Blatchford the only Afghan detainee dupe
Only hours after reaffirming last week the Conservative government's patent statement that no Afghans detained by Canadian troops had suffered subsequent abuse and torture at the hands of the Afghan authorities, Gen. Walter Natynczyk dropped a bombshell. Not only had credible evidence suddenly and miraculously been handed to the chief of defence staff, but that incriminating battlefield report also indicated awareness amongst troops on the ground of previous instances of abuse by Afghan authorities.
In fact, the report notes that photos of the detainee were taken to illustrate his healthy condition at the time of being handed over by the Canadians. Any subsequent abuse at the hands of the Afghans could then be fully corroborated, and our soldiers exonerated.
The admission by Natynczyk crumbled the last line of defence for the Conservative government, and with Peter MacKay off licking a week's worth of wounds, Prime Minister Stephen Harper himself was left to fight the rearguard retreat.
Once again the public cry went out—this time from Harper—for the opposition parties to "respect the brave men and women in uniform, Canada's sons and daughters who selflessly put themselves in harm's way to defend our national values and to ensure our continued freedom and safety at home and abroad, forever and ever, Amen."
This Conservative tactic is akin to the Taliban's cowardly practice of using innocent women and children as human shields to protect themselves. No one is targeting our soldiers, and in fact everyone involved has gone to great lengths to ensure that this point is made as often and forcefully as possible. The only people intent on invoking the reputation of our Canadian Forces into this equation are Harper & Company as they seek to cloak themselves in its protective shield.
On the other side of the playing field, the Conservatives claim there was no foul committed by them against diplomat Richard Colvin, even when the game tape clearly shows them—and their appointed cheerleaders—mercilessly putting the boots to him. It was Colvin who first began sounding the alarm bell of possible detainee abuse in Afghanistan in 2006.
Once Colvin testified before the parliamentary committee, alleging that military brass and political leadership had ignored his warnings, the gloves came off and knives were drawn. First into the fray were Defence Minister MacKay and his loyal parliamentary secretary, Laurie Hawn, who both launched attacks against Colvin's credibility. MacKay went so far as to suggest Colvin was a Taliban dupe, and Hawn attempted to undermine Colvin by saying it was easy for the diplomat to make wild allegations from the safe confines of North America.
This was a theme that was quickly seized and repeated by retired major-general Lewis Mackenzie. During an appearance on CTV, Mackenzie claimed to have heard "from a very reliable source, that [Colvin] was not permitted outside the wire in Kandahar probably once and not more than once." As such, Mackenzie opined that Colvin's research was therefore limited to second-hand sources via phone and emails.
While Mackenzie is considered to be a Defence Department Stakeholder—one whom they keep briefed on the situation to help sway public debate—it was disturbing to note that Globe and Mail columnist Christie Blatchford made the exact same errant claim in one of her columns. Also referring to a reliable source, Blatchford reiterated the allegation that during his 17-month tour in Afghanistan, Colvin had made only one brief foray from the safety of the base in Kandahar.
As reported last week in the Ottawa Citizen, this information spread by Mackenzie and Blatchford on behalf of their DND source(s) is patently false. It was confirmed that Colvin left the base on at least six occasions to venture—at great personal risk—into the centre of Kandahar.
Meanwhile, in her column, Blatchford referred to the contents of Colvin's contentious emails, which had been magically leaked to her. Naturally enough, many in the media questioned just how and why Blatchford was the chosen recipient of documents that had yet to be officially released to the very committee mandated to probe the allegations of torture in Afghanistan.
In response Blatchford wrote "...as to how and why I got them, well, how does anything get leaked in Ottawa? Leaks are a fact of life, and the leakers always leak to those they believe will be inherently sympathetic, I suppose..."
Judging from a recent review of her book Fifteen Days that appeared in the Canadian Army Journal, the military brass see Blatchford as a wide-eyed and willing groupie. That review reads in part, "Stripped of any pretence of detached objectivity, we enter a world where [Blatchford's] abiding love of her subject [the Canadian army] produces a closeness, an intimacy, that is truly disarming. 'I can hardly bear to write about them sometimes. I find them so beautiful,' Blatchford admits."
Now that she has been used and discarded like a disposable rocket launcher by her "reliable source," perhaps Blatchford will understand that her love affair with the uniform is a marriage of their convenience.
Let's hope that in this case hell hath no fury as a Blatchford publicly scorned and humiliated.
Scott Taylor is editor and publisher of Esprit de Corps magazine.
editor@embassymag.ca
http://embassymag.ca/page/printpage/taylor-12-16-2009