Clever Clogs
Posts: 674 
Location: Canada
Location: Canada
January 23rd, 2008, 08:34 PM
This says it all:
For some time critics argued for a halt to the detainee transfers. November 5, 2007 isn't very long ago regarding the halt considering how long it was argued for this government to cease the transfers. The governments response to the critics early on was to release a 200 page manual to disrupt commons committees dealing with this very issue. That was this governments initial response on top of denials and attacks on the critics.
This government campaigned on transparent and accountable government. For the life of me how can people still support these people? If you don't like the Liberals, fine, then there are other parties to vote for.
This says it all:
Quote:
The Harper government quietly stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan custody months ago after compelling evidence of torture was discovered, the government admitted Wednesday on the eve of a federal court hearing.
The government kept the its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers and as it tried to drum up public support for extending Canada's commitment to wage war on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
The government kept the its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers and as it tried to drum up public support for extending Canada's commitment to wage war on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
For some time critics argued for a halt to the detainee transfers. November 5, 2007 isn't very long ago regarding the halt considering how long it was argued for this government to cease the transfers. The governments response to the critics early on was to release a 200 page manual to disrupt commons committees dealing with this very issue. That was this governments initial response on top of denials and attacks on the critics.
This government campaigned on transparent and accountable government. For the life of me how can people still support these people? If you don't like the Liberals, fine, then there are other parties to vote for.
Quote:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ghanistan/home
Canada halts transfers of Afghan prisoners
PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail Update
January 23, 2008 at 6:04 PM EST
The Harper government quietly stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan custody months ago after compelling evidence of torture was discovered, the government admitted Wednesday on the eve of a federal court hearing.
The government kept the its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers and as it tried to drum up public support for extending Canada's commitment to wage war on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Justice Department lawyers admitted Wednesday that detainee transfers were halted 10 weeks ago.
In early November, a prisoner told Canadian diplomats in an interrogation room in a secret police jail in Kandahar that he had been beaten and then told them where they could find the electrical cable and rubber hose used by his torturers. The Canadians found them beneath a chair.
“Canadian authorities were informed on November 5, 2007, by Canada's monitoring team, of a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility,” the lawyers said in a letter sent Wednesday to Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
“As a consequence there have been no transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities since that date,” the letter confirmed.
Canada halts transfers of Afghan prisoners
PAUL KORING
Globe and Mail Update
January 23, 2008 at 6:04 PM EST
The Harper government quietly stopped transferring prisoners into Afghan custody months ago after compelling evidence of torture was discovered, the government admitted Wednesday on the eve of a federal court hearing.
The government kept the its decision under wraps, even as it prepared to fight rights groups seeking a halt to transfers and as it tried to drum up public support for extending Canada's commitment to wage war on the Taliban in southern Afghanistan.
Justice Department lawyers admitted Wednesday that detainee transfers were halted 10 weeks ago.
In early November, a prisoner told Canadian diplomats in an interrogation room in a secret police jail in Kandahar that he had been beaten and then told them where they could find the electrical cable and rubber hose used by his torturers. The Canadians found them beneath a chair.
“Canadian authorities were informed on November 5, 2007, by Canada's monitoring team, of a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility,” the lawyers said in a letter sent Wednesday to Amnesty International Canada and the British Columbia Civil Liberties Association.
“As a consequence there have been no transfers of detainees to Afghan authorities since that date,” the letter confirmed.
Quote:
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/n...464dce3de1&k=0
Don Martin: Tories have book on political wrangling
By Don Martin, National Post
Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007
Ottawa • A secret guidebook that details how to unleash chaos while chairing parliamentary committees has been given to select Tory MPs.
Running some 200 pages including background material, the document - given only to Conservative chairmen - tells them how to favour government agendas, select party-friendly witnesses, coach favourable testimony, set in motion debate-obstructing delays and, if necessary, storm out of meetings to grind parliamentary business to a halt.
Don Martin: Tories have book on political wrangling
By Don Martin, National Post
Published: Thursday, May 17, 2007
Ottawa • A secret guidebook that details how to unleash chaos while chairing parliamentary committees has been given to select Tory MPs.
Running some 200 pages including background material, the document - given only to Conservative chairmen - tells them how to favour government agendas, select party-friendly witnesses, coach favourable testimony, set in motion debate-obstructing delays and, if necessary, storm out of meetings to grind parliamentary business to a halt.
