Please see skyreporter’s film reports on AFGHAN HEROIN , especially The American Connection . And of course AFGHAN NEWS BLUES and AFGHANISTAN’S NEWS MEDIA .
Rogue Attorney General Raids Afghan Television
skyreporter.com from Kabul April 17
Hamid Karzai’s controversial Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet, who is also a resident of Canada, led a squad of police into the studios of Tolo-TV Tuesday night. Three editors and journalists were arrested, reportedly after being physically assaulted by policemen.
Tolo’s evening newscast had just broadcast a recording of Sabet’s statements earlier in the day to the Afghan Parliament. Sabet claims his speech was misrepresented. However, according to Afghan Foreign Ministry officials critical of the move, the raid and arrests took place in the absence of appropriate warrants.
Afghanistan’s vibrant and assertive new news media has been under increasing pressure by the Western-sponsored Karzai government. But the spectre of paramilitary repression is unprecedented – at least for the current regime. The Taliban government exercised draconian information control, branding television cameras “instruments of Satan.”
Currently, President Karzai’s information minister, Karim Khurram, is drafting a law to curtail media freedoms (see skyreporter’s OUTFLANKED BY FLUNKIES, April 12). He and Sabet last week ordered Tolo TV to remove a popular programming stream from it’s Lemar channel – an order widely seen in the Afghan capital as retaliation for Tolo’s frank coverage of corruption and ineptitude in the Karzai government.
For the past several weeks, skyreporter.com has attempted to obtain comment from Canada’s Foreign Affairs department, and Immigration Canada, about President Karzai’s accident-prone Attorney General. After much delay, only a curt statement came in reply, claiming that Canadian officials played no role in Sabet’s appointment. Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office, too, has steadfastly refused to comment on Sabet’s entry into Canada several years ago, and his ongoing Canadian status – despite evidence that Sabet had concealed his past association with extremist groups, and that he had been denied residence in the U.S.
Rogue Afghan Attorney General, who is also a resident of Montreal, leads violent raid on popular TV station
CALGARY, April 17 /CNW/ - Skyreporter.com Reveals Canada's Connection to Kabul Crisis. Five weeks after journalist Arthur Kent launched an investigative series of film reports on his new website, www.skyreporter.com, the shadowy figure at the centre of the anti-narcotics policing scandal at Kabul Airport, Afghanistan's Attorney General Abdul Jabar Sabet, has launched
an unprecedented crackdown on the country's burgeoning news media.
Tuesday evening in Kabul, Sabet led a squad of police into the studios and offices of Tolo-TV, Afghanistan's leading private broadcaster and an important source of news for Afghans angered by years of corruption and ineptitude in the Western-sponsored government of Hamid Karzai. Several reporters and editors were reportedly physically abused by Sabet's men. Three
journalists were arrested. Sources indicate that the raid and arrests took place without proper warrants.
Since early March, Arthur Kent has forwarded questions to the office of Foreign Affairs Minister Peter Mackay regarding Sabet's status in Canada. Sabet gained entry during the Taliban era and settled in Montreal - despite his past connections with anti-Western extremist groups in Afghanistan, and having had an earlier application to enter the U.S. denied by American
immigration authorities. Sabet returned to Kabul in 2003, and was nominated by Hamid Karzai last August as Attorney General.
Says Kent: "From Foreign Affairs, from Citizenship and Immigration Canada, and from the Prime Minister's office, the silence has been deafening. The last thing the Harper government seems to want to talk about is Abdul Jabar Sabet, of Montreal and Kabul.
"But now, with a media crackdown underway in Kabul, another question looms large: is this the kind of Afghan lawman and government that Canadian troops are fighting and dying for?"
The raid was launched shortly after Tolo TV's evening newscast had featured a recording of Sabet's statements earlier in the day to the Afghan Parliament. Sabet claims his speech was misrepresented.
Kent's skyreporter website includes a film profile of Tolo TV, and a separate tribute to all Afghan journalists. Says Kent: "Afghanistan's vibrant and assertive new news media has been under increasing pressure by the Karzai government. But the spectre of paramilitary repression is unprecedented - at least for the current regime.
"It was the Taliban government that practiced draconian information control, branding television cameras 'instruments of Satan.' Now Sabet, along with President Karzai's information minister, apparently want to turn back the clock on freedom of speech."
Skyreporter.com is an independent website, managed exclusively by Arthur Kent, and features the latest technology for exhibiting video reports online. It was launched March 5th, 2007.
For further information: Adriana Salvia, (416) 274-8711,
Adriana@mondouxsalvia.com; or Jennifer Mondoux, (416) 530-1173,
Jennifer@mondouxsalvia.com
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Afghan Attorney General, a resident of Montreal Raids Afghan Television
Wednesday, April 11, 2007
US in Canada pressing for more commitment in Afghanistan ...
U.S. Turns to Allies for Afghan War Help
April 11, 2007 LOLITA C. BALDOR Associated Press Writer
QUEBEC CITY, Quebec - The United States is pressing its allies to contribute additional forces, equipment and other resources in Afghanistan for a NATO-led spring offensive against the Taliban.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was to meet with a number of military leaders in Canada late Wednesday and Thursday, was not expected to offer any additional U.S. troops, according to a senior U.S. defense official.
About a half-dozen defense ministers from countries working together in the volatile southern sector of Afghanistan will discuss how to ``fill those last critical pieces that are needed,'' said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the meetings had not yet taken place.
Among those would be aircraft and helicopters, additional trainers for the Afghanistan security forces, and some increased flexibility in how some troops can be used. Certain forces are limited in how or where they can be used, and those restrictions have been a prime complaint by the U.S. and NATO.
Gates will meet with a number of officials, including military leaders from Britain, Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Denmark and Romania.
The U.S. now has about 25,000 troops in Afghanistan, including some 14,000 serving in the NATO-led force, which totals 32,000 troops. Earlier this year, Gates ordered the extension of a U.S. brigade in Afghanistan, increasing the American commitment in preparation for what he said should be an allied offensive against the Taliban this spring.
Afghanistan's south is the center of the Taliban insurgency. Last month, NATO-led troops launched their biggest offensive yet in the region aimed at winning over the local population and targeting militants and their supply routes.
Afghan and NATO officials say they expect violence to increase this spring and summer. Last year, Taliban militants set off a record number of suicide and roadside bombs.
Australia announced this week that it plans to nearly double its forces in Afghanistan, adding 400 troops by midyear to its contingent of 550 serving there, and then adding another 50 by the middle of 2008.
Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Afghan casualties could hurt Tories: pollster
Afghan casualties could hurt Tories: pollster
CTV.ca Apr. 10 2007
If casualties there swing upward, the Afghanistan mission could provide a political liability for the governing Conservatives -- particularly in Quebec, says a pollster.
"The wild card is that this mission is seen to be very closely associated with the U.S., and that's bad political news for (Prime Minister) Stephen Harper," Nick Nanos of SES Research told CTV Newsnet's Mike Duffy Live on Tuesday.
He said Conservative numbers generally tend to soften in Quebec when Afghanistan rises in prominence in the news.
With the Conservatives having tabled a well-received budget on March 19 and two politically friendly parties doing well in the March 26 Quebec provincial election, their fortunes are seen to be on the upswing in Quebec.
Canada's second-most populous province, with 75 federal seats, is a key piece of the Tories' electoral quest to form a majority government.
Ottawa has been aflame with speculation about the possibility of a spring election, given numerous Conservative government spending announcements and the party's attack ads aimed at Liberal Leader Stephane Dion.
The Afghanistan situation has been working to the benefit of the Tories for most of 2007, with no combat-related deaths since Nov. 27, 2006.
That calm was shattered on Easter Sunday when a roadside bomb struck a LAV-III armoured vehicle in western Kandahar province, killing six of 10 Canadian soldiers inside.
"Although Quebecers like clean government, the trust and confidence that Stephen Harper projects, when they seen a prime minister that's very closely aligned with the Americans, they start to get a little nervous," Nanos said.
