MacKay Knew of Abuse, Lied to Parliament

Whooee! I was just readin' a story in the Globe where Petey MacKay sez he was in the loop on the cessation of detainees transfers from the get-go. He was apprised of the incontrovertible evidence and the change of policy on November 6.

But on November 22*, Peter MacKay responded in the House to a question from Denis Coderre about handing over juvenile detainees. Here's what MacKay said two weeks after proof of torture had been found and the transfers had been stopped.

"Mr. Speaker, first let me say that the Canadian military, in fact all Canadians in Afghanistan are certainly meeting all their international obligations.

There has not been one single, solitary proven allegation of abuse of detainees, let alone juvenile detainees in Afghanistan.

The member likes to extrapolate on evidence. He has not been able to produce one solitary example. Rather than producing hogwash and hornswoggle, maybe he can bring some cold, hard facts instead of this torqued rhetoric."
(Hansard, November 22*, 2007)

There it is. Peter MacKay is on record lying to Parliament. There was at least one proven allegation, one solitary example. He knew about it and he knew that it had triggered a change in policy. He simply lied and then went on to embellish the lie with a personal attack on Coderre.

MacKay must be called to account for this lie.

*UPDATE: I had the date wrong. I originally said MacKay lied on November 21. It was actually on November 22. I've corrected the post.

JB

Death Penalty Upheld for Afghani Student -- Humiliated Islam

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, that Afghan journalism student who got sentenced to death for "humiliating Islam" is one step closer to the chopping block. The Afghan Senate has supported the death sentence given to a 23 year old j-school student who used downloaded documents as a basis for a classroom discussion.

(h/t Bill Doskoch) Bill's got another post on this issue, too. He's noticed that several of our allies have weighed in officially but Canada has been strangely silent.

From the BBC:

The upper house of the Afghan parliament has supported a death sentence issued against a journalist for blasphemy in northern Afghanistan.

Pervez Kambaksh, 23, was convicted last week of downloading and distributing an article insulting Islam. He has denied the charge.

The UN has criticised the sentence and said the journalist did not have legal representation during the case.

The Afghan government has said that the sentence was not final.

A government spokesman said recently that the case would be handled "very carefully".

Now the Afghan Senate has issued a statement on the case - it was not voted on but was signed by its leader, Sibghatullah Mojaddedi, an ally of President Hamid Karzai.

It said the upper house approved the death sentence conferred on Mr Kambaksh by a city court in Mazar-e-Sharif.

It also strongly criticised what it called those institutions and foreign sources which, it said, had tried to pressurise the country's government and judiciary as they pursued people like Mr Kambaksh.

How many more Canadians are going to give their lives for this regime?

Here's some more on this with a new angle. The guy they're gonna hang is not really the guy they want. Politics is at play and journalists' lives are the sacrificial pawns.

Afghan Journalist’s Death Sentence “Political”

Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh’s real offence may have been to have a brother whose frank reporting has exposd abuses in northern Afghanistan.

By Hafizullah Gardesh in Kabul (ARR No. 281, 28-Jan-08)

The roar of international protest has increased over the past week since a court in northern Afghanistan handed down the death sentence to Sayed Parwez Kaambakhsh, a young journalism student convicted of blasphemy.

In Afghanistan, meanwhile, analysts and media rights advocates say the harsh sentence was delivered at the behest of powerful local figures, as an indirect form of retribution against Kaambakhsh’s brother, Sayed Yaqub Ibrahimi, a reporter who has written extensively on human rights abuses in the north.

Sentence was passed at a summary hearing held by the lower court for Balkh region on January 22, at which Kaambakhsh was offered no chance to speak, and had no legal representation. (More...)

JimBobby

MP's and MSM Finally Get It, Isotope "Crisis" Manufactured

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, I probbly wasn't the first one, but I was talkin' about a manufactured crisis way back on December 18th. Now, MP's and the MainStreetMedia have finally twigged onto what they shoulda known before the dumbass MP's voted to over ride a nuclear regulator.

Opposition accuses Tories of manufacturing isotope crisis

January 28, 2008 - 5:15 pm

By: Joan Bryden, THE CANADIAN PRESS

OTTAWA - Opposition parties are accusing the Harper government of manufacturing last month's medical isotope crisis.

The parties levelled the accusation Monday based on a report that the government did not speak to alternative European suppliers of isotopes until Dec. 10 - 19 days after the research reactor at Chalk River, Ont., was shut down.

