is my understanding that Canada is not technically at war. Rather, we are taking sides and assisting one faction of what amounts to a civil war. We should get our troops out of there! Our opinion as to how and by whom that country is administered is irrelevant.
Do I believe that Canada’s troops handed over prisoners without any assurance as to the treatment they would be subjected to? Yes, they probably did.
Do I care? No. Just bring them home.
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 8:57 pm
Mac Says:
It’s a tempest in a teacup but the opposition are trying their best to stir it into a hurricane. Funny how the journalists who all but self-identify as Liberals are all over this but even the moderates aren’t buying it…
Posted on November 22nd, 2009 at 11:30 pm
ward Says:
Less funny is the fact we have smoking gun evidence on the table for 4 days that expose “climate change” as the fraud it is, and the MSM has not acknowledged it. But the latest incarnation of Karlhienz Shrieber gets coverage.
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 at 12:40 am
Jema54 Says:
Smoking tobacco is a guaranteed right for POWS, under the Geneva Convention. I say MAKE those scumbags smoke tobacco in Mr. Bloomberg’s town! Oh the Horror – store them in a public jailhouse, with their smokes, in California to await their trials.
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 at 3:22 am
Undecided Voter Says:
Sounds like another political case of ‘he said, she said’
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 at 9:42 am
beentheredonethat Says:
Sounds like the LSM has become tired of beating that tired old horse H1N1. More Canadians continue to die from the common flue than the media would have us believe by their hype is the 21st century version of the bubonic plague. Subscriptions and advertising revenues are still tanking so it’s time to resurrect a new headline screaming boogyman to beat the Conservatives over the head with. In a couple of weeks it’ll finally sink through the inch thick skulls of journalists that the majority of Canadians simply don’t care.
Posted on November 23rd, 2009 at 10:59 am
MaryT Says:
As a person who gets the Angus online poll, for the past several weeks I have suggested a poll question. As a Canadian do you care that there was possible torture of afghan prisoners, by afghan guards.
As a Canadian would you prefer these prisoners be released, to plant bombs etc that kill our troops.
So far, it hasn’t made a poll. I predict it would be over 80% that don’t care.
Posted on November 24th, 2009 at 2:45 am