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Tag Archives: Afghanistan committee

The Board of Inquiry report (II)

As Rear Admiral P.A. Maddison explained yesterday, there was apparently belief among Canadian Forces that violence was a “cultural norm” among Afghan authorities, but there was no “observation” or “expectation” that detainees were being abused.

An exchange of letters

Two weeks ago, Gen. Walter Natynczyk wrote to the Afghanistan committee in response to the testimony of Malgarai Ahmadshah. In that letter, he stated that “Canadian Forces do not transfer individuals for the purposes of gathering information.” This caught the interest of the NDP’s Paul Dewar and Jack Harris, who wrote Natynczyk seeking an explanation as to how this could be squared with an October 2007 transfer report.

Throwing a perfect game in a Third World prison

While most everyone was paying attention to other matters across the hall, our former ambassador in Kabul appeared in Centre Block’s other grand committee room yesterday afternoon and neatly summed up Canada’s position on torture in Afghanistan.

The past few days in things that are somewhat more consequential

Gen. Walter Natynczyk has written to the special committee on Afghanistan to outline the military’s account of one of the events referenced last week by Malgarai Ahmadshah.

What they said (V)

The issue of Governor Asadullah Khalid was raised three times during Afghanistan committee hearings last year. Specifically, the matter was pursued with Richard Colvin, Major-General David Fraser, the commander of Task Force Afghanistan for most of 2006, and ambassador David Mulroney, the former associate deputy minister for foreign affairs.