Even then, according to a Montreal newspaper, the government advised officials at three European reactors that they didn't need to increase their isotope production because the shutdown at Chalk River would be remedied shortly.

The following day, the government introduced emergency legislation to override the safety objections of the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission.

Health Minister Tony Clement insists the report is "completely untrue."

The Chalk River facility, owned by Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., produces more than half the world's supply of isotopes, used to diagnose and treat cancer and heart ailments.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his ministers have insisted that drastic action was necessary to restart the reactor because lives were at stake. And from the outset they've blamed Linda Keen, head of the nuclear regulatory commission, for the crisis.

The government fired Keen two weeks ago.

Opposition MPs pounced on the newspaper's report to charge that the government is either incompetent or deliberately manufactured the crisis.

Clement told the House of Commons that the government "did scour the world for replacement isotopes" as soon as it was became aware that the Chalk River shutdown would be prolonged and was creating a critical shortage.

For his part, Harper reminded a news conference that the Chalk River reactor is the world's foremost supplier of isotopes and he suggested European reactors wouldn't have been able to pick up the slack.

"Alternatives elsewhere are very limited and they're short-term ones."

But New Democrat MP Catherine Bell said her own research is consistent with the newspaper's findings. She said she found European isotope suppliers that were ready and willing to step into the breach.

Moreover, she said, experts told her "there was a shortage but it was not a life and death shortage."

All of which raises the question: "Was this a manufactured crisis?"

Bell said it appears the government wanted to get rid of Keen. It may also have been trying to protect "the financial position" of MDS Nordion, the private company that supplies the isotopes produced at Chalk River.

"Their bottom line had to be protected as well. If we have to buy these isotopes from somewhere else, then it affects them."

Green party Leader Elizabeth May said she suspects AECL and MDS Nordion kept mum for as long as possible about the extended shutdown because they didn't want to "spook" clients about how insecure the supply of isotopes is from the 50-year-old Chalk River reactor.

"They gambled and they won. They gambled that they could basically play chicken with the Canadian Nuclear Safety Commission and that the Harper government would come in on their side and force the reactor to reopen," May said.

She added that AECL and Nordion wanted to "hobble" the nuclear watchdog - and Keen in particular - because it is insisting that any new reactors must meet more onerous international safety standards.

Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn reiterated the government's contention that Keen was fired because she unnecessarily refused to bend on her safety concerns and "was willing to put the lives of thousands of Canadians in jeopardy."

Keen will get a chance to tell her side of the story Tuesday before the natural resources committee. She was to have testified two weeks ago but was fired the night before and cancelled her appearance.
(Source)

Like I sed a coupla weeks ago: crisis, schmisis.

JimBobby

10 Questions About the Detainee Scandal

Whooee! Everyday, more an' more questions pop into my head about the detainee issue. Here's a few I posted to the Globe & Mail discussion board.

1. Why did Canada fail to inform NATO high command that we'd uncovered incontrovertible evidence of torture?
2. Our change in policy goes against NATO's official policy. Shouldn't they have been informed?
3. Now that we have one piece of credible evidence, are we following up on previous allegations?
   
4. Do we think, despite so much smoke, that there's no bigger fire?
   
5. Perhaps our NATO allies should know that they, too, may be handing over prisoners for torture?
   
6. Maybe the Dutch and German commanders would want to know so they, too, can refrain from violating international treaties?
7. Why did Gen. Deschamps submit an affidavit to a Cdn court on Dec 19 stating dire consequences IF we were to stop handing over detainees?
8. Have the transfers actually stopped?
9. How do we know?
   
10. Who can we believe?
    

JB

Detainee Transfers: Did We Really Quit?

Whooee! So, there was a new policy on detainees put into place on November 5th or 6th, 2007. Around December 19th, Brigadier General Deschamps made statements under oath in an affidavit filed with the Federal Court. The General paints a dire picture of what would happen if we quit handing over prisoners to the Afghanis.

But, but, but... we'd already quit doing that 5 weeks earlier.

Top soldier speaks out on detainee transfers

Battle against Taliban would 'collapse' under ban, Brigadier-General André Deschamps says

PAUL KORING

From Wednesday's Globe and Mail

December 19, 2007 at 4:39 AM EST

A top military commander says in a sworn affidavit Canadian troops would have to quit fighting the Taliban if they could not hand prisoners over to Afghan authorities.

Listing a long series of possible embarrassments and defeats, Brigadier-General André Deschamps outlined what he says would be the dire consequences, including losing the war, should a Federal Court judge rule in favour of a request by human-rights groups to issue an injunction banning the transfer of detainees to Afghan prisons because of the risk of torture or abuse.

