Beyond The Commons

Beyond The Commons

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

Colvin responds

by Aaron Wherry on Wednesday, December 16, 2009 12:31pm - 24 Comments

Richard Colvin sends his response to the special committee on Afghanistan. More from Canadian Press, Globe and Mail, Star, CTV and Canwest.

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  • Ted

    Skimming through his response statement, I think this is far worse for the government than original statements.

    Reading his responses, I think they may have been better to have never responded to him in the first place, to have never attacked him, to have never sent the Generals to attack him, to never have attempted the cover-up and ignore the will of Parliament.

    I suppose it is not as bad as having video of Colvin in committee which is likely what the Conservatives were aiming at in their recent attempts to try to shut the committee down.

  • Wascally Wabbit

    Mr. Hawn and Minister Mackay – I'll see your shoe and raise you substantial evidence THAT YOU KNEW ABOUT – of the risk of torture!
    Obama is emptying a prison in Cuba. Maybe you and your friends Bush, Cheney and "stuff happens" Rumsfeld will be getting executive suites there…

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/sourstud sourstud

      Don't forget Paul Martin, and Jean Chretien.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Nich Nich

    This is why every channel of investigation has been stonewalled and redacted.

    "A lie would have no sense unless the truth were felt to be dangerous." – Alfred Adler

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Scott_Tribe Scott_Tribe

    And now everyone should know if they didn`t already why the Conservatives want to shut down the COmmittee for the foreseeable future and refuse to turn over documents:

    10. 'Ottawa encouraged accurate, rigorous, factbased reporting.'

    From Colvin's rebuttal:

    Interdepartmental Coordinator for Afghanistan David Mulroney suggested that the only reason reports were edited was to remove 'opinion' or 'non‐fact based' information. This is not correct. Instead, embassy staffers were told that they should not report information, however accurate, that conflicted with the government's public messaging. [...] In September 2007, an embassy staffer, in response to a written request from DFAIT's Afghanistan Taskforce to contribute to a security assessment by one of our NATO allies, sent a report that security in Kandahar had got worse and was likely to further deteriorate. Mr. Mulroney severely rebuked the officer in writing.

  • kcm

    Detainees are less likely to talk about their treatment due to the risk of reprisal…there[to me] speaks the real voice of experience…Mackay's a buffoon. I've changed my mind…win or lose we do need an election. Charges pending!

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/ChrisInKW ChrisInKW

    Liberals welcome an public inquiry into the whole Afghanistan detainee abuse time line, from 2002 to present. Ignatieff said so in the House. Martin had the gumption to call an inquiry, why not Harper?

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/WDM WDM

      Precisely. Lets have an inquiry from 2002 onwards. Would you accept that wilson?

  • Anon Liberal

    Too bad for you the Liberals weren't in office when Colvin starting waving the red flag.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Scott_Tribe Scott_Tribe

    Well, let's call a judicial public inquiry and get to the bottom of who did what when.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

    Yes, his dignity is like a sword. But I was most impressed by his candid declaration that he was not a whistleblower but merely felt himself obliged, when asked to tell the truth, to tell the truth.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

    I can't help but notice it's been two hours since this post went up, and there's been no flock of Conservative apologists jamming the board with the usual venom.

  • Anon Liberal

    Waiting for their talking points to be mailed to them. Here, I'll start you off guys…

    "Why does Richard Colvin hate our troops!?!?"

  • Anon

    I posted this on Wells's post, but the most interesting part of Colvin's Rebuttal may be his point about informing Kevin Lynch, the former Clerk of the PCO. That would bring this thing right to Harper.

    As an aside: Colvin knows how to write. It is devastating in that it is at once direct, and yet, eerily detached.

  • Anon

    A proof is a proof is a proof …. and Colvin proves that the truth is mightier than the PM, his party, his Generals, his bureaucrats and his friends in the MSM.

  • Andre

    These cronnies worked with Colvin, didn't they know he had access to damning information and proof?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Scott_Tribe Scott_Tribe

    You're not far off: That's more or less what MacKay's chief of staff just said in his official response to Colvin's additional rebuttals.

    • Joking! Only Joking!

      idiots. They're going to keep using the 'hate our troops' line until they cross over into complete self parody.

  • tobyornottoby

    Toronto Star posted a handy list of the talking points. Can we just vote them into the minutes as read? All inf favour?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/Jack_Mitchell Jack Mitchell

    Devastating.

    • http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

      I don't think you survive in Colvin's occupation by throwing words around carelessly. Good on him for providing such a precise and damning rebuttal.

  • wilson

    See!
    Who needs committee hearings when you have Colvin and the media!!!

    I'm thinking that when the authors of the 2005 Afghan detainee arrangement are called to committee,
    some Liberal eyes will be open.

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/sea_n_mountains sea_n_mountains

    5 hrs now Sean… is there a nutter xmas party today?

  • http://intensedebate.com/people/SeanStok SeanStok

    lol!

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