Clever Clogs
Posts: 674
Location: Canada
Location: Canada
January 23rd, 2008, 08:39 PM
This is really sick.
"The controversy came at the end of a week in which Conservatives filibustered the Commons ethics committee to prevent an investigation into the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees."
This is really sick.
"The controversy came at the end of a week in which Conservatives filibustered the Commons ethics committee to prevent an investigation into the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees."
Quote:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl.../National/home
Manual called proof of 'control fetish'
GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
May 18, 2007 at 10:43 PM EDT
Ottawa — A manual telling Conservative chairs of Commons committees how to stick to the party agenda — and to obstruct or end meetings when the debate turns hostile to the government — is proof that parliamentary dysfunction is being orchestrated by the Conservatives, opposition members charged Friday.
Conservative Whip Jay Hill refused to return phone calls about the 200-page manual, which caused an uproar in the House after its existence was revealed in a published report Friday. But the government did not deny that such a guidebook had been handed out to its committee chairs.
"We learned this morning that Conservative committee chairmen have received a manual that tells them how to create chaos to avoid dealing with subjects that displease the government. It suggests interrupting witnesses or engaging in systematic obstruction or leaving unexpectedly, to block work," Bloc Québécois MP Monique Guay said during Question Period.
"Isn't this handbook proof that the paralysis that has struck the access-to-information committee … and the standing committee on the official languages is anything but accidental — that it is deliberately controlled by the Office of the Prime Minister?"
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan responded by pointing to justice bills that the opposition had delayed.
"We want to work together with all the parties in the House, but we also made promises to Canadians at the time of the last elections, and we have the duty to deliver on them," he said. "We want to proceed with our agenda. We want to deliver on our commitments."
The controversy came at the end of a week in which Conservatives filibustered the Commons ethics committee to prevent an investigation into the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees.
Manual called proof of 'control fetish'
GLORIA GALLOWAY
From Saturday's Globe and Mail
May 18, 2007 at 10:43 PM EDT
Ottawa — A manual telling Conservative chairs of Commons committees how to stick to the party agenda — and to obstruct or end meetings when the debate turns hostile to the government — is proof that parliamentary dysfunction is being orchestrated by the Conservatives, opposition members charged Friday.
Conservative Whip Jay Hill refused to return phone calls about the 200-page manual, which caused an uproar in the House after its existence was revealed in a published report Friday. But the government did not deny that such a guidebook had been handed out to its committee chairs.
"We learned this morning that Conservative committee chairmen have received a manual that tells them how to create chaos to avoid dealing with subjects that displease the government. It suggests interrupting witnesses or engaging in systematic obstruction or leaving unexpectedly, to block work," Bloc Québécois MP Monique Guay said during Question Period.
"Isn't this handbook proof that the paralysis that has struck the access-to-information committee … and the standing committee on the official languages is anything but accidental — that it is deliberately controlled by the Office of the Prime Minister?"
Government House Leader Peter Van Loan responded by pointing to justice bills that the opposition had delayed.
"We want to work together with all the parties in the House, but we also made promises to Canadians at the time of the last elections, and we have the duty to deliver on them," he said. "We want to proceed with our agenda. We want to deliver on our commitments."
The controversy came at the end of a week in which Conservatives filibustered the Commons ethics committee to prevent an investigation into the censorship of documents related to Afghan detainees.
Hawkings former plumber
Posts: 8,459 
Videos: 1
Location: RR1 Distopia 666 Discordia Drive Apt 911
Videos: 1
Location: RR1 Distopia 666 Discordia Drive Apt 911
January 23rd, 2008, 08:45 PM
When will this country wise up to the fact that this New Conservative Government is a rotten servile quisling cesspool of fascists who would have, if not discovered,continued to hand over prisoners for torture in blind obediance to thier American masters. And they continue to want the Canadian soldier to die in the service of imperialism long after most of the NATO countries have decided to not continue the hopeless senseless murder of Afghan civilians. For what? The puppet Karsi government is considered by most Afghans to have created worse conditions than what they endured under the Taleban.
When will this country wise up to the fact that this New Conservative Government is a rotten servile quisling cesspool of fascists who would have, if not discovered,continued to hand over prisoners for torture in blind obediance to thier American masters. And they continue to want the Canadian soldier to die in the service of imperialism long after most of the NATO countries have decided to not continue the hopeless senseless murder of Afghan civilians. For what? The puppet Karsi government is considered by most Afghans to have created worse conditions than what they endured under the Taleban.
