By their own standard, Liberal Party complicit in war crimes
Recently appearing on CBC news, Liberal Finance Critic John McCallum openly accused the Conservative government of war crimes.
"I think proroguing adds to the total character picture of Mr Harper, and the fact that they may have been committing war crimes, handing over detainees knowing that they were very likely to be tortured, that is a war crime," McCallum insisted. "And the fact that they're covering it up, I think many Canadians do care about those things as well as caring about economic issues."
When asked to clarify who he was accusing of war crimes -- the Conservative government or Canadian soldiers, McCallum answered quite clearly. "It's the government."
But as it turns out, there may be even more to this story than McCallum is telling -- one that undermines his party's clear efforts to mine this issue for partisan gain.
An article appearing in the April 28, 2007 issue of La Presse (which can be translated here), it was noted that the Liberal government of Paul Martin was warned on numerous occasions spanning 2003-05 that torture commonly occurred in Afghan prisons.
Prior to 2005, Canadian forces in Afghanistan transferred their detainees to American forces operating in Afghanistan. In response to the abuses taking place at Guantanamo Bay, however, the Liberal government decided to instead transfer prisoners to Afghan authorities.
Despite these reports, then-Minister of National Defense Bill Graham negotiated a prisoner transfer agreement and instructed General Rick Hillier to sign it on Canada's behalf. This prisoner transfer agreement became a notorious point of contention in Canadian politics, as it didn't allow Canadian soldiers with sufficient levels of oversight for the treatment of any prisoners they transferred.
In other words, it's the prisoner transfer agreement that Paul Martin's Liberal government signed with Afghanistan that was responsible for these abuses in the first place -- an error the Conservative government corrected by negotiating a new prison transfer agreement.
The Liberal Party cannot claim it wasn't warned about this state of affairs in Afghan prisons. They were warned by Canadian diplomats, just as the sitting Conservative government was.
The difference, of course, being that the pre-2006 Liberal government signed a shoddy prisoner transfer agreement that put Canadian soldiers at risk of complicity in war crimes -- as so defined by John McCallum.
At this point, the fairest question may be how, precisely, so many media outlets have overlooked this particular story amidst the partisan rush to brand the sitting government as war criminals, even as the Liberal Party knew full well the hand it had played in this affair.
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
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A reminder that Michael Ignatieff told Canadians on Friday that he is anxious to get Parliament back to work, because the Liberals want to continue their Afghanistan probing, and to investigate "the conduct of our troops in the field". Liberals have been lying through their teeth, that in this probing of the detainee issue, they were not challenging or condemning, our brave men and women in the military, and their actions on the battlefield. Some befuddled members of the media were buying that, or at least giving them the benefit of the doubt, if we are to accept their reporting. I hope those members of the media benefited from today's revelation on the CBC national network.
ReplyDeleteOn Tuesday now we have, not some no name Liberal MP speaking, but former defence Minister in the Liberal government John McCallum, and this is not a repeat of the circumstance of his ill fated Airport incident, but is an interview with the CBC, fleshing out, detailing and expanding on what the Liberal investigation about the "conduct of our troops in the field" is searching for. Since they have hounded the detainee subject so incessantly, we can safely conclude, they hope all their work will bear fruit, and justify their suspicions, that work done by our troops are war crimes, and that our Canadian government covered up these criminal actions. McCallum in carefully chosen words, has let the cat out of the bag, and told not only, all Canadians but also the whole wide world, that the fact is that our soldiers "may have been committing war crimes , handing over detainees knowing that they were very likely to be tortured - that is a war crime".
Most reasonable Canadians are thankful, and believe that our soldiers are only doing their best, to get Canada out of the mess that the Liberal government got Canada into, in the first place, and they are praised by all their international allies for their professionalism, and now to be abandoned by the Liberals, and their achievements and struggle in Afghanistan questioned, not only in Canada but also on the world stage by the Opposition in a time of war, is incredible. The most severe critics of our Armed Forces are on the front bench of the Liberal party - what a disgrace and what lack of leadership by Michael Ignatieff, who in a moment of preposterous arrogance, in a diabolical belief, thinks he should be the leader of Canada's Armed Forces.
For the Liberals to say they are attacking Peter McKay and Stephen Harper, and not our soldiers, will not wash with anyone, because no one in their right mind thinks that McKay or Harper are on the battle field, and committing war crimes, by turning over prisoners to the Afghanistan officials. Aside from some minor incident, and in the absence of any proof or evidence to the contrary, to their credit Harper and McKay have not flinched for one minute in their defense and praise of our military people, as all Canadians would expect nothing less, from their government.
The only cover up that becomes more evident every day, is the Liberal blue print and political agenda, which is not exposed by some members of the media, and they continue to ignore the Liberals in their machiavellian antics, and won't expose the fraud, that Ignatieff and the Liberals are perpetrating on Canadians, at the expense of our armed forces, in desperation, just to gain some cheap political points. Liberals are speaking with a forked tongue, when they say they support our troops, yet they continue to try and skewer our good men and women in the battle field. Although an apology should be demanded and be forthcoming, it is not enough - there should be resignations in the Liberal hierarchy so that justice would seem to be done on behalf of our Armed Forces.
I linked your post of BCL, if some Trolls arrive I apologize.
ReplyDeleteTG may have some alcohol,gender, rage issues, best of luck!
Bring 'em on.
ReplyDelete