Photo: Combat Camera, Canadian Forces
The Canadian Press has released what will surely add to the brushfire burning over the allegations of Canadian complicity, at times changing to direct involvement, in alleged torture of alleged Taliban detainees. But as though the somehow sinister speculation that JTF-2 has been involved in apprehending “high-value” targets, an oft-repeated term found only in testimony from low-ranking diplomat Richard Colvin, wasn’t enough, now we’re told that CSIS has been playing a “crucial role” as interrogators of a “vast swath” of captured Taliban fighters.
What’s most interesting about these articles of late, beginning with Professor Amir Attaran’s, and moving on down the line to this latest one, isn’t what is being written. It’s what is not being written.
What exactly is a “vast swath” of Taliban fighters supposed to look like? As with the supposed torture, and the supposed involvement of shadowy JTF-2 special forces, we’re supposed to use our imagination. I suppose.
According to the Canadian Press, CSIS began working with military police intelligence officers in Kandahar as the war “spiralled” out of control in 2006. This information comes from heavily redacted witness transcripts filed with the Military Police Complaints Commission.
The involvement of CSIS adds a new dimension to the controversy, the Canadian Press writes, surrounding the handling and alleged torture of prisoners. So to recap, the involvement of Canadian intelligence officials, unbeknownst until now, somehow compounds the unproven allegations of special forces involvement in apprehending unproven “high-value targets”, who were alleged to have been tortured. But this can’t be proven either.
The document obtained by the Canadian Press states that Canadian Military police weren’t involved in the interviewing or interrogation of detainees. That would have been left to some other trade [meaning a military profession other than MP] that had special training in interrogation. Unnamed “sources” in the article speculate that the redacted versions refer to CSIS.
Milblogger BruceR doesn’t seem to understand what the big deal of CSIS involvement is. If anything, he writes, the allegations of military commanders putting the orderly transfer of detainees ahead of intel-gathering seems more worthy of pursuit. All the Globe article seems to say is that military police aren’t trained to interrogate, and that Canadian Forces weren’t trained to interrogate either.
But throwing a wrench into the idea of CSIS interrogating “vast swaths” of Talib fighters is the 72-hour rule that was in place in 2007. All detainees were of very limited intelligence value at the time, since ISAF was obliged to turn over captured detainees to Afghan authorities within 72 hours. With a such a short time to get any information, the apprehension of fighters was more of a catch and release program than anything else.
As Bruce writes, during his time serving in Kandahar, most Taliban were not even “subject to even our initial questioning.” Most were captured in the field by the Afghan police or NDS [National Directorate of Security, like CSIS] which towed along with Canadian troops. Even the idea of outsourcing interrogation [or torture] to Afghans is flawed, since outsourcing the intel would imply we could get it back, and NDS is as likely to share information with other nations as any intelligence agency would be [read: little to none].
The Canadian Press article observes, without a hint of irony, that the revelations of CSIS being involved in interrogation or torture are also unusual, since CSIS would have no specialized knowledge of doing so either. So what this article has really done is paint a picture that neither outsourcing nor internalizing advanced interrogation techniques is very likely to have occurred under Canadian ISAF command.
As of the time of this writing, no government documents, declassified or otherwise, has suggested CSIS has done anything wrong or illegal in Afghanistan. Which means that, other than speculation, we’re back at square one.
Update
The Libs are buying this hook, line, and sinker. They think Amir Attaran’s assertions are unimpeachable.
They are in search of the Holy Grail to return to power. The damage or truth are simply casualties they are willing to inflict on our global reputation, our military and our government.
I really long for the day that the media actually publishes evidence for these allegations.
TMZ has more credibility than most media outlets.
I want to know when Martin will be held accountable for signing the detainee transfer program in 2005 knowing full well that the methods were less than stellar. They knew in 2002, 2003, 2004 and signed on in 2005. The conservatives weren’t even the governing party till 2006 and those less than perfect practices were addressed immediately after that. Why are the libs not being held accountable at all??? ourmedia is disgusting in their turning a blind eye to all of this. Why arent the cons screaming this from the rafters??
I found the mention of Michel Gautier interesting. Is he not the guy that shows up regularly on CTV to lob vague allegations about the military being a party to torture. And now it seems he was the guy in Afghanistan who was rushing the transfers of prisoners through.
It’s a fair question, Caz.