Clever Clogs
Posts: 674
Location: Canada
Location: Canada
February 1st, 2008, 04:45 AM
Wow, this Harper government is really messed up. Harpers got some really weird priorities for our country. Oh yeah, but Canadians who are concerned about the treatment of detainees are a problem. Sure, we are the ones who have it wrong. Who are fighting on the wrong side of the issue.
Sure.
The way I see it, those who are supporting this government in this endeavor are the ones flushing this once great country down the toilet. It seems like some people think it's worth more raining beatings on the supposed 'bad guys' rather than our country maintain the high standards of the 'rule of law' that in actuality makes a Canada, a Canada.
So while we send our young men and woman to die for a cause in some foreign land to supplant our value system by force, it might be worthy to note, not to also sacrifice and lose our value system in trying to do this. Can not anyone else see the irony in that?
I mean are we really there to make their country a better country of higher values, or are we just making our own country lose our own values?
Yeah, BullSh*t! Transparent, open, and accountible government at it's finest.
.
Wow, this Harper government is really messed up. Harpers got some really weird priorities for our country. Oh yeah, but Canadians who are concerned about the treatment of detainees are a problem. Sure, we are the ones who have it wrong. Who are fighting on the wrong side of the issue.
Sure.
The way I see it, those who are supporting this government in this endeavor are the ones flushing this once great country down the toilet. It seems like some people think it's worth more raining beatings on the supposed 'bad guys' rather than our country maintain the high standards of the 'rule of law' that in actuality makes a Canada, a Canada.
So while we send our young men and woman to die for a cause in some foreign land to supplant our value system by force, it might be worthy to note, not to also sacrifice and lose our value system in trying to do this. Can not anyone else see the irony in that?
I mean are we really there to make their country a better country of higher values, or are we just making our own country lose our own values?
Quote:
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ghanistan/home
(first part)
Ottawa kept abuse charges against Afghan ally secret
Kandahar governor accused of beating and electrocuting detainees in secret prisons
PAUL KORING
From Friday's Globe and Mail
February 1, 2008 at 2:00 AM EST
The Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, allegations that the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees.
The allegations against Governor Asadullah Khalid, appointed directly by President Hamid Karzai and a key political partner to Canada's nation-building efforts in southern Afghanistan, were regarded as sufficiently credible that senior officials in Ottawa were immediately informed and Canadian diplomats secretly reported them to the International Red Cross and Afghanistan's main human-rights group.
Government documents detailing the accusations were heavily censored by the government which, claiming national security, blacked out the references to “the governor.” But multiple sources, both inside and outside the government, confirm that the words “the governor” have been censored as have whole passages referring to secret cells allegedly run by Mr. Khalid outside the official prison system.
Rumours have long linked Mr. Khalid to secret prisons. That he had close ties with U.S. intelligence agents and special forces had been known since Canadian troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in early 2006. But Ottawa didn't confront an accusation of the governor's direct involvement in the interrogation and torture of prisoners until it sent diplomats to inspect the main secret police prison in Kandahar on April 25, 2007.
“Another prisoner beckoned to us,” begins the crucial passages describing the first inspection of the secret National Directorate of Security police prison in Kandahar city.
The detainee, like others in the secret police jail, was in leg irons, according to the documents. He told the Canadians his name and described how he initially had been imprisoned for nearly a year, most of the time shackled alone in a room in one of the governor's private prisons. “He went on to state he had been interrogated by foreigners and the governor,” said the report by Gavin Buchan, a Canadian diplomat and Linda Garwood-Filbert, the head of the Canadian Corrections team in Afghanistan.
“He alleged that the governor beat him and gave him electric shocks,” Ms. Garwood-Filbert wrote in her inspection report. Eventually the prisoner was moved to the NDS prison where he gave his account to Canadian officials.
Within days, senior Canadian diplomats had passed on the reports to both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Another document, marked “For AIHRC and ICRC eyes only” was used as a briefing note by Canadian diplomats at two meetings in early May.
One meeting was with the International Committee of the Red Cross; the other with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. When the briefing note was finally made public late last year as part of the government's delivery of documents in the Federal Court case brought by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, it also had the words “the governor” blacked out, multiple sources have confirmed.
