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Afghan Scandal Sullies Canada
Our leaders were warned that not jailing prisoners ourselves would lead to torture
Canada has long been admired around the globe as a nation of high ethics, human rights and respect for law.
But Canada's sterling reputation is being seriously degraded by the spreading scandal over involvement in torture in the increasingly sordid Afghan conflict.
All Canadians should thank the courageous diplomat, Richard Colvin, who did the right and honourable thing by exposing the government's very dirty Afghan secret.
Emulating the Bush administration, senior government officials and military officers in Ottawa closed ranks, stoutly denying any Afghan scumbags were tortured.
They are either amazingly ignorant or deceiving the nation.
To understand the roots of this ugly business, we must go back to the 1980s.
The Soviet intelligence service, KGB, created the Afghan Communist secret police agency, known as KhAD. Its mission was to liquidate or terrorize all suspected or real anti-Communists and opponents of Soviet occupation. Most prisoners arrested by KhAD were subjected to frightful, sadistic torture, particularly at Kabul's dreaded Pul-e-Charkhi Prison.
Prisoners were buried alive by bulldozers. Others were electrocuted, beaten to death, castrated and blinded.
Some 27,000-30,000 political prisoners were killed at Pul-e-Charkhi by KhAD.
Torture centres also existed in all other major cities.
The Soviets (who withdrew in 1989) and Afghan Communists killed more than one million Afghans.
By 1995, the anti-Communist Pashtun religious movement, the Taliban, backed by Pakistan and the Gulf Arabs, had driven the Communists from most of Afghanistan. The Afghan Communists retreated to the far north, and became part of the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance. Ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks, many of whom collaborated with the Soviet occupation in the 1980s, dominated the Alliance.
The U.S. invaded Afghanistan in 2001, using Russian-armed Northern Alliance soldiers to overthrow the Taliban, and install Hamid Karzai as figurehead president. Real power in Kabul was held by the Northern Alliance.
Two of its strongest figures were pro-Soviet Uzbek warlord Rashid Dostum, and Tajik general Mohammed Fahim -- KhAD's former chief. Both have close links to Russian intelligence.
After 30 years of civil war, the minority Tajiks and Uzbeks had become blood enemies of the Pashtuns, Afghanistan's majority. Most Taliban are Pashtun.
Fahim and the Tajik-Uzbek-Communist Northern Alliance took over the revived secret police, the National Directorate of Security (NDS) and the prison system. In short order, the KhAD's old torturers were back in business.
Pashtun prisoners captured by Canadian forces were routinely handed to the NDS-KhAD. There were many reports of brutal torture and executions.
Today, Fahim is officially Karzai's No. 2. But as commander of the Tajik-Uzbek militia and secret police, Fahim is the Afghan regime's most powerful figure and strongman.
Every child in Afghanistan knows this. But somehow, Canada's see-no-evil/hear-no-evil generals and civilian officials claim they were sweetly unaware Afghan prisons were being run as torture centres by the revitalized Communists.
Amnesty International and the Red Cross warned Ottawa that prisoners Canada was handing to the Afghan government faced torture -- and worse. The U.S. State Department repeatedly warned of widespread torture in Afghan prisons, including "pulling out fingernails, burnings ... beatings ... sexual humiliations, sodomy" and rape of children. So did the UN.
Canada should have run its own prisoner camps under the proper rules of war.
Yet Canada kept handing prisoners to the Afghan NDS.
Ottawa's disgraceful fig leaf: A memo from Afghan officials promising not to torture captives.
Now we see military men and high government officials trying to bluff away what seem to be some serious misdeeds. A disgusting spectacle that deeply shames and sullies this good nation.
As Shakespeare wrote:
"Who steals my purse steals trash ... But he that filches from me my good name Robs me of that which not enriches him, And makes me poor indeed."
16 Comments so far
Show AllEric, I have news for you: Your beloved Canada went down the crapper chute with the US years ago.
Today, Stephen Harper leads the rot-rebellion from within.
Point taken.
Should note that Canada has stopped transferring prisoners to Afghan authorities a few years ago - so this scandal is about the period of time we continued doing so knowing full well that they were being tortured.
The US, on the other hand, is still transferring Prisoners over to Afghani authorities to be tortured.
More on the Prisoner Transfer Scandal (and it is strange that there hasn't been a similar scandal in the United States since they are still handing over the people they capture to Afghan authorities and there have been a few - deaths). So what do you think of Peter MacKay's answer?
Mr. Claude Bachand (Saint-Jean, BQ): Mr. Speaker, this goes to the core of what will happen in the next few days with witnesses. Not only do we not have the documents but witnesses are now being threatened, as is the immunity of parliamentary committees. That is unacceptable.
