Terrorist rights group files lawfare case against Canada

Westhawk:

The Canadian government and army have been served with another particularly clever case of “lawfare”:

OTTAWA (Reuters) - Critics demanded the resignation of Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor on Monday over fresh allegations that Afghan prisoners, detained by Canadian soldiers and handed over to local authorities, had been tortured.

The Globe and Mail newspaper talked to 30 men who variously said they had been beaten, starved, frozen, choked and subjected to electric shocks while in Afghan custody.

Professor Michael Byers of the University of British Columbia, a leading expert in international relations, said if the allegations proved true, Canada had broken a United Nations treaty against torture and the Geneva Convention on the treatment of prisoners of war.

"I hope the Canadian people realize just how terrible a day this is. If this report is accurate, Canadians have engaged in war crimes," he told reporters.

If Canadian soldiers could no longer hand over detainees to Afghan police, an alternative is for the Canadian army to establish its own detainee holding operation. Before doing so, Mr. O’Connor might ask his American colleagues if they would recommend this approach, in light of the sensational and damaging stories from Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib, and Camp Bucca and what these stories have done to the U.S. military’s ability to prosecute its wars. Should the Canadians operate their own ever-expanding detainee facility in Afghanistan, it would be a very short time before allegations of abuse surfaced, resulting in yet another scandal for them.

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This is a back door attempt to thwart the effort of allied forces to defeat the Taliban and al Qaeda in Afghanistan. It is also a third party case by people who should have no standing to bring such cases. If these guys have a problem with the Afghan handling of prisoners they should deal with that country directly, It is certainly not in Canada's interest to see these bad guys released to kill again. It clearly is in the interest of the enemy to see their detainees released to fight again and not provide intelligence to our side.