.....

Gen. Deschamps says such an injunction would result in Canadian Forces retreating to secure bases because they 'would not be able to capture individuals who pose a threat to the Canadian Forces, our allies or the [International Security Assistance Force] mission.'

In documents filed with the Federal Court, Gen. Deschamps, the chief of staff of Canada's Expeditionary Force Command that runs combat operations in Afghanistan, goes so far as to suggest the Taliban might win the war, at least in Kandahar, if the court were to grant the injunction.

He also warns that Canada's troops would be forced to cease medical treatment of Afghan children and even cancel inspections of Afghan prisons to check on previously transferred detainees. Training the Afghan army and police would also be halted, he said.
(Source)

Huh?

How could the guy in charge be unaware of the change in policy?

If the boss general didn't know on December 19th and was still under the impression that all these bad things would happen should we quit the handovers, who did know?

If he did know that we'd quit handing over prisoners five weeks earlier, why was he still pedaling the dire consequences of such a move? If he believed his own testimony, how could he allow the transfers to stop?

How can NATO have been unaware of the change in policy?
If we were so sure of torture at the hands of the Afghanis, why didn't we communicate our proof to other NATO forces so that they would also know? I would say we have at least a moral obligation to help our allies avoid committing war crimes by handing over prisoners to known torturers.

The biggest question: Did we really quit? How do we know? Can we take our government's word for anything? Can we take General Deschamps' word? Is someone misspeaking?

Another day, another jillion questions.

JimBobby

Winning Issues for a Spring Election

Whooee!

Well friends an' foes, I was yammerin' in a comments' section gabfest over to Scotty's boog and a feller commentin' as "Jim" left this choice morsel:

Jim Says:
January 26th, 2008 at 8:14 am

Yes Liberal MP’s, call an election on the issue of Muslim prisoners that try to torture, blow up and murder our troops. It is such a winning issue to go on.

Please do it, and do it now!

Pay attention to how he refers to the enemy as Muslim. When Elizabeth May pointed out that the Taliban uses the "Christian/Crusader" invasion as a method to bolster recruiting, that message is spun and deliberately misinterpreted. Ms. May was entirely correct that the optics of a North American Christian army is playing into the hands of the Taliban. As usual, the CPC chose to play politics with Canadian soldiers lives and decided to ridicule a suggestion that one of NATO's tactics might play into the hands of the enemy.

Meanwhile, we have dozens of BT's and commenters like Jim characterizing the enemy as Muslims and drooling at the prospect of their torture.

News flash, Jim: Canadians don't want our brave dedicated men and women in the Forces to be ordered to violate the Geneva Conventions. Canadians want to be proud of our good soldiers. Canadians want to help Afghani Muslims build a peaceful society. Canadians do not defend or relish the idea that our allies are torturing the prisoners we hand over to them.

I've been hoping we get a chance to tell Harper and his gang of muzzled ministers just what we think of their government. I've expressed disappointment at Stephane Dion's failure to allow his caucus to bring down the worst government in Canadian history. So, while I find Jim's comment offensive and counterproductive to our mission in Afghanistan, I do agree with one part of it.

Here's how I responded over at Scott's DiaTribes.

I hope Dion grows a pair and we go to the polls.

• A PM that continually lies to Canadians and to Parliament is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• Ministerial incompetence in multiple ministries is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• Embarrassment of Canada on the world stage is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• Canada blindly propping up the corrupt, warlord-ruled, narco-state known officially as The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The wedge-driving, divisive, region-versus-region tactics of the current government is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The mismanagement of the economy and failure to reduce personal income tax while doling out billions to the tar sand developers is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The reneging of the Atlantic Accords is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The lack of accountability and transparency from a government that was elected on just those issues is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The failure to make any improvements in healthcare waiting times is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The lockstep march with George W. Bush and the secret SPP talks aimed at eliminating Canadian sovereignty with a North American Union is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The lip service and inaction on the environment is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The failure of Canada to comply with the Geneva Conventions is a winning issue to go on.
  
  
• The blatant racism of CPC supporters who refer to the enemy as Muslims while deriding anyone who says the enemy is framing this as a holy war is a winning issue to go on.
  

How many more winning issues does Dion need before he does the right thing?

Change the climate in Parliament. Vote Green.

Let's put an end to this. Soon.