The minister is not answering my question and I am asking him to answer. If Mr. Colvin comes to the committee and tables his documents, does he run the risk of being incarcerated? If so, that is totally unacceptable.
Hon. Peter MacKay (Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, CPC): Mr. Speaker, again, as has been said a number of times, documents that are legally required to be made available will be made available.
The committee passed motions just yesterday, I note, with reference to requests for information. We will respond appropriately, but appropriately in keeping within the laws of Canada, within the laws of the evidence, the National Defence Act, and protecting national security.
The hon. member opposite may not be concerned with that. I would have thought that former members of government would have an understanding of the need to protect national security, but apparently not.
http://www2.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?Language=E&Mode=1&Parl=40&Ses=2&DocId=4265816
My take on this is that MacKay confirmed that Colvin would risk being sent to jail if he were to reveal the documents in question.
How many of you are old enough to remember when Pierre Elliott Trudeau was Prime Minister of Canada? Well, Trudeau had a son - so I wonder what junior is up to (same date):
Mr. Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, We now have the sad spectacle of Mr. Colvin, the three generals yesterday and no doubt Mr. Mulroney today all having access to documents that members of Parliament cannot see. We are barred from having access to information that the government itself has full control of and that ministers and even retired generals can review. We are asked to do our work in total darkness. This is a flagrant case of obstruction of justice.
Hon. Peter MacKay (Minister of National Defence and Minister for the Atlantic Gateway, CPC): Mr. Speaker, I cannot help the hon. member if he feels he is in the dark.
Just yesterday, the committee passed a motion asking that legally available information be tabled. That will happen. The committee passed a motion seeking those documents. As would be expected on issues that involve [u]national security and sensitive information[/u] that could affect troops in the field, it will be looked at as far as the [u]Canada Evidence Act and National Defence Act[/u] are concerned, always keeping national security front and centre.
Mr. Justin Trudeau (Papineau, Lib.): Mr. Speaker, bits of blacked-out documents with key information missing are not disclosure. Non-answers in the House are not disclosure. Rhetorical personal attacks are not disclosure. We need to get at the truth. The international reputation of Canada and our military is at stake here.
Why is the government afraid of a public inquiry to get at the truth?
Later on Ujjal Dosanjh was on TV ranting on how offended he was that providing information to MPs was considered a security threat - and the insinuation that MPs outside of government were untrustworthy.
Michael Moore had a documentary on Congresspersons voting on bills that they hadn't read - and hear we have MPs begging for reading material and not getting it.
The underlying problem here is again that of the TWO main parties the Liberals and The Conservatives being equally culpable.
The Policy of turning prisoners over to the Afghans started under the Liberal administration.
It was THEN that policies should have been changed to ensure they remained in Canadian custody.
Once again the Bloc Quebecois (who were always AGAINST Canadian Participation in Afghanistan) are the ones at the forefront of this issue.
The party that wishes to see Quebec secede from Canada is doing more to ensure the reputation of Canada and its Military is protected then are the ruling parties!
If Quebec ever does seperate, the rest of Canada should ask to join them.
This downward trajectory of Canada started WITH the desire to join NAFTA and to more closely integrate our economies with the USA.
Moral concerns and issues and those of Human Rights and true justice take a back seat to TRADE Policy and access to markets.
Here's a backgrounder on the topic that I posted on another board:
http://www.leakylounge.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=70560&view=findpost&p=1827086
You are right, though I think that the Liberals started turning the prisoners over to Afghani supporters after complaints about turning them over to Americans surfaced. Remember that the Liberal Minister of Defense (what was his name - later lost his job because he allowed an ex girlfriend to do a survey on PTSD) was denying that Canadians had taken prisoners calling it a hypothetical question. And the mislabeled picture of 4 "American" soldiers dressed in green with prisoners (the only people in Afghanistan wearing green at the time was Canadians!).
Usually the NDP raises the question early and then step back a bit when the other Opposition parties get in on the issue. The NDP and Bloc often seem close on human rights issues and on the issues of peace and environment. You are right, the Liberals are more interested in the idea of scandal than they are in human rights.
Great posts, Audree and gWNorth. Very much helped to fill out the story.
I visited Montreal and St. Catharines in the 70s and loved Canada and Canadians (including my first cousins there), but I guess that was a long time ago...
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Canada says can't hand over prisoners to the USA or Afganistan for fear they will be tortured by either.
Here is a solution....Canada had no business being in Afganistan in the first place!
What they HELL is Canada doing allied to two governments that are known torturers??
The Canadian Prime Minister at the time, Jean Cretien, had the choice of sending Canadian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan.