"And I think if they see casualties on a mission that's perceived to be closely aligned with George Bush, that could be bad news for Stephen Harper."
While Quebecers have supported close economic ties with the U.S., but on foreign policy, "they want to see Canada chart its own course, a course separate from the United States ... and that's when it becomes very tricky for the Conservatives," Nanos said.
The Van Doos
The Van Doos are the storied regiment based in Val Cartier, Quebec.
They have not yet been deployed to Afghanistan, although they are scheduled to ship out in August.
"I was surprised by it," Col. (ret'd) Michel Drapeau, a military analyst, told MDL.
"Either they weren't ready for it, or it could simply be a political decision for whatever reason one could imagine for it."
He thought if the regiment did suffer casualties, "there would be a heightened degree of sensitivity to the loss, perhaps that may translate itself into more opposition to the government for extending the mission."
The Conservatives spearheaded a motion last year to extend the Canadian mission in Afghanistan's Kandahar province until February 2009. The Liberals were fractured in support of it, and the NDP and Bloc Quebecois opposed it.
Stephen Staples, a defence analyst with the Polaris Institute, said Quebec doesn't necessarily go against the grain of Canada, "but the feelings are more pronounced."
He didn't think casualty reports changed peoples' opinions so much as hardened them.
Monday, April 9, 2007
cnd military lock-down of communications
When soldiers die, an internal military process takes over
The GlobeandMail With a report from Canadian Press April 9, 2007
One month ago, Private Kevin Kennedy said he could hardly wait to take on the Taliban. "Everyone is really pumped here this morning," the 20-year-old told The Canadian Press, as 5,000 allied forces prepared to launch a massive assault. "We came here. We've trained for years and we are finally going to go out and do our job and we are ready to do it."
Yesterday, on Easter Sunday, the young soldier's hometown of 1,500 was plunged into mourning by news of his death.
"This is devastating news. There's a lot of broken hearts," said Wayde Rowsell, mayor of St. Lawrence, Nfld. He remembered seeing the young infantryman in a cadet's uniform just a few years ago in high school. Pte. Kennedy came back to the province last Christmas, to see his family, prior to deploying.
"His mom was pretty emotional, like any mom would be if her son was going off to war. . . . It did affect him that his mom was upset, but his ambition was to serve his country," Mr. Rowsell said.
Five other Canadian families were grieving their sons yesterday.
The others were identified as Sergeant Donald Lucas, 31, of Burton, N.B., Corporal Aaron E. Williams, 23, of Lincoln, N.B., and Private David Robert Greenslade, 20, of Saint John.
Also killed were Corporal Christopher Paul Stannix, 24, of Dartmouth, N.S., who was a reservist from the Halifax-based Princess Louise Fusiliers, and a sixth soldier who was not identified at the request of his family.
Most of the soldiers had been based with the Royal Canadian Regiment at Canadian Forces Base Gagetown, just outside of Fredericton.
The mayor of the community that surrounds the base, Oromocto, said her town is reeling. "It's going to be one of the greatest shocks to the town of Oromocto -- when you have five, it's a big shock," said Mayor Fay Tidd. The base commander, Colonel Ryan Jestin, told reporters that "It has been an extremely tough day for CFB Gagetown and for the community."
The evening hours of Easter Sunday were tense for many families of Canadian soldiers. By early afternoon, news of the worst combat tragedy suffered by the army in Afghanistan had broken, but the identities of the dead were withheld for many hours.
The public was kept in the dark. And many military families were no better informed.
The Canadian Forces does this by design.
While little is said publicly during the initial hours after deadly attacks, a vast internal machine revs up, stifling communications as scores of military officials work to ensure the bodies of the dead are returned to their loved ones in the most sensitive manner possible.
The military begins by locking down communications from the theatre of action in Afghanistan, specifically because it wants the families of the dead to be notified first through official channels.
Soldiers injured in the attacks, and also those close to the dead, are not to place calls home for fear that leaks will cause news to be broadcast before families are properly notified.
The precautions, however, didn't stop the woman who blogs as "Military Mom at Home" from receiving an ominous phone message yesterday. "We wondered if your son was all right?" a journalist asked, explaining that six soldiers had just been killed overseas.
"I was and still am floored! (This call came before it was broadcast on the news stations.) This is the third time this happened," the outraged military mother wrote in response to the call, placed by an unidentified reporter.
"The first time was after the friendly fire in September . . . and then the second was during Operation Medusa . . . and now today."
This call was less alarming, as her son had just finished his Afghanistan rotation. But "I can only imagine the mother's (father's, sister's, family member's) reaction whose son is currently serving overseas and gets a phone call like this," Military Mom wrote.
The news of yesterday's attacks left army brass and military chaplains in Canada racing to deliver news of fatalities to the immediate families. Padres in Afghanistan also work to comfort soldiers. News of the six dead yesterday arrived as many soldiers had gathered for Easter mass in Afghanistan.
A spokeswoman for the Canadian Forces said last night there were no in-house military experts available to comment on the tragedy, as most people who specialize in comforting families were left to respond to yesterday's attack.
Most of the dead soldiers were infantrymen with the Royal Canadian Regiment -- a century-old infantry division that has distinguished itself from the battle for Vimy Ridge to present times. Officials with the regiment were making comments yesterday.
Military logistics experts shave started the process of repatriating the remains into Canada. Usually, the journey home begins with a memorial service attended by members of all of the allied forces serving in Afghanistan. Then, a military plane leaves Afghanistan, transiting through Germany, where it is met by Canadian undertakers.
The slain soldiers' closest friends escort the bodies to Canada, where the plane lands at Canadian Forces Base Trenton.
Military officials and politicians usually attend a ceremony at the base, before the bodies undergo autopsies in Toronto.
After that, the remains of the soldiers are finally returned to their families, who launch their own ceremonies to commemorate the dead.
These funerals are days, perhaps weeks, away. But, yesterday, everyone from the Prime Minister on down to scores of Canadian civilians were commending the fallen for their sacrifice.
Pte. Robert Costall's Death in AFG: Closer to Report on friendly fire probe
U.S. army completes friendly fire probe into killings of U.S., Canadian soldiers
April 06, 2007 The Canadian Press 2007
MONTPELIER, Vt. — The U.S. army has completed a probe into whether a Vermont National Guardsman and a Canadian soldier were killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan during a fierce night-time battle just over a year ago, a Guard official said Friday.
But the results of the investigation into the March 29, 2006 death of Master Sgt. Tom Stone and Canadian soldier Pte. Robert Costall won’t be released until Stone’s family has been briefed about the findings, said Guard spokesman Capt. Keith Davio.
A spokeswoman for the Canadian Defence Department was checking Friday to see if a similar briefing would be given to Costall’s family.
The delay in the release of the results was due to the nature of the incident, Davio said.
“The biggest thing is it involves the three different governments,” the U.S., Canada and Afghanistan, said Davio. “Specifically what took so long, we don’t know that yet.”
Stone and Costall died during the firefight that followed a Taliban attack on a base in a remote part of southern Afghanistan. The attack that was repelled by U.S., Canadian and Afghan soldiers.
A week later, the Vermont National Guard announced that a friendly fire investigation was under way to determine if Stone and Costall were killed by their allies.
The possibility that Costall, a 22-year-old machine gunner, died as a result of friendly fire was raised by his wounded buddies when the multinational brigade commander, Canadian Brig.-Gen. David Fraser, visited them in hospital.
The troops told Fraser they had been hit by fire from their own side as they rushed to take up position in one corner of the arid, hilltop base overlooking the village of Sangin.
Costal, who was born in Thunder Bay, Ont., and grew up in Gibsons, B.C., was part of a quick-reaction force that was rushed to the outpost, which was in danger of being overrun by insurgents and militias belonging to local drug lords.
Aside from Costall and Stone, three other Canadian soldiers were wounded in the firefight. At least eight Afghan National Army soldiers were killed, along with as many as 32 insurgents.
Stone’s longtime companion, Rose Loving of Tunbridge, has said she was told by U.S. soldiers who were there that Stone was killed by friendly fire. She says she’s frustrated because the army wasn’t being forthcoming about its investigation.
