Leaks abound on the issue of torture in Afghanistan. Those supporting and those opposing the claims of Richard Colvin are trying hard to make sure that Canadian journalists have access to the documents at the centre of the controversy.
The Globe and Mail columnist and Newstalk 1010 commentator Christie Blatchford has her hands on redacted copies of Richard Colvin's emails and finds his evidence wanting.
As you read Blatchford's two columns, one Saturday and one Monday, it is important to remember what Colvin's allegation was in his testimony to the special Commons committee on the Afghan mission. "According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured," Colvin told MPs. "For interrogators in Kandahar, it was standard operating procedure."
Blatchford's run down of the memos in today's column and the words of retired General Michel Gauthier testifying before that same committee tell a different story. Colvin was concerned about the amount of information Canadian soldiers were collecting on Afghan prisoners, lamenting that it was not enough to adequately track them through the prison system. That's a far cry from saying all were tortured and that the government knew this and failed to act for 18 months.
Given the email trail, I'll have to agree with Blatchford. Richard Colvin discovered the torture issue at the same time as Grahame Smith of The Globe and Mail. The memos warning directly of torture don't begin until The Globe reporting began, which makes me wonder which man was the source for the other? Was Smith the source for Colvin's sudden flurry of emails on detainees being tortured? That seems more likely at this point than a diplomat like Colvin giving vital information on torture to a journalist before alerting his superiors.
None of this takes away from the fact that Colvin raised concerns about detainees. He was not alone in this, either within Foreign Affairs or the military, but his assertion that all were tortured and his second assertion that most, if not all were innocent farmers or truck drivers, is not borne out by his own paper trail. David Pugliese of The Ottawa Citizen has a story out this morning that many of those detained by Canadian soldiers were let go by the Afghan National Security Directorate because there was "little evidence linking them to the Taliban." Yet even this, or the mention of a "high rate of release", is not the same as most, if not all, detainees being innocent.
What made the Colvin allegations so shocking was their sweeping nature and the cold, indifferent image he painted of Canadian personnel, military and civilian, to the plight of these prisoners. That portrait, painted so vividly not two weeks ago, is fading. It is not just the generals, Hillier, Gauthier and Fraser that dispute Colvin's story, nor his boss David Mulroney, it is now also the Red Cross.
Matthew Fisher, of Canwest News Service, details comments from Eloi Fillion, deputy director of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Afghanistan, showing the organization is upset with the man opposition parties believe is a whistleblower.
“What we may or may not have discussed with Canada or with Colvin was confidential,” Fillion said. “This is not specific to Canada or to the situation in Afghanistan. We have privileged access (to detainees) because such information is confidential.
“We do not go public and we do not expect state representatives to go public because this could affect access to detainees and this could then become an issue as regards their well-being. We collect allegations and testimony directly from victims, not from second-hand sources, so we need to have this access. Sometimes we are the only thing between them and the authority.”
Fillion tells Fisher that Colvin's allegations put the Red Cross in an awkward position as they continue to seek access to Afghanistan's prisons and convince all parties involved that the information gleaned will not be made public. As for Canada's relationship with the Red Cross, Fillion says the Red Cross has "...a constructive dialogue with all the relevant parties, including Canada."
Calls by the Red Cross for the information they divulge to be protected will likely fall on deaf ears with the opposition parties in Ottawa. They will continue to demand that the documents be released. On Friday, Defence Minister Peter MacKay give a hint that could happen soon, saying that the Attorney General's Department must first review documents to see what can be released and what must be kept secret or redacted from any documents made public.
There are other options that would allow MPs on the committee to see the emails and memos at the heart of Colvin's allegations. The first would be for committee members to go in-camera allowing them to review the documents behind closed doors and then question witnesses about these files in public. That option is limited, in that even then MPs would only see the emails in the form many journalists have seen them; with heavy black marker across much of the material. The reason for that is that MPs simply do not have the security clearance required to view this material in its unedited form.
The second option is a more long term solution and one Defence Minister MacKay says he favours; giving MPs on the Defence Committee the appropriate level of security clearance, such as top secret, in order to allow them to do their work. This is a system used in the United States and, I am told, Britain. Committee members would be able to have access to key documents and briefings. They would be let in on otherwise secret information with the understanding that if they were to divulge it, they could face criminal sanctions. This solution is by far the best option, but even that poses problems in our Canadian system. It would require MPs to start acting as representatives of the people, out to seek the truth, rather than as partisan shills just out to score political points.