Why arent the cons screaming this from the rafters??
Because of the innocents that get hurt in the process.
ya gotta love how Canada perceives justice and murder.
Remember that murder case in Toronto where the killer was seen on a video with the gun and the muzzle flash when he killed a Somali refugee in Government housing after a bad drug deal.
The killer was found non-guilty by the lack of evidence,yet the MP’s and Media use a Video of someone Alleging the abuse of our non-citizens in a foreign Nation that is a haven for Terroist/Jihad thugs and somehow the Media jumps on it.
An actual murder in canada caught on a video is not valid evidence under our Charter Of Rights, but a Governemnt employee with a possible bias can spew out claims of War-crimes by our troops because the slurs and attacks refer to someothing outside of canada.
With all the recent Muslim females being murdered in Canada by Honour-Killings under the guise of domestic-violence by males, Canada is fixed on this “Allegation” of maybe some type of harm or mistreatment Kinda sorta according to 4th and 5th hand stories of anicdotal rumours.
Ever time the words “unnamed sources” show up as gospel the story looses all credibility. What would happen if an “unnamed source ” was to say some lieberal MP’s were directly involved on the ground in torture and the same unnamed source saw proof in uncensored documents that he/she can’t talk about? (Just take my word for it). Would our worthless MSM jump all over the story??
Time for Harper to stand up in parliment and call out those “Unnamed sources” because frankly MSM is getting away with what appears to be fabricated news? What kind of professional sites unnamed sources when the story is about our domenstic saftey and the continued saftey of our troops in Afghanistan? It’s one thing for the gossip mongers to cite unnamed sources over stupid political games but the fact that they are smearing our troops to score cheap financial and political points is despicable. I’d love to see a group of vets file a class action suit against MSM and those secret unnamed sources?
I am so glad California has passed a new “Witness” bill that makes it a crime to NOT report on a murder or felony or report info for who you know did it.
I say this because all those 9/11 Conspiracy nutbars pawning off DVD’s that have vague Allegation by Insiders or use poor VHS video copy as evidence will now have to report to the FBI or Police that George Bush is guilty of Murdering 3000 people.
I will pay to be there at the FBI Offices in CA when these yahoos show up and produce a tangible valid piece of evidence, because it’s a Catch-22 for them since they will be guilty as part of the Cover-Up to not go the FBI before, or if they stay mute they will be Guilty after the fact as complicit by their silence to give Evidence to the Police that Bush killed those 3000 civilians.
We need the CA law in Ontario to help stop those annoying 9/11 marches in Toronto and Ottawa along with the Pro-hamas usefull idiots on Campus that spew lies about Canada and Israel being guilty of Human Rights violations.
Moore’s movie about 9/11 had alleged that Bush was stupid for not rounding-up all the Arabs and Muslims until they Proved they DIDN’T have ties to the attack before releasing them,Moore also made me infer he thought Ararbs were blood thirsty murderers controlling Bush and the USA.
Most of the simpletons in the Theatre didn’t make the link when Moore was outraged that Bush allowed some Non-Citizen Arabs to legally book a chartered Plane with others to leave America from the East Coast heading away from the Country above the Atlantic after the Pilot was screened and cleared.
Imagine how those Ararbs would have felt if Moore was running the USA and Interned them in Camps as Guilty for 9/11 until they show they didn’t do it.
What’s very annoying about the CBC is their latest 9/11 flashback Special where they revisit the Bush Conspiracy that it was an inside job based on the lack of evidence for Bush being innocent of any ties to 9/11.
Time to axe the CBC because if you want REAL torture on video, just watch CBC’s Little Mosque On The Prairie while being trapped in a room with no Cable TV or ear plugs, now THAT’S torture.
“found only in testimony from low-ranking diplomat Richard Colvin”
Since when is the number two diplomat in the country considered a low rank? Especially when he was promoted to an even more important role in our US embassy… Your lead in with an ad hominem argument detracts from the rest of the posting since it clearly indicates that your are in attack mode, rather than putting forward a rational argument.
Perhaps the information that we are struggling to uncover through the ATIP and other channels would be more widely available and cited if the black markers were not used so generously by Canada’s New Government and the Parliament was accepted as the highest governing authority in the country.
I don’t know what to tell you, other than the fact that he’s not a senior diplomat, as has been erroneously reported in the media. He was a junior diplomat. Full stop.