The end result is the same: Canadian soldiers are ordered to transfer their Afghan detainees over to Afghan officials, with whom the detainees are tortured.
The issue so far has been only about whether the government reacted properly to reports and allegations of torture (and about the specifics of the prisoner transfer agreement). If the investigation finds that the government knew about the torture but did nothing to rectify the situation, one could argue that the government would have just been as guilty as if they were transferring prisoners to be tortured on purpose.
Now, there are new allegations that the government actually was transferring prisoners to be tortured on purpose. According to the allegations, it was hoped that intelligence would be gathered from the tortured detainees (shades of the so-called "advanced interrogation techniques" employed by the U.S.?).
If these allegations are true, it casts a far worse light on the Conservatives' refusal to hand over the documents on the Afghan detainees to Parliament.
As I stated at the start, the end result is the same for the tortured detainees (which is why both situations would be considered war crimes). Somehow, though, if the intent was actually there, it just feels a lot worse.
We'll see how it goes from here...
Peace and long life.
1 year ago