Brian Lilley is the Ottawa Bureau Chief for radio stations Newstalk 1010 in Toronto and CJAD 800 in Montreal. Follow Brian on Twitter to get the latest as it happens.
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Comments
Colvin overstepped by trying to say that his warnings went back to 2006. It sounds like he got ticked off when he was told he couldn't testify before the MPIC and decided to get around it by sending that affidavit. Word around Ottawa is that his lawyer has been back-channeling stuff to the MPIC and the opposition parties in order to provoke the committee hearings and maybe even force a public inquiry. Too bad he gave in to the temptation to chum the waters 'cuz now the sharks have taken off his whole arm and are circling around for seconds.
(cont'd) That said, it was pretty naive to enter into a detainee transfer agreement with the Afghans without any way of monitoring what happened to them. Sounds like that lesson was learned a long time ago, though. I hope Colvin is one of those people who gets satisfaction just from being right because he's not going to accomplish anything else with this.
From this article is sounds like Colvin should be disciplined for violating Canada's "sacred" agreement with the Red Cross. I say sacred because that's what the opposition paints it as when it supports their case!
This guy clearly has an agenda. He deserves a prison cell.
LoL. Who thinks Bob Rae could put the well being of Canada ahead of partisan politics?
Tonight I watched the two lefties Red Bob Rae and Dosanjh try and defend themselves against giving the Taliban the benefit over our brave soldiers and a democratic government. These two phonies have never met a camera or a news person they didn't like. Both of them are ready to knife Iffy in the back the minute he makes another blunder.Here are these two tweets wanting a public inquiry into the fate of some bloody terrorists at the cost of millions of tax dollar so the can further defame our soldiers with a few more lies.If they had any love for our troops and this country they would have asked for all the recent hearings in camera.I am ashamed of some of the print media and TV broadcasters who with their innuendo are always trying to keep this B.S. going. As a Korean war veteran I will be reminding veterans on both the left and right what these over the top politicians have done to our country's reputation I will make it a personal thing in the next election.
Colvin took the place of an assassinated colleague. He stayed in a war zone for 18 months. He deserves our respect. Instead the government invoked anti-terrorism legislation, and weepy morons like Blatchford attack him on command. Even chubby little paperpushers like John Baird can't resist getting in on the act. And now all of you join in. What a sad country.
Everyone seems to think that Colvin must be telling the truth because he's obviously toasted his career as a diplomat. If he gets enough momentum with this Afgan detainees allegations to trigger an election and the Liberals get in, he will get his job back (if he even loses it in the first place) and probably a big fat promotion. If an election doesn't happen right away, the Liberals will get in again eventually, and he'll get re-hired, with a nice promotion no doubt. He's actually got a win-win situation.
Working for the Engineer Support Unit for the Canadian Military Forces in Kandahar, Afghanistan, I personally know that when it comes to the detainees held here, our forces are acutely aware of. and do maintain, a high level of concern in the well-being, care and treatment of those individuals who are under their jurisdiction, ESPECIALLY the Afghan people.
I also have firsthand knowledge from the locally engaged employees of what their lives are like, the measures they take in order to come to work on the base, and what it would mean or happen to them should the Taliban discover they were working for, and with, the military and civilian personnel.
I'm not certain from where Mr. Colvin obtains his information, but I suggest that perhaps he don the garb of local Afghan males and go outside into the country to get a hands-on taste of what it means to live in this harsh and cruel land where people are afraid and do not know who they can trust. I doubt he would survive the experience
I'm not the most politically astute, but for me, the obvious question is, what exactly is Colvin's political alignment? To me, the guy sounds like another bullshitting Liberal trying yet again to start a Harper gov't scandal. Those idiot Liberals are still burning from AdScam,and are constantly trying to drag the Conservatives down to their snake-belly level. It's just one crock of $#!+after another from those guys-- this "problem" appears to go back to the garbage-dump days of Lieberal dictatorship, but that fact seems to be lost....
Auntie B,
The only thing sad about Canada is that it's over populated with mentally challenged dumb-fugs like yourself. Now scurry back under that rock from whence you came.
I so sick and tired of the Liberal Biased press; the Liberals put us in debt under Trudeau with the Bilingual and Multicultural costs throughout our Country. We welcome immigrants but they should adapt and as for publishing everything in both languages across the Country is costly and not warranted. Under Chretien, we lost billions under the Ad scam and all he says is what's a million or two!!! They'll say and do anything to get in power whereas Prime Minister Harper is a true Canadian and wants whats best for our Country!
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