She has been working with U.S. Sen. Patrick Leahy to get the army to finish the investigation and release the results.
In January and again last month, Leahy, (D.Vt.), wrote to the Secretary of the army asking him to tell Stone’s family what happened. In the second letter, Leahy said the army’s handling of the situation seemed insensitive.
“We owe our service personnel support when we send them into harm’s way,” he said in a statement Friday. “But, we also owe support to them when they come home, and to their families when they don’t come back. I’m disappointed with how this has been handled by the army.”
Loving said she expected to be briefed later this month.
“This is the first real information we have heard in over a year,” she said in an e-mail message.
Stone, 52, of Tunbridge, joined the army after graduating from high school in 1971, in part to try to learn what happened to his older brother, a freelance photographer who disappeared in Cambodia in 1970 along with Sean Flynn, the son of actor Errol Flynn.
The two were never seen again and are believed to have been killed by communist guerrillas.
Stone was in and out of the military several times over the years and in the interim spent eight years walking around the world. He was on his third tour in Iraq when he was killed.
Thursday, April 5, 2007
Vimy plaques riddled with errors
Vimy plaques riddled with errors: CBC
TheStar.com April 05, 2007
MONTREAL–The French-language plaques at Canada's newly restored Vimy Ridge memorial in France are riddled with grammatical errors, Radio-Canada reports.
The plaques, which are found in the visitor's centre of the memorial, contain mistakes stemming from a poor translation of their English counterparts, says the CBC's French-language service.
The mistakes include references to a landmine as "le mine" rather than "la mine" and numerous improperly conjugated verbs.
Veterans Affairs Canada is responsible for the monument.
According to Radio-Canada, the job of translating the plaques fell to volunteers.
Veterans Affairs Minister Greg Thompson told the state broadcaster that he was unaware of the errors and promised to look into it.
On Monday, Harper and Queen Elizabeth are to attend the ceremony of remembrance and the official dedication of the recently renovated Vimy memorial. French President Jacques Chirac will also attend.
Many historians point to Vimy Ridge as a key point in Canada's history, as it was the first time Canadian soldiers fought together as a unit.
In all about 100,000 men, including four divisions making up the Canadian Corps, plus support troops fought in the battle. There were about 10,000 casualties, including 3,598 dead.Canadian Press
Dashing the myth of Vimy Though long a touchstone of national identity, a new look at the battle says its significance has been overstated
Richard Foot The Ottawa Citizen April 05, 2007
A new scholarly account of the Battle of Vimy Ridge says the battle does not deserve its iconic status as one of the First World War's most decisive victories, and that generations of Canadians have grown up on a carefully constructed myth that Canada "came of age" at Vimy.
Vimy Ridge, A Canadian Reassessment, a collection of essays based on new archival research by 16 historians, was released only days ago -- on the eve of lavish ceremonies in France and Canada to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the famous battle.
"We're saying that Canadians have mythologized Vimy too much," says Mike Bechthold, a military historian at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ont., and one of the contributors and co-editors of the book.
"The idea that Canada was somehow 'born' at Vimy Ridge is nice mythology, but I don't think it's any more than that ... so we're trying to shine a new light on the battle."
Mr. Bechthold acknowledges the capture of Vimy Ridge in northeast France after several days of fighting in April 1917 was a watershed for the Canadian army. For one thing, it came at a cost of 10,602 dead and wounded Canadian troops -- one of the highest casualty rates in the nation's history.
Vimy Ridge was also the first time the four divisions of the Canadian Corps fought together in pursuit of a single objective. And it was Canada's first significant victory of the war.
But Mr. Bechthold and his colleagues point out that much of the credit for the victory should go to Britain. Not only was the Canadian Corps' commander, Sir Julian Byng, a British general, but Maj. Alan Brooke, the chief of staff to the Corps' artillery commander was also British, as were many other officers in the corps.
And while the bulk of the infantry that attacked Vimy Ridge was Canadian, they would not have been able to go up the slopes of the ridge that day if not for British artillery, engineers and supply units that supported them.
"Canadian nationalism has led to an exaggerated sense of the importance of the capture of Vimy Ridge, and the British elements of the force that fought in the battle have been airbrushed out of popular memory," British historian Gary Sheffield writes in one chapter.
The book argues that Canadians benefited from valuable lessons learned from earlier failed attempts by British and French troops to capture the ridge.
It explains, contrary to popular wisdom in Canada, that the victory was far from assured once the battle began, and that despite careful preparations, errors were made by Canadian troops that nearly lost them the battle.
The book also says that while Vimy Ridge itself was an important defensive position, the battle was of little overall strategic significance.
The Battle of Arras, a much wider Allied offensive of which Vimy was only a small part, has been largely forgotten by history, thanks to the attention heaped on Vimy by Canadian mythmakers, the book says.
"In terms of changing the course of the war," says Mr. Bechthold, "the capture of Vimy Ridge probably had very little effect, and not nearly the impact, for example, of the later Canadian victory at Amiens in 1918."
Yet, how many Canadians today know anything about the Battle of Amiens?
Mr. Sheffield argues that Vimy became famous purely because it fed Canada's hunger for a great deed to call its own on the world stage.
"It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that if Vimy Ridge had been captured by a British or French formation instead of the Canadian Corps, this action would not enjoy its current celebrity," Mr. Sheffield writes. "Vimy Ridge resonates largely because of its role in the growth of Canadian nationalism."
In one of the book's most interesting chapters, Jonathan Vance, a historian at the University of Western Ontario, shows how Canadian poets pounced on news of the Vimy victory in 1917, and almost immediately began spinning it into myth.
The fact that the battle was launched on Easter Monday made it even easier for mythmakers to say that the battle itself had religious significance.
"Once the battle was identified with the rebirth of Christ," writes Mr. Vance, "it was only a small step to connect Vimy with the birth of a nation. With the provinces represented by battalions from across the country working together in a painstakingly planned and carefully executed operation, the Canadian Corps became a metaphor for the nation itself."
$1,900 Cdn reward for Nato's killed
Afghan leader claims cash rewards offered to kill NATO soldiers
Jonathan Fowlie, CanWest News Service April 5
MAYWAND, Afghanistan — The leader of an Afghan district claims the Pakistani secret police are offering cash rewards to anyone who uses an explosive device to injure or kill a NATO soldier.
"I have heard the Pakistan ISI (Inter-Services Intelligence) is openly giving money for people that are laying mines," said Haji Saifullah, district leader for Maywand — a desert region in the northwest sector of Kandahar province.
"If the mine goes off on coalition forces they are going to get more money, if they go off on (Afghanistan National Army soldiers) they are going to get middle-class money and if it is going off on police they are going to get less money," he added, while speaking through an interpreter provided by the Canadian military.
CanWest News Service could not independently verify Saifullah’s comments on Wednesday, and the district leader did not provide any direct evidence.
In Wednesday’s interview, Saifullah said he has been told a successful bomber will get roughly $1,900 Cdn if he kills a member of NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, and about $380 Cdn for members of the Afghan forces.
He added he has heard a bomber will get half those amounts if he is able to simply hit a convoy with an explosive device.
Canadian forces have been working in the area since March 6 as part of Operation Achilles — a mission meant to stabilize neighbouring Helmund Province so work can begin on a large dam that will help with irrigation and power.
Saifullah said unless new irrigation systems are installed, farmers in the area will continue to grow poppies on their land.
"If they grow something else, like corn or wheat they are not going to get money," he said. "They’d like to grow something else but because of the expense of water they cannot afford that," he added. "Therefore they have to grow poppies."
Saifullah also lauded Canada for it’s commitment to the Afghan mission and for the sacrifices it has made.
"I am thankful for all Canadians that you are operating in Afghanistan," he said. "For those soldiers who lost their lives in Afghanistan, we are praying for those people.
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
O'connor and his pile of ....
Canada in for the long haul in Afghanistan: O'Connor
Tuesday, April 3, 2007 | CBC News
Afghanistan is a "success story" and Canada will have a presence in the country until the progress made cannot be reversed by Taliban extremists, Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said Tuesday.
