Beyond The Commons

Aaron Wherry covers all the goings-on in and around Parliament Hill. Follow Aaron on Twitter: @aaronwherry

Categories: Beyond The Commons, Capital Read

Weekend reading

by Aaron Wherry on Saturday, November 21, 2009 12:41pm - 64 Comments

The Globe details an April 2007 memo from Richard Colvin, the Star talks to a European Union official who concurs with Mr. Colvin’s account of the situation in Afghanistan and in both stories we get the first hint of what David Mulroney will say when he decides to comment publicly. Both the Globe and Star explore Mr. Colvin and his career in the foreign service. And in a pair of interviews, Malalai Joya, a member of Afghanistan’s parliament, talks about torture in her country and her view of Canadian involvement.

Tags: Afghanistan, Canada, David Mulroney, detainees, Malalai Joya, Richard Colvin, torture

More by Aaron Wherry

http://www.ghost4zmas.blogspot.com sylvia lorraine c

I am terrifrighteningly absconded by the gnarphtlk of voices in my brains mind to a heart that tells me that my child is in danger and there be no one to tell because everyone is out doing whatever they can to prevent me from knowing what they think I don't already know: that they be a lifeless bunch for not creating a path to real information in their own brains.

I am sick of loving those who debate and hurt and throw back gifts I've given them for knowing what they will want…but they act like it's phoney and GDugley or some other nefariodd nuance.

I am a plain person with plain tastes and when I usurp my simplicity to come forth with something that is truely complicated and simplex orientized…I am frugal to accomplish that much complexities…and they rebuke me for knowing how. That's just ENVY Dude, Damelette! I am sick, not sick and tired, but a hollow feeling comes into my heart that these men and women I've upheld for my entire life have a huge dis to deal with…and not just MINE!
http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

This might be some weekend reading as well:

http://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2009/11/024…

Just one of the hundreds of posts on the AGW scandal that has gone viral on the net.

I dare any Macleans reader to finish that entire post (which covers just a blip of what has been released), consider the ramifications of it in light of the fact that it affects a theory which seeks to reorder our world economy to a substantial degree,

and then ponder the incredible media silence on it.

Think of all the insignificant stories throughout your daily paper, that took precendence over it.

Like the band on the Titanic, old media plays its song while going down with the ship.

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Actually, the media has been picking it up. Hopefully we will see more.

http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/Article….
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/11/scien…
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

It's being picked up, albeit with the usual reporter editorializing "The evidence pointing to a growing human contribution to global warming is so widely accepted that the hacked material is unlikely to erode the overall argument" which is the usual false propaganda we find in the media on this topic. You'd think after 10 years of stable temperatures the media would finally give up with their religious propaganda and lies.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/21/science/earth/2…
http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

On the other hand, in the real world ….

http://www.fivethirtyeight.com/2009/11/i-read-thr…

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

…in the real world, the predictions of the IPCC have been wrong. Rather than a 0.2 degree increase in temps over the last 10 years, the increase has been a gigantic 0.07 degrees, and adjusting for the natural phenomena La Nina and El Nino, it is 0. That is the real world. The world where scientists are baffled http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,…

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

IPCC and its followers are fantastic at bamboozling people because they know no one really pays attention to what it has said in past. The railroad engineer and his minions just keep releasing new, and even more fantastical/alarmist, reports but few people take time to look at how accurate their predictions have been up to now.

And we should look to past performance, dire, to decide how accurate anything new from IPCC is.

http://intensedebate.com/people/danby danby

Sounds an awful lot like Jim Flaherty ;)

kcm

Way to throw more gas on the fire Sis! :)

http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

We are here to serve.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

hahahahaha.

If that's the best argument global warming types can come up with then they got bigger problems than I thought.

The absolute best aspect of that post is the very end where he writes "Incidentally, 2009 is shaping up to be the 5th warmist year on record, according to the conspiracists at NASA." If Silver took a moment and looked at past NASA graphs/work, he would know that NASA had predicted that this would be the hottest year on record, not the fifth.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Ricard_S_Argent Richard_S_Argent

God Bless the few, the brave, the brazenly stupid who STILL deny Global Warming…they are the true heroes.

sniff sniff…we salute you sir.

http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

The "few"

like so many other aspects of AGW that's based more on wishful thinking than fact:

two major polls done: one in the US and one in Britain, show that more people disbelieve rather than believe AGW.

Blues Clair

"and then ponder the incredible media silence on it. "

Weird, I read about this in the New York TImes, which I assume one can describe as "media". Focus biff, focus.

http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

And in wholly unrelated news, SDA, the top Canadian political blog (which IS educating its readers about this amazing revelation),

just surpassed eleven million hits last week.

