Saturday, April 3, 2010

Afghan detainees

I certainly want to get to the bottom of this Afghan detainee mystery. But even if the Sergeant-at-Arms forcefully seized all documents uncensored and made them public we may not have an answer about what government official knew what when in regards to prisoners being tortured. Conversely because the documents date all the way back to 2001, although very unlikely it could be for all we know that un-redacted documents show that the Liberals were somehow complicit in the torture of Afghan prisoners when they were in government. Although the Liberals must realize that that is a risk, to get to the bottom of this they certainly want the documents released. I am of the opinion that it is not reasonable for parliament to force the release of all the documents to the public uncensored due to national security concerns. Unfortunately the wording of the motion that passed in December was such that it had the effect of demanding the government release the uncensored documents to the public without restriction. Since then opposition parties have been backing off that demand by conceding that there are legitimate national security reasons not to release some of the documents and are instead asking that select MPs be shown the uncensored documents in strict camera under secrecy. If this occurred, it is not clear to me whether the MPs who saw the uncensored documents would be able to then publicly say that they discovered that the Conservative government and/or the previous Liberal government had complicity in the torture of Afghan prisoners and thus would not be able to embarrass the Conservatives on this matter as opposition parties had been hoping. So in the end the opposition may not be able to embarrass the government as they had hoped.

6 comments:

thescottross.blogspot.com said...

You either are having a go or you're not current with the news.

You're writing this post on April 3rd saying Liberals are being unreasonable asking for all the documents to be released to the public when since March 3rd the Liberals have made more than clear they just want them released to just Parliament and not the public.

So you writing that it's unreasonable for the Liberals to ask for the documents to be made public is wrong because they aren't.

The Rat said...

"So in the end the opposition may not be able to embarrass the government as they had hoped. "

Wow, That statement says it all, doesn't it? This isn't about torture, or war crimes, or detainees, it is about embarrassing the government. Ujjy says Canadian soldiers have committed war crimes because he wants to embarrass the government. That is truly one of the most pathetic admissions I have ever read.

Fred from BC said...

Well said.

(are you sure you're a Liberal?..;)


I would add that it isn't only the interests, security and reputation of Canada on the line here. Our allies in this fight could possibly be effected as well if the wrong information was released...

Brendan said...

thescottross.blogspot.com, read the blog post again carefully. I said that since the passing of the December motion the opposition has backed down on the motion's demand for all documents to be released unredacted publicly. I even specifically mention the opposition idea of certain MPs seeing the uncensored documents in strict camera.

Brendan said...

The Rat, opposition parties have trouble resisting trying to embarrass the government and I suspect if the Conservatives were in the same position the Liberals were in now they would be up to the same tricks the opposition has been trying. It it really is their job to be the opposition and find fault with the government.

thescottross.blogspot.com said...

I'm sorry but I took your present tense statement of "I am of the opinion that it is not reasonable for parliament to force the release of all the documents to the public uncensored due to national security concerns." as something pertinant to the post. Apparently however it's just stating the obvious and showing you now agree with the Liberals.

I just don't understand why you said it because no one TODAY is asking for the documents to be released to the public.

Just a question, do you think Parliamentary supremacy is enshrined in our Constitution?