"Afghanistan is improving," O'Connor told reporters in Montreal after a luncheon speech. "There are 37 countries in there. There's a lot of aid and a lot of effort going in to build that country up."
In his speech, sponsored by the Montreal Council on Foreign Relations, O'Connor said Canada is making a major contribution to the international effort to restore peace and stability in Afghanistan.
"It is because of the continuing threat posed by these extremists that the Canadian Forces remain a vital part of this mission," he said.
"This government will support the mission — by our words and by our actions — until the progress in Afghanistan becomes irreversible."
Asked by reporters later to explain exactly how long Canada will stay in Afghanistan, O'Connor said Canada has pledged support over the next two to five years in the form of both troops and development aid.
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He said Canada has committed itself to having troops in the country until February 2009 and to contributing millions in assistance through the Canadian International Development Agency until 2011.
"We'll watch this year the progress," he said.
O'Connor added the government will make a decision next year whether the Afghan mission needs to be extended beyond its existing mandate.
Afghanistan, he said, should not be mixed up with Iraq.
"Afghanistan is a success story," he said. "This is a democracy and we are helping to support the government."
Partial return to normalcy
The defence minister said in his speech that, judging from a recent trip to Afghanistan, life is returning to normal in some areas.
"This time, villages appeared more active. Life is returning to places that seemed deserted before," he said.
But he cautioned that the Taliban is trying to sabotage any progress made and that is why Canada needs to continue to have a presence in the country.
A handful of anti-war protesters interrupted his speech at a hotel at one point, but police quickly ushered the small group out.
Outside, several more protesters demanded Canada withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
Canada has more than 2,000 soldiers stationed in Afghanistan, with the majority in the southern province of Kandahar. Forty-five Canadian soldiers have died in Afghanistan since Canada sent troops to the troubled country in early 2002.
Canada has committed close to $1 billion in aid to Afghanistan over 10 years ending in 2011.
The federal government says, at the end of the 2006-2007 fiscal year, Canada will have invested nearly $600 million since the fall of the Taliban to help Afghans rebuild their country.
The Montreal Council on Foreign Relations is a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting greater knowledge of international affairs.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Canada risks isolation in the Arab world
Palestinians warn Canada of necessity for dialogue
Policy that bans meetings with officials risks isolation in Arab world, minister says
By CAROLYNNE WHEELER AND GLORIA GALLOWAY The Globe and Mail March 30, 2007 – Page A15
JERUSALEM AND OTTAWA -- Canada risks isolation in the Arab world if it does not rescind its ban on meeting with members of the new coalition Palestinian government as the United States, United Nations and much of Europe have done, Palestinian Authority leaders caution.
The warning comes after Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and Prime Minister Stephen Harper both snubbed Mustafa Barghouti, the moderate new Palestinian Information Minister, who was in Ottawa this week.
Canadian officials yesterday confirmed they would not meet any member of the new government, taking a harder line than the White House. "It's our policy to have no contact with members of the government or deputy ministers -- that's what we're suggesting," said Daniel Dugas, Mr. MacKay's director of communications. "The minister has met [Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud] Abbas and speaks with him regularly."
The statement comes after Mr. MacKay told the House of Commons this week that Canada supports Mr. Abbas's efforts toward peace.
"Until such time as we see progress in the area of the Quartet principles, which call for the recognition of Israel, which call for the cessation of violence, which call for the road map to be adhered to, we are not going to deal directly with a terrorist organization, namely Hamas," he said.
Mr. Barghouti, a one-time presidential candidate seen as a moderate, with no links to the Islamist Hamas party, met with new UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and the Swedish Foreign Minister just days before his arrival in Canada, where he was told the Canadian government was still formulating its policy on dealing with the new coalition.
"We think the Canadian position is either too slow or too much influenced by the Israelis," he said in a telephone interview from Ottawa yesterday, where he met with MPs from the Liberal, NDP and Bloc Québécois parties, and attended a committee meeting involving a Conservative MP.
Most Western countries began enforcing sanctions against the Palestinian Authority government when Hamas was elected just over a year ago after it refused to renounce violence and recognize Israel's right to exist. Hamas is listed as a terrorist organization by most Western countries, including Canada, and Canada was the first of many countries to cut off financial aid.
But months of negotiation between Palestinian factions culminated in a power-sharing agreement signed last month in Mecca, which aimed to lift the blockade at least partly by agreeing to respect past accords that recognize Israel.
Although aid has not been restored, U.S. diplomats met recently with new Palestinian finance minister Salam Fayyad, also a moderate. Representatives from several European nations have either travelled to the West Bank for meetings or invited Palestinian leaders for official visits. Mr. Barghouti himself heads today to Italy to meet with Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema before returning home.
Israel, however, has argued for a continuation of the suspension of aid and contact, saying the new government has not explicitly recognized its right to exist. "This is exactly what we were asking for, because we see this as a government with an extremist platform, and it's important for the world to recognize it," an Israeli Foreign Ministry spokeswoman said last night.
Mr. Barghouti warned that Canada's move could leave it standing alone with Israel, losing its traditional position as a neutral party in the Arab world.
"My message is for the Canadian government to look at our platform with your own Canadian eyes and not with Israeli glasses on," Mr. Barghouti said. "I think it's the [Canadian] government that should feel isolated in its position."
A medical doctor who also holds a degree in management from Stanford University, Mr. Barghouti has met with Canadian officials in the past, including the Prime Minister's special envoy to the Middle East, Wajid Khan. As a representative of the Independent Palestine party and former presidential candidate, Mr. Barghouti is seen as a moderate, liberal politician critical of government corruption and violence.
This trip, he said, was planned before the unity government was formed, but he decided to proceed as a "golden opportunity" to boost relations with Canada.
Instead, the chilly greeting has left Palestinian officials fuming.
"[Barghouti] is the same person who's gone back and forth to Canada and had contact with Canadian officials before," said Abdullah Abdullah, a Fatah parliamentarian who chairs the legislative council's political committee, and who was a Palestine Liberation Organization representative to Canada from 1972 to 1990. "It isn't going to help Canada's image and standing as a fair, neutral country with a tradition of peacemaking."
Thursday, March 29, 2007
hillier, lies or truth?
Afghan experts contradict Hillier’s optimistic claims
Andrew Mayeda, CanWest News Service March 29, 2007
OTTAWA — Two leading experts on Afghanistan painted a sobering picture of the conditions there Thursday, arguing support among Afghans for NATO forces is plummeting, the U.S.-driven policy of poppy eradication is wrongheaded, and the war might not be winnable in its present form.
U.S. scholar Barnett Rubin and Gordon Smith, Canada's former ambassador to NATO, delivered their withering comments to a parliamentary committee only days after Canada's top military commander, Gen. Rick Hillier, touted the progress being made in Afghanistan.
Hillier, the chief of defence staff, this week predicted Canadian troops in southern Afghanistan should soon see a rise in attacks from the Taliban. But he insisted on using the term "surge" rather than "offensive."
He also noted many Afghans are moving back into their homes in districts west of Kandahar following a Canadian-led NATO offensive last fall.
But Rubin, who has been to Afghanistan 29 times and followed it for more than two decades, said Thursday that many Afghans are growing frustrated with the pace of Western efforts to stabilize the country.
"They're not at all happy. Support for both the international presence and the government has plummeted in the past year or so," he told the House of Commons foreign affairs committee.
He said Afghans aren't seeing the results of promises by the United States and NATO, which took over the mission in 2003, to increase security, establish democracy and improve the economy.
"The main complaint that I hear from Afghans is not that we're imposing something on them that we don't want, but that we haven't delivered what they think we promised."
Rubin recently published an article in Foreign Affairs magazine warning Afghanistan "is at risk of collapsing into chaos." In the article, he blasts the U.S. government for underestimating the influence of Pakistan, which he accuses of providing "safe haven" to the Taliban.
"There certainly [is] in Pakistan very obvious infrastructure of support for the insurgency," including madrassa religious schools and insurgent training camps, Rubin said Thursday.
