Articles found January 30, 2008
Signals soldiers depart for Afghanistan
Posted By LYNN REES LAMBERT
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They loaded a truck with their army-issue gear, bid goodbye to families and buddies and then boarded a bus for the first leg of a long journey from CFB Kingston to the battleground of Afghanistan.
And every single one of them — all 27 members from the Joint Signals Regiment — was eager to get going.
“Every one of these soldiers wants to bea part of this mission,” said Lt.-Col. François Chagnon moments before he shook hands with his troops in the Friday morning departure from CFB Kingston.
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National Post Editorial Board: The Bizarre Ms. May
Posted: January 29, 2008, 12:25 PM by Yoni Goldstein Editorial
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Green party leader Elizabeth May has done as much as she could to extricate herself from the controversy she touched off last week when she stated in a press release about Afghanistan that “forces from a Christian/Crusader heritage will continue to fuel an insurgency that has been framed as a ‘Jihad.’ ” She is still trying to blame the Conservative party and the press corps for her failure to make it clear that her use of the phrase “Christian/Crusader heritage” was what the Romans called oratio obliqua. Apparently, she has reached the age of 53, and spent an entire career in advocacy and public service, without learning the intricacies of that handy-dandy device known as the quotation mark.
It would be one thing if a Muslim political candidate had allowed those words to go out under his name, but Ms. May is studying for the Anglican priesthood — an unusual vocation for someone at the head of a political party in the Western world. Given this, the correct presumption in her case might be that she meant to refer to the “Christian/Crusader heritage” of Canadian troops without any irony or derisive connotation at all.
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Helicopter shortage still hovers over forces
Mike Blanchfield and David ********, Canwest News Service
Published: Tuesday, January 29, 2008
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OTTAWA -- Canada has been quietly, and unsuccessfully, scrambling to secure a handful of desperately needed medium-lift helicopters for Afghanistan, Canwest News has learned.
In recent weeks, the federal government has approached European allies and major U.S. manufacturers for four to six aircraft, on a lease or loan basis, but has had no luck.
The government plans later this year to award a sole-sourced contract for 16 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the U.S. defence contractor Boeing, but because the first of those helicopters is not due to arrive until 2011, the military wants a temporary solution to the lack of air support in order to lessen the exposure of Canadian troops to deadly roadside bombs.
The Manley commission has called on the government to secure medium-lift helicopters by next year as a condition for continuing the Canadian Forces combat mission in Afghanistan.
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Harper seeks Dion support on mission
January 29, 2008 at 9:53 pm ·Jan 29, 2008 04:30 AM Allan Woods Ottawa Bureau
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OTTAWA–Prime Minister Stephen Harper says Canada will extend its mission in Afghanistan beyond 2009 only if NATO is able to find an additional 1,000 soldiers to fight with the Canadians in Kandahar – and he reached out to Liberal Leader Stéphane Dion for his support.
Reacting to the report by former Liberal foreign affairs minister John Manley on the future of the Afghan mission, Harper also said he would work to secure transport helicopters and unmanned surveillance craft, or he would end the combat mission when the current commitment wraps up in February 2009.
Harper said he spoke to Dion on Sunday and will talk to him again in a few days.
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Killing Canadians 'best way': student
Web posts spark RCMP probe, free speech debate
Stewart Bell, National Post; National Post Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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TORONTO - A Toronto-area man has been posting messages on the Internet supporting attacks against Canadian soldiers on Canadian soil, drawing the attention of RCMP national security investigators.
Police have advised the Bangladeshi-Canadian that he is under investigation for incitement and facilitating terrorism after he repeatedly called the killing of Canadian troops in Canada "legitimate" and "well deserved."
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Tories mount failed search for choppers Desperately Needed
Mike Blanchfield and david ********, Canwest News Service Published: Wednesday, January 30, 2008
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OTTAWA - Canada has been quietly, and unsuccessfully, scrambling to secure a handful of desperately needed medium-lift helicopters for Afghanistan, Canwest News has learned.
In recent weeks, the federal government has approached European allies and major U.S. manufacturers for four to six aircraft, on a lease or loan basis, but has had no luck.
The government plans later this year to award a sole-sourced contract for 16 new CH-47 Chinook helicopters to the U.S. defence contractor Boeing Co., but because the first of those helicopters is not due to arrive until 2011, the military wants a temporary solution to the lack of air support in order to lessen the exposure of Canadian troops to deadly roadside bombs.
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Time for the government to dispel the information fog
ROBERT MARLEAU Special to Globe and Mail Update January 29, 2008 at 6:56 PM EST
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It is often said that "No news is good news." It is beginning to seem as if the government has added to that adage, "Good news is no news."
A recent editorial in The Globe and Mail spoke of "the fog that has settled over the [Afghan] detainees": It was referring to the revelation that Canada had stopped turning over prisoners to the Afghan government in November, but had not disclosed this to Parliament or the public.
Since becoming Information Commissioner a year ago, it is my experience that it is not only the situation with detainees in Afghanistan that has become obscured. Indeed, a fog over information, even when the news is positive, has crept, little by little, over the government's activities.
As Information Commissioner, my job is to receive and investigate complaints by people who have requested access to information that is under the control of government institutions and are not satisfied with the response they have received. My staff of investigators is kept more than busy responding to these: Our caseload of complaints has doubled in the past year. But providing information in this way, under the Access to Information Act, is not the only, or necessarily the best, way for the government to communicate with its citizens.
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Military can disclose fate of detainees, PM says
BRODIE FENLON AND MICHAEL VALPY Globe and Mail Update January 29, 2008 at 4:24 PM EST
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In an apparent policy twist, Prime Minister Stephen Harper says it's up to the Canadian military to decide if and when it will disclose information about the handling of insurgent detainees captured in Afghanistan.