Eleven million.

Anon

I don't think the word "educate" should ever have to suffer the humiliation of being associated with SDA.

kcm

I think bifff meant indoctrinate…semantics of course.

tobyornottoby

Biff, instead of imposing your unrelated rant on people who are following another topic, why don't you create your own blog, and see if other small dead animals want to discuss conspiracies with you there?

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

I'd prefer to see you go. Biff can stay.

tobyornottoby

You're another one who has been trying to change the topic instead of just going to another channel. Why log onto a blog post about something you aren't interested in? Are you trying to block other people from reading about it?

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

Hilarious. You've appointed yourself the blog police. I had no idea I could block other people, but since I can (I have no idea how that works), arrest me!

Anonymous

Biff has his own blog. And he's been trolling like this forever, under various pseudonyms. He used to troll Andrew Coyne's blog.

I'm more disappointed by people like s_c_f, who encourage people like that.

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

You've made me laugh. Sorry to disappoint you :-) I will promptly join the mob.

Anon

Richard Colvin, the real-life Jack Ryan.

Peter MacKay, the real-life Prince Harry.

Laurie Hawn, the man with a girlie name.

Quite a cast of characters.
http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

I agree with sylvia lorraine c. I, too, get a hollow feeling when I read Wherry's 50th post on this topic over the past few days.

kcm

Really! I tried to read it and had to go outside and stand in sub zero temperatures for a while in order to appreciate that there are indeed more excruciating levels of pain out there that you could subject yourself to…if you so desire.

Blues Clair

It's an interesting topic Jolyon, I'm sorry you find it irrelevant, but I'm not surprised.

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

And I am not surprised your putting words in my mouth. It is interesting topic – I agree. But Wherry clearly has autism sometimes when he is vexed by something.

There are all kinds of interesting things going on in Canada and the world but Wherry does not seem to notice.

Blues Clair

"There are all kinds of interesting things going on in Canada"

Listen jolyon, I agree, and was saddened by the death of John Bairds cat Thatcher as well…

"But Wherry has autism"

That's a nice touch jolyon, Conservatives, smear artists with no peer.

-

Doesn't it seem logical that reporters, fixated on a certain topic, it would in turn give them the ability to write with authority on the subject?
Mike514

Why do you assume that Joylon is a Conservative?
http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

Because I find sylvia lorraine c thoughts on gift-giving more interesting than Wherry's thousandth post on torture so I am clearly a knuckle dragger (aka Conservative).
Anonymous

He said, for the 50th time…
http://intensedebate.com/people/avr avr

Doesn't it seem logical that reporters, fixated on a certain topic, it would in turn give them the ability to write with authority on the subject?

No, quite the contrary: reportorial obsession causes loss of critical perspective. Not only is the result tedious to readers that disagree on whether it's The Most Important Story Ever, but it can easily descend into self-parody and preaching to the choir.
kcm

I realize the pious back-patting society around here mostly agrees with Wherry's angle, but I'm not really seeing the same tone and volume of coverage elsewhere. Why is that, I wonder"

WARNING!! Rogue Maclean's reporter on the loose! Watch it! you too could be forced to read this bilge.
It's scandalous when you consider the scarcity of available alternative blogs out there.
Anonymous

Speaking of tedious…
http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

fixated on a certain topic, it would in turn give them the ability to write with authority on the subject?

Wow, by that argument, all I gotta do is write a lot and I can be the foremost authority on any topic of my choosing.
kcm

"Wow, by that argument, all I gotta do is write a lot and I can be the foremost authority on any topic of my choosing."

Wow.Who woulda thought that's all it took to become a member of the Maclean's team!

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

"more excruciating levels of pain"

made me laugh. I spent more time than was sensible trying to figure out "nefariodd" but I finally looked at my keyboard and realised that 'd' is beside 's'.

http://intensedebate.com/people/s_c_f s_c_f

I think sylvia lorraine is spam. The people that brought us email spam are now bringing their product to the world of blogs. Either that or she's a Liberal.

kcm

Spam yes…or
She's a liberal…who happens to moonlight for the PMO.
http://intensedebate.com/people/SisyphusThis SisyphusThis

But then again, it's good to know we can only have autism sometimes.

The "intermittent" element will bring shock and awe to some families I know.

http://coyne kc

The spelling is fascinating. In one fell swoop she managed to achieve through artifice what i can’t accomplish through mere incompetence.

http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

That the old media refuses to cover (or cover fairly) the massive story going on, will only hurt them.