He also noted reports that the Taliban are receiving support from the Pakistani intelligence agency, known as ISI, although he cautioned such reports are difficult to verify.
Smith, meanwhile, threw cold water on Hillier's suggestion that Canadian troops are facing a weakened enemy.
There is evidence that al-Qaeda-affiliated militants, who often fight alongside the Taliban, are actually gaining strength, said Smith, now executive director of the Centre for Global Studies at the University of Victoria.
"The al-Qaeda problem has not gone away," he told the committee. "It's important that we not forget the original motivation for going to Afghanistan, and that was to deal with al-Qaeda."
Smith recently released a critical report of his own, entitled "Canada in Afghanistan: Is it Working?" He questions whether NATO can achieve its stated goals, even within a period of 10 years. Canada has committed to maintain its military presence until 2009.
"If we're serious, and we've got to be serious, we'll be there for a long time," he said.
Smith argues NATO needs to increase its troop commitment, while deploying development aid more effectively and opening political negotiations with the Taliban.
He is also harshly critical of the policy, favoured by the United States, of eradicating poppy crops to curb the drug trade.
He said NATO needs to create a market so Afghan farmers can sell their opium for legal use in medical products, such as morphine, or establish financial incentives so that farmers can become less dependent on the heroin market.
which story is true?
NATO troops earn resentment of frustrated Afghans
or
ISAF refutes Reuters’ claim of 60 civilians killed in Kandahar Province in January
NATO troops earn resentment of frustrated Afghans
Mar 27, 2007 David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan are beginning to draw the resentment of Afghans fed up with growing civilian casualties and the lack of material progress in their lives, experts say.
Resentment has posed special problems in the south, where villagers who have suffered from Western military firepower have responded to the Taliban's call to arms against foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai, the experts said.
"There is growing resentment because of the kinds of military operations that have been carried out, not because of the international troop presence," Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for International Crisis Group think tank, said this week in an interview.
Ahmed, who is based in Pakistan and travels frequently to Afghanistan, cited bombing raids based on faulty intelligence that have killed innocent villagers and shootings of innocent civilians by panicky troops as especially damaging to Afghan support for Western forces.
"What has also led to greater resentment is the fact that Kabul is not delivering," she added, referring to the Afghan government's difficulty in providing services to the people.
The United States provides about 27,000 of the 45,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, some in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the rest under a separate U.S.-led coalition.
Pentagon and NATO officials cited opinion polls, however, that show a large majority of Afghans favoring foreign troops and only a small fraction of support for the Taliban
"There is no doubt that the population supports the presence of international troops," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
Added Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician: "Support for the Taliban has not increased. I think the majority see the Taliban for what they are or what they bring to Afghanistan, which is brutality."
AFGHANISTAN'S DIRECTION
But polling data has also shown Afghan support for international troops slipping in 2006 as the populace has grown less optimistic about the country's direction.
Violence in Afghanistan last year was the worst since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. About one-quarter of the 4,000 people killed in 2006 were civilians.
NATO, U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders have said the Taliban insurgency cannot be defeated unless reconstruction brings the new jobs and economic progress that were widely anticipated after the former Taliban rulers were ousted.
But David Edwards, a U.S. anthropologist regarded as an expert on the origins of the Taliban, said reconstruction has been overshadowed by rampant corruption, meager international donations and poverty in a country where the unemployment rate is about 40 percent.
"It's important to understand that Americans have come to be seen as an occupying power," Edwards, an author who has traveled widely in Afghanistan, said at a Monday forum sponsored by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington
"It's a way in which the Taliban has come to gain supporters," added Edwards, who said there is evidence that the Taliban pays its members better than Afghanistan's national army pays its soldiers.
The warnings about eroding support came as NATO commanders conducted a spring offensive code-named Operation Achilles against Taliban strongholds in a bid to pre-empt an expected warmer weather seasonal campaign by Islamist militants.
With fighting expected to be heavy again in 2007, Afghans have complained more loudly about the effects of combat as NATO has poured more troops into the effort to thwart the Taliban.
Scores of civilians have died during NATO operations this year. About 60 people, including women and children, were killed by NATO planes during fighting in the southern province of Kandahar in January during an important Muslim holiday.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Washington, Mark John in Brussels and Terry Friel in Kabul)
ISAF refutes Reuters’ claim of 60 civilians killed in Kandahar Province in January
Release # 2007-249 29 March 2007
KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – In a story, headlined “NATO Troops earn resentment of frustrated Afghans,” dated 27 March 2007, Reuters reported that “About 60 people including innocent women and children, were killed by NATO planes during fighting in the southern province of Kandahar in January during an important Muslim holiday.” The Reuters story also claims, according to a source, that “panicky” ISAF soldiers have killed innocent people.
A thorough review of both battle damage assessments and claims put forward for January 2007 does not corroborate the numbers reported in the Reuters story. As a result, ISAF refutes the claim made by Reuters.
As for the specific allegation that NATO planes killed 60 innocent Afghans in Kandahar Province in January, it is important to note that ISAF did not launch any major air strike offensives during that month in Kandahar Province. The majority of air strikes in the province of Kandahar occurred in the initial stages of Operation Baaz Tsuka, specifically on 13 and 19 December 2006. During these strikes, our battle damage assessments did not reveal any innocent Afghans killed. Our records do show, however, that ISAF operations may have injured some civilians in December 2006 and these claims, which were filed in January 2007, are still being processed.
ISAF takes extraordinary measures to prevent any type of collateral damage and operates on the principal of avoiding any and all civilian casualties during operations. This has been a long standing practise and ISAF continues to apply this principle rigorously.
It is equally important to note that in addition to conducting battle damage assessments, ISAF works closely with the Government of Afghanistan through a detailed process by which evidence and claims can be put forward by Afghans in cases where innocent people are killed or collateral damage was caused.
“Every Afghan killed in this conflict is one Afghan too many,” stated Major General Ton van Loon, Commander of Regional Command South. “Local
Afghans in areas where we are currently conducting operations have clearly told us that they are essentially held hostage by Taliban extremists. Our operations are therefore planned as such and we take every possible precaution to prevent the accidental killing or injuring of local Afghans. If this means cancelling or delaying operations, then this is what I will continue to do,” he added.
Regarding claims by Reuters that the “panicking” actions of ISAF troops have killed innocent people during battles, ISAF stands firmly behind its troops who, to the contrary, have not only demonstrated courage in the performance of their duty but have repeatedly demonstrated restraint during battles with extremists. ISAF troops demonstrated restraint in occasions such as on 7 February in the Kajaki area where extremists used children to cover their retreat, causing ISAF forces to stop engaging the enemy. Similarly, they showed control in the Garmsir area on 7 March when extremists sought refuge in a Mosque, temporarily causing ISAF forces to cease fighting until extremists started engaging from the Mosque. During the same operation, ISAF troops ceased fire on the enemy who took refuge where innocent Afghans were believed to be residing.
In contrast to the restraint of ISAF forces, suicide attacks targeting Afghan National Security Forces or ISAF troops often kill innocent civilian bystanders. For 2007 alone, these indiscriminate attacks, often launched by extremists in crowded areas, have killed 25 local Afghan civilians and wounded more than 60 others. For the month of March alone, 18 innocent Afghans have been killed and more than 12 innocent Afghans have been wounded as the direct result of enemy improvised explosive device attacks.
ISAF Public Information Office
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Nato, more afghan resentment
NATO troops earn resentment of frustrated Afghans
WASHINGTON, March 27 (Reuters) - Foreign troops deployed in Afghanistan are beginning to draw the resentment of Afghans fed up with growing civilian casualties and the lack of material progress in their lives, experts say.
Resentment has posed special problems in the south, where villagers who have suffered from Western military firepower have responded to the Taliban's call to arms against foreign troops and the government of President Hamid Karzai, the experts said.
"There is growing resentment because of the kinds of military operations that have been carried out, not because of the international troop presence," Samina Ahmed, South Asia project director for International Crisis Group think tank, said this week in an interview.
