Prime Minister Stephen Harper downplayed revelations of a "contingency plan" to deal with accusations that prisoners handed over to Afghan authorities were tortured.Source. The more we see, the more it looks like a lot of top officials (military officers, senior civil servants, cabinet ministers, and maybe the PM himself) ought to be facing war crimes trials. Whether they will, of course, is another question.As first reported by CBC News on Monday, Canadian officials started drafting a plan on how to deal with accusations that prisoners in Afghan custody were being tortured as early as March 2007 — months before allegations of prisoner abuse at the hands of Afghan authorities first appeared in the media.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Looks like the Cons knew trouble was coming...
... unfortunately, they did not respond by stopping the detainee transfers but by planning how to spin the issue:
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4 comments:
So, what are we supposed to do with the prisoners if we can't send them to Afghan prisons? Should the Liberals who began this process face war crimes trials as well?
"So, what are we supposed to do with the prisoners if we can't send them to Afghan prisons?"
Keep them in custody ourselves, the way we did with POWs in World War II. Think that's too expensive? Well maybe we shouldn't be there then. Guess what? I've been saying that for some time anyhow.
"Should the Liberals who began this process face war crimes trials as well?"
If they had the same level of awareness as their successors, then absolutely. And seriously, can't you come up with something better than that? If you've been reading this blog for any length of time it should be obvious that I have no loyalty to the Liberals.
It wasn't my finest comment .. I was a little rushed, but this detainee scandal is much ado about not much. Our guys over there are doing an extremely difficult job and I don't blame them for not being concerned that a few of the terrorists they are turning over to the Afghans might be getting beaten up. This is hardly an Abu Ghraib-type fiasco, and the calls to put Canadians up on war crimes for this are totally absurd.
Let's be clear here -- it's not the rank and file soldiers I'm concerned with. It would be expecting too much to assume that they have access to the intelligence that senior officers, diplomats, and cabinet ministers have. Indeed, besides our country's reputation, the rank and file soldiers also potentially suffer for this. Enemy combatants are much less likely to surrender if they think they're going to be turned over to people who will torture them.
No, if anyone should be tried it's the folks at the top. Not that I expect that to happen...
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