JimBobby

Islamic Republic of Afghanistan: Journalist Sentenced to Death for "Humiliating Islam"

Whooee! And it's one, two, three... what are we fightin' for? Why are Canadians dying for these guys?

Afghan journalist sentenced to death

AMIR SHAH

Associated Press

January 22, 2008 at 2:42 PM EST

KABUL — An Afghan court on Tuesday sentenced a 23-year-old journalism student to death for distributing a paper he printed off the Internet that three judges said violated the tenets of Islam, an official said.

The three-judge panel sentenced Sayad Parwez Kambaksh to death for distributing a paper that humiliated Islam, said Fazel Wahab, the chief judge in the northern province of Balkh, where the trial took place. Judge Wahab did not preside over the trial.

Mr. Kambaksh's family and the head of a journalists group denounced the verdict and said Mr. Kambaksh was not represented by a lawyer at trial. Members of a clerics council had been pushing for Mr. Kambaksh to be punished.

The case now goes to the first of two appeals courts, Judge Wahab said. Mr. Kambaksh, who has been jailed since October, will remain in custody during appeal.

Judge Wahab said he did not immediately have the details of the paper that Mr. Kambaksh circulated, other than that it was against Islam. Mr. Kambaksh discussed the paper with his teacher and classmates at Balkh University and several students complained to the government, Judge Wahab said.

Manley sez we oughta stay the course. Keep on supportin' Karzai and The Islamic Republic of Afghanistan. Keep on handin' over detainees to be tortured. Keep on draggin' Canada's reputation and dignity through the mud. Keep on doin' Bush's bidding. Keep on dying for warlords and opium merchants.

Harper sez we're fightin' so's little girls can go to school. Let's hope none of 'em go to journalism school.

JB

And then she hugged me. Earth Mother Lizzie May, that is.

Whooee! Well friends an' foes, ol' Scotty Tribe scored a boogin' coup by gettin' the gal I adore, Earth Mother Lizzie May, to post a guest piece on Scott's Diatribes. I hafta admit it's good to see a national party leader takin' the time to reach out to us Pergressive Boogers. But, ScottyBoy, I'll go you one better.

Yesterday, I personally met Lizzie May an' that ain't all. When I introduced myself an' told her she might know me better as "JimBobby," her eyes lit up an' a big smile come over her face.

And then she hugged me.

Anybuddy who's been readin' my boog stories or my yammerin' comments on other boogs knows that ol' JB is one o' Lizzie's biggest fans. Up until yesterday, though, Lizzie an' I had only corresponded by email. Despite my barely decipherable dialect, Lizzie replies to my emails an' we write back an' forth every so often. I gave her a little dressin' down when she chose to run against PeteyBoy MacKay an' I try to keep her up on what some o' the boogs are sayin' about her.

I reckon the Atlantic Accord debacle, the Bill Casey affair, the MacKay family ties to Karlheinz Schreiber, the Red-Green deal, the losses to Nova Scotia economy due to untendered military contracts and a general higher awareness of green issues are all comin' together to pave Lizzie's way to Ottawa. I was dead wrong when I doubted her wisdom in runnin' in CN.

I spent the weekend at Green Party Campaign School in Kitchener-Waterloo at Wilfred Laurier University. That's where I met the gal I adore. I also had a chance to meet my old friend Jim Harris, former GPC leader. And I met a few other GPC bigwigs like Deputy Leader Adriane Carr and a few behind-the-scenes federal party workers. About 150 treehuggin' GPC members and candidates were in attendance and I met a buncha them, too.

I went up to WLU with a few of my local riding association fellers an' gals, includin' our candidate fer Haldimand-Norfolk, Frank Nightingale. (I ain't asked him yet if he's any relation to Florence.) Frankie's one of the handful of Green Party candidates who actually stands a real chance of winnin'. Ol' Frank ran fer mayor of Norfolk County (pop. ~62,000) in the last municipal election. He came in second with 33% of the vote. He was endorsed by the outgoin' retirin' mayor. Frank's also the president of the Norfolk Federation of Agriculture and he's a director of the Ontario Sustainable Energy Association.

The biggest newspaper in the county, the Simcoe Reformer, says Frank's got a real chance to unseat the do-nuthin' absentee MP Diane Finley. The Grits got a star candidate in Eric Hoskins but the locals think he's a parachuter who's got way more ties to Ottawa than to Haldimand-Norfolk.

Frank thinks he might be the first GPC MP elected. I think he'll be at least the second one. Nova Scotia's Central Nova riding is in a different time zone and Lizzie's gonna be elected an hour before Frank.