Ahmed, who is based in Pakistan and travels frequently to Afghanistan, cited bombing raids based on faulty intelligence that have killed innocent villagers and shootings of innocent civilians by panicky troops as especially damaging to Afghan support for Western forces.
"What has also led to greater resentment is the fact that Kabul is not delivering," she added, referring to the Afghan government's difficulty in providing services to the people.
The United States provides about 27,000 of the 45,000 foreign troops in Afghanistan, some in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force and the rest under a separate U.S.-led coalition.
Pentagon and NATO officials cited opinion polls, however, that show a large majority of Afghans favoring foreign troops and only a small fraction of support for the Taliban.
"There is no doubt that the population supports the presence of international troops," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said.
Added Pentagon spokesman, Air Force Lt. Col. Todd Vician: "Support for the Taliban has not increased. I think the majority see the Taliban for what they are or what they bring to Afghanistan, which is brutality."
AFGHANISTAN'S DIRECTION
But polling data has also shown Afghan support for international troops slipping in 2006 as the populace has grown less optimistic about the country's direction.
Violence in Afghanistan last year was the worst since U.S.-led forces ousted the Taliban in late 2001. About one-quarter of the 4,000 people killed in 2006 were civilians.
NATO, U.S. commanders and Afghan leaders have said the Taliban insurgency cannot be defeated unless reconstruction brings the new jobs and economic progress that were widely anticipated after the former Taliban rulers were ousted.
But David Edwards, a U.S. anthropologist regarded as an expert on the origins of the Taliban, said reconstruction has been overshadowed by rampant corruption, meager international donations and poverty in a country where the unemployment rate is about 40 percent.
"It's important to understand that Americans have come to be seen as an occupying power," Edwards, an author who has traveled widely in Afghanistan, said at a Monday forum sponsored by the Pakistani Embassy in Washington.
"It's a way in which the Taliban has come to gain supporters," added Edwards, who said there is evidence that the Taliban pays its members better than Afghanistan's national army pays its soldiers.
The warnings about eroding support came as NATO commanders conducted a spring offensive code-named Operation Achilles against Taliban strongholds in a bid to pre-empt an expected warmer weather seasonal campaign by Islamist militants.
With fighting expected to be heavy again in 2007, Afghans have complained more loudly about the effects of combat as NATO has poured more troops into the effort to thwart the Taliban.
Scores of civilians have died during NATO operations this year. About 60 people, including women and children, were killed by NATO planes during fighting in the southern province of Kandahar in January during an important Muslim holiday.
(Additional reporting by Andrew Gray in Washington, Mark John in Brussels and Terry Friel in Kabul)
Iraq exit dance has lessons for Canada
Iraq exit dance has lessons for Canada
March 27, 2007 The Toronto Star Richard Gwyn
In itself, the bill passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives requiring the withdrawal from Iraq of most American troops by the end of 2008 is little more than a gesture.
President George W. Bush has already said he will veto it.
Yet there is a good reason for Canadians to keep a close eye on the progress of these political struggles and also of manoeuvrings between the White House and Congress and between the Democrats and Republicans.
This reason is that what's happening there today may well happen to us in a few years time.
There, the source of the challenge confronting the political system is Iraq; here, it will be Afghanistan.
The comparisons aren't exact. Canadians haven't been deceived, by either the incumbent Conservative government or its Liberal predecessor, about the reasons Canadian soldiers are in Afghanistan.
There has been here no explicit expression of public opinion about the war in Afghanistan, unlike the anti-Iraq war vote in the U.S.'s mid-term elections.
Even the regular polls don't show strong public opposition to Canadian troops in Afghanistan, and do show strong support for our troops. But it also shows unease about what might happen there.
This won't last, though, entirely aside from the possibility of casualties in the intense fighting predicted for this spring.
We are committed to staying to mid-2009. Unless, by then, the Taliban is clearly in retreat and the government in Kabul is clearly gaining popular support, extending the mission would be extremely difficult.
In fact, neither mark is likely to be achieved by 2009. In terms of "nation-building" Afghanistan is at least a 10-year project, and quite possibly a 20-year one.
Staying on, therefore, would look like committing our troops to an eternity of fighting.
This is when the crunch will happen. There's really no way to get out of one of these kinds of conflicts except to randomly declare a victory and then to bring the troops home.
This is what Bush is now doing. His "surge' of extra troops is likely to quieten things down in Baghdad. So, shortly before leaving office, he will be able to declare a victory and blame everything thereafter on the Iraqi government.
Except that, as soon as the U.S. troops leave in large numbers, the insurgents and the Sunni will themselves surge right back into Baghdad.
Our situation is more complicated. Fighting the Taliban is a North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) responsibility. But major NATO members, such as France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, are standing on the sidelines.
A Canadian withdrawal in 2009 would thus leave a huge hole. The Dutch, who, like us, are actually fighting, may well use our withdrawal as cover for them to do the same.
Thus, a Canadian withdrawal might precipitate a general withdrawal even if – unlike in Iraq – the circumstances don't really warrant it.
On the one hand, some of the current news from Afghanistan is extremely worrying. The international think-tank, the Senlis Council, has just reported a sharp increase in support, to close to one-in-three for the Taliban in the south, where the Canadian troops are.
Also, United Nations anti-drug chief Antonio Maria Costa has reported that the alliance between drug lords and the terrorists is "stronger than ever."
On the other hand, education and health care in the country have definitely improved, some 3 million refugees have returned home, and Kabul's streets are now packed with traders.
The clichéd phrase that always gets dredged up at this point is "an exit strategy." In fact, as shown by the way the Democrats stretched their withdrawal deadline into late 2008, a key component of any exit strategy is a stay-for-a-bit-longer strategy.
Soon we are going to be tested politically in a way that we haven't been in decades.
The same imperatives as now apply in Washington – of pretending victory in order to avoid the humiliation of admitting defeat, and of bringing our soldiers safely home but of not turning our backs on their sacrifices – will apply here.
Watching the drama now unfolding in Washington may be a useful way to spot the impending dangers and opportunities.
Of course, what we may mostly learn by watching Washington will be to do the exact opposite.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Military lawyers defy O'Connor ... hum.....???
Military lawyers defy O'Connor on detainees policy
March 23, 2007 | CBC News
Defence Department lawyers are trying to block investigations into the way Canadian troops handle detainees in Afghanistan, even though the defence minister has promised they would go ahead.
Minister of Defence Gordon O'Connor told MPs earlier this week that an independent commission would review allegations that military police broke the law when they turned Afghan prisoners over to the Afghan government, knowing they might be tortured.
But lawyers working for O'Connor's own department are now at odds with him.
A spokesman for the Canadian Forces legal office said lawyers are reviewing whether an independent commission would be overstepping its bounds by reviewing how Afghan detainees are treated. The lawyers may pursue legal action to stop such an investigation.
Stanley Blythe, who is working for the independent commission, sees no reason the review should not carry on. "We see this as our job, certainly. And they [defence ministry lawyers] see this as apparently not our job," he said.
A Defence Department spokesman told the CBC on Friday there was a "technical issue" to resolve and military lawyers are still reviewing how to stop the investigation in spite of O'Connor's decision.
Still, a source close to the minister said O'Connor will not back down from his word.
Thursday, March 22, 2007
Sears: War Campaign ...
An additional way for Canadians to support the troops
NR 07-004 - March 22, 2007
OTTAWA - Canadians wanting to support the troops now have another option. CANEX, a division of the Canadian Forces Personnel Support Agency (CFPSA), has coordinated with Sears Canada to provide official “Support Our Troops” (SOT) merchandise in Sears Canada retail stores across the country.
Official CFPSA SOT merchandise includes ball caps, t-shirts, car and fridge magnets, cling vinyl window decals, bracelets, lapel pins, and more. Canadians can now purchase official SOT t-shirts and ball caps at Sears Canada, with two dollars from each purchase going back to morale and welfare programs for CF members and their families.To purchase other SOT items, order online through CANEX at www.cfpsa.com/en/canex/.
