Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture
If Colvin’s reports are so innocuous, why won’t the government release them?
Flashback: Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Federal court limits Afghan detainee torture probe | Watchdog rejects government bid to delay Afghan detainee inquiry | Ottawa moves to block Afghanistan detainee torture hearings again | Bid to Block Afghan Detainee Inquiry Slammed | What Ottawa doesn’t want you to know: Government was told detainees faced ‘extrajudicial executions, disappearances, torture and detention without trial’
Richard J. Brennan, Toronto Star
November 25, 2009
OTTAWA – Retired General Rick Hillier today denied the existence of credible reports on Afghan detainees being tortured after being handed over to local authorities by Canadian troops.
The denial by the retired Chief of defence staff counters previous explosive testimony by senior diplomat Richard Colvin that he repeatedly warned senior government and military officials in 2006 and 2007 of widespread torture.
“I saw nothing that would have caught my attention,” Hillier told a parliamentary committee looking into treatment of Afghan prisoners.
In his recent book A Soldier First, Hillier described the allegations of torture as “bullshit” and the product of yellow journalism.
Hillier sat shoulder to shoulder with other top military figures retired Lieutenant General Michel Gauthier, who served as commander of the Canadian Expeditionary Force Command in Afghanistan, and Major General David Fraser, the commander of multi-national force in Afghanistan’s southern provinces in 2006.
Their staunch defence of the military and the detainee policy comes amidst growing demands for a public inquiry, in light of the damning testimony from Colvin last week.
Colvin, who was the deputy head of mission in Kabul in 2006 and 2007 before moving to his current position in Washington, testified, among other things, that Canadian detainees were tortured in Afghan jails and that their transfer was likely illegal.
Hillier told the committee Colvin’s contention that all detainees were abused was a “ludicrous statement” based on “hearsay” and unsubstantiated reports.
Colvin filed dozens of reports between May 2006 and October 2007 with respect to torture allegations to dozens of senior government officials, including Margaret Bloodworth, national security adviser to the Prime Minister and then foreign affairs minister Peter MacKay, who is now defence minister and the target of opposition attacks.
Amir Attaran, an Afghan detainees’ rights advocate and University of Ottawa law professor, said earlier Hillier and the others will never admit to specific examples of torture because to do so could result in them being charged with war crimes.
But Attaran said the fact the military has several times halted the transfer of prisoners to Afghan authorities speaks to more than just a passing knowledge of abuse.
“The astonishing thing about the Canadian Forces’ judgment has been to create the risk again and again and again,” he said.
“Trust me that I get no pleasure from the fact of saying Canadians could be in the dock for war crimes.”
While the three generals argued there was nothing to support the allegations, a Federal Court judge in Ottawa, hearing a request for an injunction to stop the transfer of prisoners in February 2008, said she found the torture allegations before her “real and very serious concerns.”
Gauthier testified that detainee transfers were taken very seriously and was briefed “every single day” by staff who know it was a “hot button issue.”
Gauthier said nothing in any of the reports he received from Colvin alerted staff of the high risk of torture or torture.
And he said any suggestion that senior military brass ignored or covered the reports “is wrong.”
Gauthier said he was “mortified” to hear himself and others “effectively branded as war criminals,” on national television.
Meanwhile, David Mulroney, a career bureaucrat who served as Canada’s former point man on Afghanistan and now Canada’s ambassador to China, is in Ottawa to defend his record against Colvin’s allegations.
Source | See Also under Torture: Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | UK: Rights watchdog reveals Pakistani spies pressed by British to torture detainees | Opposition wants documentation prior to government torture rebuttal, PM cries foul | Canadian officials discussed torture in 2006 | Canada shamed on Afghan prisoner torture | Canada ignored torture warnings: Diplomat | Guantanamo won’t close by January: Obama | Israelis Want a Pain Ray of Their Own | UK soldier testifies comrades beat Iraqi to death | Military lawyer stonewalls on Afghan torture claims | U.S. court denies Maher Arar’s appeal | UK: Move to withhold evidence in MI5/MI6 torture collusion claim | U.S. artists slam use of music in Guantanamo interrogations | Ottawa was warned Afghan detainees might be tortured | Military commission suspends torture hearings, gags witness | Torture probe delayed; Tories deny gagging witness | Portable heat ray weapon may end up in police hands | Guantanamo January closing 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November 26th, 2009 at 4:56 pm
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December 21st, 2009 at 3:37 am
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December 21st, 2009 at 5:29 am
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January 27th, 2010 at 7:24 pm
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January 31st, 2010 at 6:52 am
[...] resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Nato will send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, says Brown | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to [...]
January 31st, 2010 at 2:41 pm
[...] resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Nato will send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, says Brown | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to [...]
February 15th, 2010 at 11:04 pm
[...] resigns over Afghanistan air strike | Nato will send 5,000 more troops to Afghanistan, says Brown | Hillier says he saw no credible reports of torture | Afghan torture emails reached MacKay’s office | Opposition wants documentation prior to [...]
February 16th, 2010 at 8:36 am
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February 23rd, 2010 at 7:27 am
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March 5th, 2010 at 4:56 pm
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