Canadian General: Aghan Detainees Turned Over for Torture

Canada’s top soldier, General Walt Natynczyk, dropped a political bombshell today that could political fortunes of the governing Conservative Party. Natynczyk said some Canadian troops knew detainees handed over to the Afghanistan authorities could be abused. At a press conference, he told reporters that he had received information about an incident in southern Afghanistan in June 2006 that demonstrated soldiers knew what might happen to detainees. Natynczyk read from the field notes of a section commander after troops arrested an Afghan man.

We then photographed the individual prior to handing him over to ensure that if the Afghan National Police did assault him, as has happened in the past, that we would have a visual record of his condition.

Natynczyk’s information is crucial because it undermines Ottawa’s stance that there was no evidence of any detainee being transferred by Canadian troops who was tortured. The government launched rhetorical assault on a whistle-blowing diplomat and intelligence officer named Richard Colvin who raised the allegations. Colvin said that is likely that all prisoners captured by Canada in Afghanistan between 2006 and 2007 were tortured after being handed over to the authorities. The Globe and Mail reports on a protest by former diplomats against Defense Minister Peter MacKay’s public attack on Colvin. Unsurprisingly, opposition parties are calling for a public inquiry into the torture of Afghan detainees and for MacKay’s resignation.