Now, I ain't some unrealistic, idealistic neofightin' Greenie. I been a GPC member fer quite a few years an' I voted GPC a few times before joinin' the party. I've seen how our first past the post (FPTP) electoral system has consistently robbed Green supporters of Parliamentary representation. I've watched as the cabal of TV execs known as the Broadcast Consortium have barred the Green leader from televised leaders debates. I've watched as the old-line, entrenched parties have dismissed the Green Party as a one-trick pony out on the fringes.

Things are different this time.

Canajuns have woken up to the impending doom if we don't get off our asses and deal with climate change. The Harper Con's have aptly demonstrated their disdain fer Canajuns and fer ol' Mother Earth herself. First, they tried to foist airhead Rona Ambrose on us. When everyone seen what a know-nuthin' Rona was, Harper put a pit bull into the portfolio. The teeth-gnashin' Baird has embarrassed Canada on the world stage and worked hard against real environmental progress.

Voters are also tired of the kindergarten antics they been seein' in the House o' Comments. Name-callin', incivility and insults are all we see. Voters want civilized MP's workin' together to solve the greatest threat mankind has ever known. We been gettin' stall tactics and outright lies from our so-called leaders.

On Saturday, Adriane Carr used a phrase that us Greenies are adoptin' as our battle cry:

"Change the climate in Parliament."

In March, Toronto Centre Green candidate Chris Tindal is gonna be in a bigass by-election campaign an' he's goin' up against Bob Rae. I don't live in TO Centre (thank God!!) but I'll be takin' the train to the big smoke and knockin' on doors to help young Chris whip Bobby Rae's flabby ass. I know it's flabby on accounta he showed it to everybuddy on national TV with Rick Mercer. Bob Rae's got baggage and I ain't just talkin' about junk in the trunk.

I don't reckon the Grits can afford to sit on their hands much longer. There's a budget comin' down I think on March 28 and I figger the rotten Con gummint'll fall on its face an' we'll be goin' to the polls around the end o' May or the first o' June. I hope it's May. I like the sounds of "a May election". I think they call that a double entendre.

JimBobby

You're doin' a heckuva a job, Lunnie.

Whooee! Crisis, schmisis. The December isotope shortage was entirely predictable and mostly avoidable. It seems apparent that incompetence on the part of Gary Lunn ensured that a crisis developed.

But was it incompetence? If a crisis suits your purposes and you manage to manufacture one, wouldn't that be exemplary work? You might even say it was "beyond the normal call of duty."

The HarperCons are ideologically opposed to the concept of crown corporations. They make no secret about that. They were floating the idea of selling AECL as early as June 2006. Berlynn blogged about it way back then. More recently, General Electric has shown intertest in taking AECL off the Canadian taxpayers' hands.

This manufactured crisis has everything to do with the bigger picture of dumping AECL. Even many well-informed people are buying into the idea that AECL is a troublesome entity and we taxpayers would be better off if it were not our responsibility.

The whole "create a crisis and look like leaders by solving it" tactic is straight out of the Commonsense Revolution playbook. Harris' high school dropout Education Minister Snobelen revealed the tactic years ago. The recycled commonsense revolutionaries in Harper's cabinet are simply doing what they know.

John Snobelen, the former Minister of Education and Training of the (Harris) government, eloquently explained this uniqueness: "We need to invent a crisis." To his credit he kept his promise, delivering an unwanted, manufactured, artificial crisis through Bills 104 and 160. (Source)

The real smoking gun here is the AG Sheila Fraser's September report. All of Lunn's "I didn't know a thing!" protestations are meaningless in light of Fraser's report. Even the National Post is calling for Lunn's ouster.

Harper's getting more and more experience in dealing with ministerial incompetence. He was relatively successful when he stood by the incompetent O'Connor. O'Connor lost some face but was not disgraced by being abruptly canned. Harp's trying to save Lunn's and his own ass by recycling the same tactics that worked when everyone knew O'Connor was unfit for the job. Ditto Rona.

Poor ol' Harper. He's fishin' in a shallow talent pool and these numbnutses is all he's got to work with.

Watch for another cabinet shuffle in which Lunn's demotion will be quietly lost in the shuffle. Wonks and political bloggers still remember what a dangerous klutz O'Connor was. The general public and voters, not so much. CPC types still contend he was doing a good job.

I hope this issue doesn't die down too fast but the attention span of the MSM is short. A shiny new story will replace the story of Lunn's incompetence as soon as Harper can pull it out of his hat.

JB