Harper Hiding Oil War Torture, Death Squads From Canada

The Globe and Mail changed its format last week. Presumably it’s no coincidence that they also published a series of provocative front-page columns: columns which have created a political crisis for Prime Minister Harper.

But day after day the Globe and Mail has undermined the government’s credibility on this issue. In particular, they called attention to a report written by Canadian diplomats in Afghanistan. The report stated,
Extra judicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial are all too common.
The government first claimed, in writing, “no such report on human-rights performance in other countries exists”. Next, the Globe and Mail obtained the (non-existent) report under an access-to-information request.
The report was heavily censored, but the Globe obtained another, uncensored copy of it. Here’s an excerpt from Wednesday’s lead article, revealing what’s under the blacked out bits (click to enlarge):


Canada’s Information Commissioner is going to investigate the censor- ship of this document. The Government is allowed to censor documents only where national security is at stake. In this instance, the censorship seems to have been motivated by political concerns. The Globe reported:
The government has eradicated every single reference to torture and abuse in prison ….
It leaves untouched paragraphs such as those beginning “one positive development” or “there are some bright spots.” But heavy dark blocks obliterate sentences such as “the overall human rights situation in Afghanistan deteriorated in 2006.”
Clearly such censorship goes beyond a concern for national security.
The Globe’s allegations could be very damaging to the Conservatives. Prime Minister Harper has long been accused of modelling his government after that of George Bush. The Globe’s allegations fit that paradigm.
The Bush administration has a well-known policy of “rendition”, under which detainees are turned over to other governments to be tortured. No one is saying that the Conservatives are deliberately arranging for Canada’s detainees to be tortured. Still, that’s the taint that this allegation will leave on the Harper administration.
The censorship issue compounds Harper’s problem (although the Conservatives are blaming it on bureaucrats). The Bush administration is frequently accused of lying, or at least obfuscating about its most controversial policies, not least those related to torture. Here Harper and his Ministers seem to be playing the same sort of shell game with the Canadian public....

Is Stephen Harper “Bush lite”? The label may be unjustified, but even people who support the war in Afghanistan — as I do — will be put off by last week’s allegations. Kudos to the Globe for outstanding journalism.
Posted in Afghanistan, Canada, ethics, news media, politics, war 2




While the criminal Bush CIA tortures all over the world even training death squads to create civil unrest in every country they invade.

The "war" in Afghanistan is for Unocal and all the other oil buddies from Alberta and Texas, paid for by the poor to middle class youth of both of countries and the millions who died before today, today and tomorrow trying to save the natural resources of their countries from our plundering. Why isn't the FBI and CIA investigating the loss of the case files against Mobil Oil in the 911 hit...?