CFPSA develops and delivers morale and welfare programs, activities and services to members of the CF and their families, in Canada and overseas. These activities include sports and recreation, health and fitness, family services, retail operations, financial services and, mess management. In addition, the CFPSA deploys approximately 60 civilian personnel per six-month rotation to Afghanistan to conduct morale and welfare programs.
For more information contact:
Kristin Wood, Acting Media Relations Coordinator, CFPSA
613-996-2062
wood.kristin@cfpsa.com
http://www.forces.gc.ca/site/newsroom/view_news_e.asp?id=2223
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
calls to MacKay: racial profiling of cnd at us border
mackay has to step up to the plate to stop this ...
Muslims petition MacKay
Macleans.ca staff | Mar 20, 2007
The Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations has called on Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay to ensure Canadian Muslims and Arabs aren't the targets of racial profiling when crossing the U.S. border.
The group is urging MacKay to either bring up the issue with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff or issue a travel advisory warning Canadian Muslims about travelling to the U.S.
"Our government must act to ensure that Canadians are not profiled, barred entry and indiscriminately added to American no-fly lists," the council's executive director, Karl Nickner, said in a release. "The livelihood and future of Canadian citizens cannot be halted without just cause."
The move comes after a 22-year-old northern Ontario student said he was detained for over 12 hours at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport. The student said he was held and interrogated like a suspected terrorist by U.S. authorities.
Mahmoud Zeitoun, a student at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ont., said he was detained on March 15 while on his way to Denver to act as a patient for a dentist taking an exam to practice in the U.S. Zeitoun was told he would only be granted entry into the U.S. provided he would leave between the hours of 7:30 a.m. and 7:30 p.m., but the requirements conflicted with his travel plans.
The dentist and her assistant were allowed to travel, but Zeitoun said he was detained for 12 1/2 hours and was asked whether he had any ties to Hezbollah or anyone expressing hatred toward the U.S.
"These questions were just so out of my range," he told Thunder Bay radio station CKPR on Monday. "And the thing is, if you don't answer, they're going to say you're lying."
Zeitoun said officials also seized his laptop and informed him he'd been marked as rejected from entering the country after he was detained for five hours two years ago while trying to cross the border in Sault-Ste.-Marie.
With files from Canadian Press
o'Connor should be given the boot
O'Connor under fire despite apology
NDP, Bloc say defence minister must go for blunders on monitoring of detainees
March 20, 2007 TheTorontoStar
OTTAWA–Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor has formally apologized for wrongly claiming Canada was monitoring the treatment of Afghan detainees through the International Committee of the Red Cross.
O'Connor admitted to Parliament yesterday the non-governmental organization "is under no obligation to share information with Canada on the treatment of detainees" and only shares any information – damning or not – with the government of Afghanistan.
"I fully and without reservation apologize to the House for providing inaccurate information to members," said O'Connor. "The answers I gave were provided in good faith."
But O'Connor's assertion that he "inadvertently" misled the Commons in repeated statements over the past few months drew derision and calls for his resignation from critics.
"He's either woefully ill-informed or he's misleading the House," said Dawn Black, the New Democrats' defence critic.
"If he was in the army, he'd be court-martialled," added Bloc Québécois House leader Michel Gauthier.
They said the Geneva convention on the treatment of detainees, which outlines the role of the Red Cross or Red Crescent in visiting detainees, is part of basic military training in the laws of war and O'Connor, a former brigadier-general, must have been aware of it.
The New Democratic Party and the Bloc called for O'Connor's immediate resignation, saying he has failed to negotiate better protection for detainees than was contained in an agreement Gen. Rick Hillier, the chief of defence staff, signed with the Afghan government in 2005.
Unlike NATO allies such as Denmark, Britain and the Netherlands, Canada has no way of monitoring the prisoners its troops capture and hand over to Afghan forces, said Black (New Westminster-Coquitlam).
"It leaves our own men and women in the Canadian Forces in some jeopardy," she said.
"For instance, four detainees they can't find now. What does that mean? Are they back fighting, perhaps against Canadians? Are they planting (bombs) right now against Canadian men and women? Have they been killed? Have they been tortured? I mean we simply don't know and that's not good enough. It's enough reason for the minister to resign."
After reading a prepared statement in the Commons in the morning, O'Connor appeared rattled during an onslaught of questions from opposition critics yesterday afternoon. He searched for words and was prompted by seatmates in his responses. He deferred to three other senior ministers to answer questions on his behalf.
When O'Connor did answer, he said over and over again that Canada has now asked the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission to monitor any "mistreatment" of detainees, and vowed he would not interfere with any of four ongoing investigations into allegations of mistreatment of detainees.
University of Ottawa lawyer Amir Attaran, who first raised questions about the treatment of detainees handed over by Canadian soldiers, said both O'Connor and Hillier should resign – O'Connor for misleading the House and Hillier for having signed the detainee agreement without monitoring ability.
The Liberals did not call for O'Connor to resign, saying that for now they want more than "small and dull answers" from the defence minister.
Monday, March 19, 2007
NATO Irritated by New American ISAF Commander
NATO Irritated by New American ISAF Commander
SPIEGEL staff March 19, 2007
The German government and NATO's North Atlantic Council have criticized US General Dan McNeill, the new NATO commander in Afghanistan. McNeill has been operating too independently and has been too brash in his choice of words, critics say.
The German government and the North Atlantic Council in Brussels are unhappy with US General Dan McNeill, who took over as commander of the 36,000-strong NATO-led force in Afghanistan in early February.
McNeill launched last week's "Operation Achilles" offensive against Taliban insurgents in southern Afghanistan without informing NATO headquarters in Brussels and the allied NATO powers.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and several ambassadors complained that McNeill had surged ahead on his own authority. They criticized him for declaring that the operation, which was originally planned just to protect a water dam, was a "spring offensive."
Government officials in Berlin were particularly irritated by reports that the US general is skeptical about coordinated civilian and military reconstruction efforts, an approach that Germany and many other partners support.
NATO's Supreme Allied Commander Europe, US General John Craddock, has expressed regret about McNeill's behavior, say sources in Brussels.
Dutch to leave afghanistan ... less than 50% public support on being in afghanistan! ...
Dutch military chief opposes extension to mission in Afghanistan
March 16, 2007 March 19 Pakistan News Service
NETHERLAND: Dutch troops in Afghanistan should return home after their mandate expires in a year's time, Dutch Commander of the Armed Forces Dick Berlijn has told Dutch newspaper the Algemeen Dagblad.
Berlijn said Dutch troops' mission in the southern Afghan province of Uruzgan must be taken over at that time by another NATO country, the newspaper reported.
The remarks ran contrary to the United States' repeated calls in recent months for more troops contributions to Afghanistan from NATO allies. Up to now only Britain has agreed to send reinforcements to the Asian country.
The Netherlands has about 2,200 troops in Afghanistan as part of the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force. Along with Britain, Canada and the United States, the Netherlands has been responsible for southern Afghanistan since last August.
Berlijn said that bringing the troops back after their two-year mission is completed will avoid excessive pressure on the military.
He said the smaller specialized units like the helicopter group and the engineering corps are bearing heavy burdens and troops of these units have to travel to Afghanistan more frequently to relieve the units there than the infantry.
An opinion poll late last year showed that the Dutch public was extremely skeptical about the mission in Uruzgan, with less than half of the population believing that the Dutch forces should be in Afghanistan.
Afghan's turning against Canadians
Afghans rejecting Canadian troops for Taliban, survey finds
DOUG SAUNDERS Globe and Mail March 19
LONDON — Afghan civilians are increasingly turning against Canadian troops and their country's government and toward support of the Taliban, according to a large-scale survey conducted in southern Afghanistan this month.
In a survey to be released in London today by the Senlis Council think tank, Afghan men in the Canadian-controlled areas of Kandahar province and in the neighbouring British- and U.S.-controlled regions say they are being driven to support the Taliban because of disillusionment with the NATO military effort and poverty created by the continuing conflict.
