An unqualified gasp of surprise from your rather frank admission. Appreciated.

Though it is more than coincidental, I think it tells more of the media going to experts who give soundbites than these experts holding extraodinary opinions.

Agreed, and I think that if the Liberals were to come into power, you’d find that criticism would evaporate like so much water vapour.

I think Attaran’s agenda goes farther back than the detainee controversy and it sickens me. I think it can be shown and proven; logically and clearly; by examining his voluminous writing. He’s been looking for a thread to unravel the Conservatives for some time; he finally hit pay dirt with what he thinks is the “whole cloth:” the detainee controversy. He’s tried out other controversies but they just weren’t universally sensational enough to capture the nation’s and media’s imagination and front pages.

One of the most telling things for my premise is Attaran’s complete refusal to question or involve either the Chretien or Paul Martin Liberals in allegations that Afghan detainees were tortured when handed over by the CF. Attaran consistently, unwaveringly begins his tale with Harper’s government, he consistently flings Harper’s name around like mud; he hasn’t a clue how our military operates and consistently refers to them as if they were some evil-smelling abstraction, a mere reification. He crudely dehumanizes the proud tradition of the Canadian Forces in an absurd psychological reversal of the same accusations he makes against some members of the Canadian Forces and their allegedly glib attitude towards detainees.

Similarly, he completely glosses over and leaves absent any discussion of the delicate tendrils involving how disclosure of sensitive classified information affects our allies or could put the mission and our troops in danger. Attaran can not conceive of the big picture and this is, I think, related to his overgrown ego: No room for anything else; no understanding of diplomacy.

But by identifying Harper as the locus of this alleged evil and by ignoring the historical context, Attaran advances a narrow, partisan, unjust and disingenuously flawed examination. Historical revisionism often came before a purge in Stalin’s Russia and it’s scary that someone of Attaran’s stature is emulating that formula in an attempt to purge Canada of the Harper Conservatives.

Maybe some former Liberal ministers should be worrying about their asses

Facts: The previous Liberal government and Afghan detainees

“Torture in Afghanistan: The Liberals knew” redux

Afghan detainees and the former Liberal government/Human rights Update
(letter in Globe and Mail)

Mark
Ottawa

Thanks, but I’ll take care of that myself.