Despite sharing the allegations with the Afghan government and outside agencies, Ottawa kept them from a Canadian Federal Court judge hearing a case brought by Canadian rights groups. It claimed the national security exemption.
(first part)
Ottawa kept abuse charges against Afghan ally secret
Kandahar governor accused of beating and electrocuting detainees in secret prisons
PAUL KORING
From Friday's Globe and Mail
February 1, 2008 at 2:00 AM EST
The Harper government knew, but tried to keep secret since last spring, allegations that the governor of Kandahar was personally involved in torture and abuse of detainees.
The allegations against Governor Asadullah Khalid, appointed directly by President Hamid Karzai and a key political partner to Canada's nation-building efforts in southern Afghanistan, were regarded as sufficiently credible that senior officials in Ottawa were immediately informed and Canadian diplomats secretly reported them to the International Red Cross and Afghanistan's main human-rights group.
Government documents detailing the accusations were heavily censored by the government which, claiming national security, blacked out the references to “the governor.” But multiple sources, both inside and outside the government, confirm that the words “the governor” have been censored as have whole passages referring to secret cells allegedly run by Mr. Khalid outside the official prison system.
Rumours have long linked Mr. Khalid to secret prisons. That he had close ties with U.S. intelligence agents and special forces had been known since Canadian troops arrived in southern Afghanistan in early 2006. But Ottawa didn't confront an accusation of the governor's direct involvement in the interrogation and torture of prisoners until it sent diplomats to inspect the main secret police prison in Kandahar on April 25, 2007.
“Another prisoner beckoned to us,” begins the crucial passages describing the first inspection of the secret National Directorate of Security police prison in Kandahar city.
The detainee, like others in the secret police jail, was in leg irons, according to the documents. He told the Canadians his name and described how he initially had been imprisoned for nearly a year, most of the time shackled alone in a room in one of the governor's private prisons. “He went on to state he had been interrogated by foreigners and the governor,” said the report by Gavin Buchan, a Canadian diplomat and Linda Garwood-Filbert, the head of the Canadian Corrections team in Afghanistan.
“He alleged that the governor beat him and gave him electric shocks,” Ms. Garwood-Filbert wrote in her inspection report. Eventually the prisoner was moved to the NDS prison where he gave his account to Canadian officials.
Within days, senior Canadian diplomats had passed on the reports to both the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission.
Another document, marked “For AIHRC and ICRC eyes only” was used as a briefing note by Canadian diplomats at two meetings in early May.
One meeting was with the International Committee of the Red Cross; the other with the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission. When the briefing note was finally made public late last year as part of the government's delivery of documents in the Federal Court case brought by Amnesty International Canada and the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, it also had the words “the governor” blacked out, multiple sources have confirmed.
Despite sharing the allegations with the Afghan government and outside agencies, Ottawa kept them from a Canadian Federal Court judge hearing a case brought by Canadian rights groups. It claimed the national security exemption.
Yeah, BullSh*t! Transparent, open, and accountible government at it's finest.
.
Mighty Intellect
Posts: 1,830
Location: in town
Location: in town
February 1st, 2008, 12:29 PM
Thank you so very much for sharing these articles with us. Yesterday I watched the debate in Parliament, and whenever the opposition charged Harper with withholding the truth about the detainees, either he himself or his crony, Peter MacKay answered with reference to the great work our troops perform, how proud we can be of them, and it is all up to the military what they decide to do with the detainees. They completely pretend there is no conflict, no issue.
It sickens me!!
Elevennele, have you thought of the prisoners taken by the Americans and held in Bagram, near the Airport? It's a known torture camp!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagram_...prisoner_abuse
WHY does the Canadian government not protest!!!
Because they don't rat on a friend? They are too chicken? They endorse the practice by staying silent!!
Thank you so very much for sharing these articles with us. Yesterday I watched the debate in Parliament, and whenever the opposition charged Harper with withholding the truth about the detainees, either he himself or his crony, Peter MacKay answered with reference to the great work our troops perform, how proud we can be of them, and it is all up to the military what they decide to do with the detainees. They completely pretend there is no conflict, no issue.
It sickens me!!
Elevennele, have you thought of the prisoners taken by the Americans and held in Bagram, near the Airport? It's a known torture camp!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagram_...prisoner_abuse
WHY does the Canadian government not protest!!!
Because they don't rat on a friend? They are too chicken? They endorse the practice by staying silent!!
