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Warnings then and now

Canadian Press delves deeper into what Canada did, or didn’t, do about Asadullah Khalid, a notorious Afghan governor. The former chair of the Military Police Complaints Commission reiterates his concerns about government secrecy. The Foreign Affairs Minister concedes that tracking detainees remains a “challenge.”

“The May, 2007, arrangement states that the government of Canada will be notified prior to the release of a Canadian-transferred detainee by Afghan authorities. However, notification has been a challenge,” Mr. Cannon conceded in a written and little-noticed answer delivered to Parliament’s order paper last week, weeks after ministers had first faced and deflected questions on the subject at committee hearings.

… military sources have admitted that at least some detainees have been captured multiple times. The impact on morale of capturing Taliban fighters, transferring them to Afghan custody and then facing them again in combat is severe, according to Canada’s top diplomat in Kabul. The “release of detainees is having a profound and demoralizing affect on our soldiers,” Ambassador William Crosbie wrote in a Sept. 19 memo.

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