A team of 50 researchers polled 17,000 Afghan men in randomly selected districts in the Kandahar, Helmand and Nangarhar provinces of southeastern Afghanistan between March 3 and March 12.
"Across the south, the majority of survey respondents both worry about being able to feed their families, and do not believe that the Afghan government and the international troops are helping them," the Senlis report concludes. "Afghanis in southern Afghanistan are increasingly prepared to admit their support for the Taliban, and the belief that the government and the international community will not be able to defeat the Taliban is widespread in the southern provinces."
Canada's troops are responsible for Kandahar province as part of the UN-ordered NATO operation, and British soldiers are responsible for neighbouring Helmand province. These are considered the most volatile and dangerous regions in the Afghan campaign. The U.S. military is largely involved in Nangarhar.
The Senlis Council is a Brussels-based think tank that began as a European drug-policy organization, but has become heavily involved in Afghanistan, where it argues in favour of allowing Afghans to continue growing opium poppies, but for medicinal purposes.
The survey's conclusions are similar to those made earlier this month by Gordon Smith of the Canadian Defence and Foreign Affairs Institute, a Calgary-based think tank with a broadly hawkish stand. Like the Senlis Council, it concluded that the military operation is vital, but that it is failing because it is inadequately supported by humanitarian efforts.
The survey shows that 27 per cent of Afghans in the south now openly support the Taliban, a number that the surveyors said is likely higher because some respondents are wary of admitting support to a Westerner.
More specifically, when asked, "Are the international troops helping you personally," only 19 per cent answered yes (in regions with U.S. soldiers in control, only 6.5 per cent said yes). And 80.3 per cent say they worry about feeding their families.
"The widespread perception of locals is that the international community is not helping to improve their lives," the survey concludes. "The Taliban has been able to easily and effectively capitalize on this by providing protection from forced eradication [of poppy crops] and employment to many."
The study found that 72 per cent of men in the region know how to fire a weapon, making them potential Taliban recruits. The average annual income in the region of $747 (U.S.) is equivalent to two months pay for a Taliban fighter.
"We would support the Canadian military if we could. We would also support the Taliban if we could," an unemployed man in Helmand told the researchers.
Only 48 per cent of southern Afghans now believe that their government and NATO are capable of defeating the Taliban. Similar surveys taken at the end of 2001 showed overwhelming faith in the success of the war against the Taliban.
"It is clear that the Taliban are winning the propaganda war," the survey concludes. "This victory is now having a direct effect on the war itself, through people's perceptions of who is going to win."
The report notes that the military effort to defeat the Taliban has eclipsed, and often undermined, the simultaneous effort to improve living conditions for Afghans and rebuild their government and civil society.
Saturday, March 17, 2007
oh we support our military alright ; monument snuffed.
Canuck soldier monument snuffed out
TOM VAN DUSEN, SPECIAL TO SUN MEDIA March 17, 2007
PETAWAWA -- A plan to erect an eternal flame monument at CFB Petawawa honouring the contribution of Canadian troops in war zones has been snuffed out after an intensive five-month campaign.
Lead organizer Dianne Collier said the demise of the Eternal Flame Project primarily over a site dispute has left her committee members "reeling in disbelief."
"Once more, military families have been shafted. My committee and I have been shafted. We have completely dedicated ourselves to creating a monument that any community would be proud to have."
The Armed Forces wife is so disappointed, she's planning to retire after 18 years of a "frustrating uphill climb" supporting military families in various ways.
"I don't have the desire or the health to continue to butt heads with people who say one thing but mean the opposite. Talk is cheap and, as always, actions speak louder than words."
Collier's committee had been trying to raise $20,000 to construct the 8-ft. granite monument in existing Home Fires Park overlooking the Ottawa River. The flame would symbolize the fact wives and mothers have traditionally kept the home fires burning while their loved ones were away on the battle front.
However, Collier said, a civilian with control over the park and Base Command have decided the site shouldn't accommodate the eternal flame.
"It boggles the mind how a civilian with no connection to the base has been given complete control of a park created by a committee of local residents that sits inside CFB Petawawa on DND property," Collier said.
She also said the Base Commander won't cover future gas costs to keep the flame alight.
"I would not have gone ahead with the project without his assurance as it would have been pointless," she said.
Base Commander Lt.-Col. Dave Rundle could not be immediately reached because he is away on leave for March Break until tomorrow.
Collier said people from across Canada and the U.S. have embraced the project for "our hurting community ... but all of that has gone down the drain."
Contributions will be returned unless the committee is advised they should be redirected to the Sapper McTeague Wounded Warrior Fund.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
why is the US opening inbound mail for Canada?
Whose mail is it anyway?
Why are U.S. inspectors looking at Canadian items?
Diane Francis, Financial Post March 14, 2007
What happened to a FedEx package sent from Hong Kong to Toronto is a cautionary tale for Canadians, businesses and Ottawa officials.
The parcel was opened at Fed- Ex's Alaska sorting plant by U.S. customs and Homeland Security officials.
"It was an ordinary letter-size package containing six pages of business documents," said Alex Doulis in a telephone interview. "On the top it was taped over after being opened. On the tape was written 'Opened for U.S. customs and border protection.' "
Two seals were stamped on the tape. One was an eagle in a circle with the words U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The question is, why would U.S. officials have the right to open mail sent from one foreign country to another?
The parcel was not intended for delivery in the United States, but in Canada. Why did this arouse suspicion?
This incident is also curious considering last week's controversy in Washington. The FBI director admitted to Congress in a hearing that the USA Patriot Act had been used improperly to obtain information about people and businesses. Was this another example?
The problem for Canadians, it would seem, is that sorting of courier deliveries is done mostly in the United States. This means the parcels fall under U.S. jurisdiction.
Instead, they should be treated as "inbound" -- a designation that applies to passengers who simply change planes in the United States and need not go out and through customs again.
The point is that parcels destined for Canada should be sorted in Canada, not in Alaska or any other foreign jurisdiction.
"This is just wrong," Mr. Doulis said. "We are all sending packages and letters to other countries and the American authorities have no business opening our mail. It's against the law in Canada to tamper with somebody else's mail. You can go to the jail for that."
It seems to me that FedEx or Canada Post or whichever outfit
picks up my mail for delivery somewhere is guaranteeing tamper-free transport. Put another way, they should be legally liable to not have our packages opened by a foreign government in transit.
"I have no objection to any country imposing rules in its own country," Mr. Doulis said. "What's the use of hiring a courier service if the stuff is held up for at least a day, is opened and your confidential material has the potential of being lost?"
Mr. Doulis became concerned after his friend's mail was opened, then resealed. He is an investor who regularly is sending confidential business documents to locations around the world. These are documents, or even originals, that are valuable and cannot be replaced. Some contain confidential information that no one else is entitled to view or keep.
His concern led him to make some phone calls in Toronto of the international courier services offered here.
"I called every one and all of them told me that packages headed out of Canada, that are southern or European-bound, are sorted in the United States," he said in a recent telephone interview.
"If the documents are coming from, or going to, Asia, they will go through Alaska, which is what happened in this case."
The problem is that once the letters or packages arrive in a U.S. sorting plant, they are obviously subjected to search.
And Canadian customers, and others, are not advised of this ahead of time. Notification of this should have been given to customers, at the very least.
"Once it ends up in the sorting room in the U.S. there's a possibility it will be opened like this envelope," Mr. Doulis said. "This is objectionable because the envelope was not destined for the U.S., so there should be no customs issue for the U.S. But it was opened and resealed by them and by Homeland Security."
Clearly, Canadian mail must be sorted inside Canada or else exempted as "inbound" if sorted south of the border.
Homeland Security, and the US Patriot Act, provide sweeping powers to law enforcement officials down there. This is because the Americans are paranoid about all of this and, frankly, have sacrificed their rights to protect themselves. That is their choice.
But Ottawa has to look after Canadians' right to privacy and protection from extra-territoriality.
Federal Minister of Public Safety, Stockwell Day, take note: Rules should be imposed on the couriers doing business in Canada and zealous U.S. officials should be told to back off in the meantime