It's a whole new world, and the old gatekeepers of information don't realize the rest of the fence has been taken down.

Amateur Hour

And clearly those liberal ex-military and aerospace types at NASA are in on the scam, too:

http://climate.nasa.gov/evidence/

Also, what was that stat … something about "Eleven of the last 12 years (1995-2006) are the warmest since accurate recordkeeping began in 1850."

http://intensedebate.com/people/jolyon jolyon

Would love to know where you got that 'stat' from because it is bs.'

"Global warming appears to have stalled. Climatologists are puzzled as to why average global temperatures have stopped rising over the last 10 years. Some attribute the trend to a lack of sunspots, while others explain it through ocean currents.

At least the weather in Copenhagen is likely to be cooperating. The Danish Meteorological Institute predicts that temperatures in December, when the city will host the United Nations Climate Change Conference, will be one degree above the long-term average.

Otherwise, however, not much is happening with global warming at the moment. The Earth's average temperatures have stopped climbing since the beginning of the millennium, and it even looks as though global warming could come to a standstill this year." De Spiegel Nov 19 '09

http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,…
http://theplaceofbiff.blogspot.com biff

Actually its much worse. In those released emails which some are desperately refusing to acknowledge, the leading scientists openly fret about the drop in temperature over the last ten years.

wilson

In Colvin's 2007 memo:
''…In fact, Amrullah Saleh, chief of Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security,
told Canadians most prisoners were later released – meaning they weren't likely high-value captures, according to the memo….''

WHAT!, Colvin said ALL detainees were tortured,
now his memo says MOST detainees were RELEASED!

No wonder the government attacked the crediability of Colvins anonymous sources.

April 2007, one month before the government revised and improved the detainee handover rules, where are the 2006 memos?

Isn't that what this 'war crimes' thing is about,
the govt/military doing nothing from May 2006-May 2007?
2006 memos, let's see them.
Wascally Wabbit

Wilson – I only have one question – is your head buried in the sand in Afghanistan – or still underground in Iraq?

I am used by now to CPC misdirection – when searching questions are posed – but you sir – make Peter Van Loan sound like a babble mouth!

wilson

Read this article WW. and get back to me.
And I am not a sir.

http://www.canada.com/news/Prisoners+tortured+few…

jarrid

OT, sorry, but the human element to this story is compelling, so here goes:

Did anyone read Stéphane Dion's wife's (Janine Krieber) facebook entry where she disses Iggy big time?

Catch it on National Newswatch, currently the lead story.

She doesn't mince her words, makes for interesting weekend reading indeed.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Aaron, check out Janine Krieber's stunning and scathing cri de coeur!

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/blogs/bureau-blog/…

Anonymous

Glad to see you've joined the ranks of the Conservative trolls.

jarrid

Since Paul Wells has just posted on this, I guess he's one too.

wilson

It's in 3 Liblogger posts too,
they must be closet conbots!

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Apparently, everyone who remarks on this unprecedented, newsworthy event (the former Liberal leader's wife publicly castigating the current leader) is a Conservative troll.

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Nah, I just thought it was interesting. Revealing, even.

Anonymous

Revealing in the sense that Conservatives are afflicted with ADHD?

No. I knew *that* already

http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

So what are your thoughts on Krieber's scathing indictment? I suspect you agree with most of what she wrote.
Anonymous

I do. And in the context of potential war crimes and cover-ups by the Harper government, they're refreshingly candid and positive.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Have you lost confidence in Ignatieff? Assuming you ever had any?
Anonymous

Show me leadership anywhere in which anyone should have confidence.

It's the defining failure of our time. I blame it on yuppie parents.
http://intensedebate.com/people/Crit_Reasoning Crit_Reasoning

Show me leadership anywhere in which anyone should have confidence.

In other words, you never had any. Figured as much.

wilson

Add this to your weekend reading Mr Wherry,
firsthand account of what happened in the Afghan jail,
and it contradicts Colvin, in a big way:
(ignore the headline, it does not fit with the jest of the story)

…Bawar strongly contradicted Colvin’s testimony that all Taliban prisoners had been beaten. Of the 100 prisoners that had suffered abuse, many were from other wings of the prison rather than the area where several hundred political prisoners were held, he said.

These other prisoners would not have been originally detained by or transferred to Afghan authorities by Canadian troops….

http://www.canada.com/news/Prisoners+tortured+few…
Anonymous

Add this to your weekend reading, right wing trolls:

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/afghanmission/… issued instructions on denying abuse in '07