We chose Afghanistan because even he could see that Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11, and we would be caught in a senseless bloodbath, tarred forever with being part of an illegal invasion and occupation.
But we have been so tarred anyway.
And with Stephen Harper in power, we are likely to remain in Afghanistan until the US abandons it's own troops in the area.
WTF are you talking about Galen? "... Jean Chretien had the choice of sending Canadian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan... We chose Afghanistan because... Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11"
Seth: "Really!?"
Amy: "Really!?"
You're implying that someone (Bush?) told Chretien "You can send your troops to Afghanistan or Iraq, you choose." Where do you get this information?
It had to be one or the other, and not sending any troops anywhere wasn't an option?
Canada sent troops to Afghanistan as part of the NATO operation (with UN Security Council approval) in Jan. 2002. Iraq wasn't invaded until March 2003. If Canada told the US they weren't sending troops to Iraq in January, 2002 we have (more) proof the US had planned to invade Iraq well in advance and cooked up evidence to justify the invasion. One would think this is a major story; why have you been keeping it a secret Galen?
Get your facts straight.
The Uzbek, Rashid Dostum is a real bad guy. There was a Newsweek article about him several years ago. It was not too long after Bush invaded. Thousands of Pashtuns had surrendered, and Dostum had them packed into truck trailers, like sardines, with no air and no mercy, and he left them to die a slow and horrible death. The ones that managed to survive were taken out and shot. It was said that a few US special ops soldiers stood by and watched. I wrote to my senators and my congressman about this. They acted like they didn't know about it and they assured me that they would investigate. The tragedy is that we did not have to invade Afghanistan, we could have made a deal with the Taliban. It would have taken some time but it would have saved tens of thousands of lives.
Eric Margolis has managed to roll in quite a bit of anti-communism in his otherwise correct position on what Canada has been up to. I guess that is just a way to insure he continues to receive his pay cheque from the corporate media he writes for.
BTW, Eric, when you listed "the Gulf Arabs" as financial contributors to the Taliban, you failed to mentioned that the US matched those contributions, dollar for dollar.
The Harper Government's point man on the whole Afghan prisoner file, Defense Minister Peter MacKay stated in no uncertain terms that Canada knew nothing about the afore mentioned prisoners being tortured, and had written a policy paper stating how they expected any potential Afghani prisoner to be treated.
Unfortunately, the policy paper was based on the information provided by Richard Colvin, the whistleblower now being buried alive by the Harper Government machine.
In a single master stroke, Harper's people have smeared the man while at the same time using the information he provided to prove they have justification for suspicion of torture.
A wonderful (if typical) example of circular logic. See also their demonstration of logic, circular.
The sooner we can catch Mr. Harper in a politically embarrassing and career ending public scandal, the better.
Please see this entertaining and very informative article from BC on the subject: http://www.piquenewsmagazine.com/pique/index.php?cat=C_Columns&content=Maxed+Out+1648
GalenW---
Given your discussion of the Canadian circular logic of various smear campaigns, do you think it possible to catch Mr. Harper in a TAUTOLOGY of his own making? (The powers that be are suppressing awareness of that concept these days...)
And isn't the so-called War on Terror really a tautology? Is this not a classic case of creating our own enemy (first literally as allies, then metaphorically as enemies)? Few Minds are capable of addressing the Enormity of the Tragedy of these Times. How does a dog know its Master? By the whip and the stick.
I need a cape! Who else in the world of politics other than Karzai wears a cape? Superman?! I'll give him credit for that.
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The supply of weapons from the U.S.A. was what made the difference in the fight against the Soviets. This is what is at the core of the current devastation and corruption.
The U.S.A. and its allies are so enamored of weaponry and violence that it has become an economy based on the "renewable" resource of violence.
Mr. Margolis needs to catch up. The communists are not the big problem.
He never said they were.
The point is, in Afghanistan we have spawned the very demons that will destroy us. Torture is now seen as acceptable, but must be hidden from the masses least they twig that it will eventually be used on them.
Get it?
galen--"Jean Cretien, had the choice of sending Canadian troops to Iraq or Afghanistan."
He also had the choice of NOT sending any troops at all, since Canada is supposedly the worlds conscience !! What a hoot. Typical Western self-righteousness. Westerners can never see themselves as evil. Somehow every one of our actions are 'good', including genocide, murder, slaughter, invasion, occupation .... name the crime.
Canada has consistently been on the side of U.S. imperialism. And Margolis the old, die-hard Reaganite anti-communist will rake up any issue as long as it suits his own twisted world view. Give it up Eric .. stop attempting to whitewash our conscience.