Did Harper Just Take Afghanistan off the Election Table??

dj03

OTTAWA — Stephen Harper moved Friday to defuse the issue of Afghanistan before a potential fall election and drove a wedge into the Liberal Party by appointing former deputy prime minister John Manley to lead a blue-ribbon study group.

"What gives, John?" one of his former advisers asked. "This was one area of weakness of the Conservatives. And he's just thrown Stephen Harper a lifeline in the form of himself."

"One has to wonder what criticism the Liberal Party can levy against the government on Afghanistan now," said a senior Tory who asked not be identified.

Cobalt_Kid

The Harper government knew from its own officials that prisoners held by Afghan security forces faced the possibility of torture, abuse and extrajudicial killing, The Globe and Mail has learned.

But the government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison from a heavily blacked-out version of a report prepared by Canadian diplomats in Kabul and released under an access to information request.

Initially, the government denied the existence of the report, responding in writing that "no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists." After complaints to the Access to Information Commissioner, it released a heavily edited version this week.

Among the sentences blacked out by the Foreign Affairs Department in the report's summary is "Extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common," according to full passages of the report obtained independently by The Globe.

Durgan

Socrates the Greek

This is just more smokescreen to keep us from asking serious questions about what's really going on in Afghanistan. We already know the Harper government lied about knowing the fate of prisoners turned over to the Afghan government.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servl...ghanistan/home



Appointing a former Liberal doesn't change the fact that Canada is participating in human rights abuses in Afghanistan. I don't think it's something that many Canadians will support.

Have an open vote in Parliment, not some sham panel like Bush did on the Iraq war then ignored it's recommendations.

Risus

Afghanistan will be the nail on the Conservative coffin.
Very popular saying “you can fool some people some time, but you can not fool all the people all the time” Snow White’s days are numbered and they know it.

L Gilbert

darkbeaver

Subaltern to Commander-in-Chief
BY
FIELD-MARSHAL
LORD ROBERTS OF KANDAHAR V.C., K.P., G.C.B., G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E.

Many people posting on the Afghanistan situation are lacking in knowledge about the area, people, and country. This is the story. Read it and then put the present "Mission to Afghanistan" in perspective. The whole convoluted events are Déjà vu. about 100 years ago.

http://quewo.notlong.com

If you find the reading the book too onerous, you might shorten the effort by starting at Chapter CHAPTER XLIV. This is where the main Afghansitn campaign starts.


Durgan.

Ron in Regina

Risus

Today, on the radio (AM980 CJME) out here in Saskatchewan, I've heard
a Conservative Party add bashing the Liberal Party hourly, and a couple of
times over the lunch hour today. An election can't be too far away...

lone wolf

Bring it on!! We need a conservative majority!!

Nuggler

Bring it on!! We need a conservative majority!!