“These are operational matters of the Canadian military,” Mr. Harper said as opposition MPs hammered the government for a second day in Question Period with accusations of excessive secrecy and mismanagement of the Afghan mission.
“If the Canadian military chooses to reveal that information that's their decision, but the government certainly isn't going to reveal it on their behalf,” the Prime Minister told the House of Commons.
NDP Leader Jack Layton rhymed off numbers of detainees handled by British, Dutch and American forces and asked why Canada can't be as open as its allies.
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Gen. Hillier reported ‘furious’ with Harper about Afghan detainee issue
The Cape Breton Post
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TORONTO (CP) — The Globe and Mail said Tuesday that Canada’s top soldier is ‘furious’ with Prime Minister Stephen Harper for his handling of the Afghan detainee issue.
The Globe says Gen. Rick Hillier angrily phoned Harper on Friday and told him he is “tired of being used” in political controversy.
At issue is the Harper government’s refusal to answer questions about the Canadian military’s new policy on handling prisoners in Afghanistan.
The Prime Minister’s Office said last week it wasn’t told of the change in policy by senior military officers.
The Globe said Hillier was “absolutely” livid about that assertion.
The Globe says sources tell it Canadian Forces are now holding detainees at the Kandahar air base, rather than handing them over to Afghan authorities and are taking fewer prisoners and quickly releasing some of them.
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Dutch don't expect Canada to leave Afghanistan
Published: Tuesday 29 January 2008 18:28 UTC Last updated: Wednesday 30 January 2008 13:42 UTC
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The Hague - Dutch Defence Minister Eimert van Middelkoop says he does not expect Canada to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan in one year.
The minister says that the Canadians have the political will to stay.
On Monday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that the mission to Afghanistan would not be extended unless other NATO member states deploy more than 1,000 additional soldiers and more material.
Canada has 2,500 troops stationed in the southern province of Kandahar.
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10 militants killed in Pakistan
Mark Tran and agencies Tuesday January 29, 2008 Guardian Unlimited
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At least 10 suspected militants were killed when a missile struck a house in north-west Pakistan, officials said today.
The attack took place after midnight in Torkhali, a village in North Waziristan, a tribal region bordering Afghanistan, near the town of Mir Ali.
An intelligence official said six of the dead were Pakistani militants and four were foreigners. Violence has intensified in north-west Pakistan in recent weeks. Most of the fighting has been in South Waziristan, which also lies along the Afghan border.
The Pakistani government this month launched an offensive against Baitullah Mehsud, a Pakistani Taliban leader based in South Waziristan. He is blamed for the assassination of the opposition leader Benazir Bhutto last month, and for other attacks against Pakistani forces. More than 150 militants and more than 20 soldiers have died in the fighting.
In a separate incident, gunmen took up to 250 schoolchildren hostage in the town of Bannu in North West Frontier province yesterday, but released them unharmed after negotiations with tribal elders.
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Canada takes fewer prisoners in Afghanistan: report
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OTTAWA (AFP) — Canada's military in Afghanistan has been taking fewer prisoners and releasing them quicker after it stopped turning them over to Afghan authorities following torture allegations, The Globe and Mail said Tuesday.
Unidentified sources told The Globe and Mail that Canadian military were holding insurgents captured in Afghanistan at Kandahar Air Force base, "rather than turning them over to the Afghan authorities."
The Canadian military "are taking fewer prisonners and are quickly releasing some of them," the daily added.
Prisoner transfers ended in November after "a credible allegation of mistreatment pertaining to one Canadian-transferred detainee held in an Afghan detention facility," the Justice Ministry wrote to civil right groups last week.
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U.S. aid worker's abduction spurs protest in Afghanistan
About 500 women urged the release of the American, saying she had provided help.
By Noor Khan Associated Press
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KANDAHAR, Afghanistan - About 500 Afghan women gathered in a rare mass protest yesterday against the kidnapping of a U.S. aid worker. The women, many of them veiled, called on officials to find the captive American and urged the kidnappers to release her.
Officials said they had no suspects in the abduction of Cyd Mizell, 49, and her Afghan driver, Abdul Hadi. Gunmen abducted the two Saturday in a residential neighborhood of Kandahar.
The demonstration by so many women in the conservative southern province was a rare public display of their wishes. The 90-minute meeting was filled with prayers and speeches calling on government leaders to act.
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Copper project tests Afghanistan's resources
von Jon Boone (Kabul)
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The war-battered country might not be able to handle a huge but potentially lucrative deal.
The debris left over from previous attempts to extract some of Afghanistan's colossal mineral wealth can be found just 35km south-east of Kabul.
All that remains from Soviet attempts in the 1970s to assess one of the world's biggest copper reserves is exploratory drill holes. But in five years, if all goes to plan, the landscape in the Aynak exploration area will finally be changed into one of the world's largest opencast mines, thanks to a $3bn (Pfund1.5bn) investment by the China Metallurgical Group Corporation (MCC).
In November, the Chinese state-owned company beat eight other leading mining groups, including Phelps Dodge of the US, Hunter Dickinson of Canada and London-based Kazakhmys, to become the government's preferred bidder.
If contract negotiations are successfully concluded, MCC will have access to a reserve that, with copper prices running high, could be worth $42bn, according to one estimate.
By international standards, it is a huge project, involving the second-largest unexploited deposit in the world. By Afghan standards, it is gargantuan.
And therein lies both the potential reward and risk for a war-battered country that desperately needs the money such a deal could bring but which experts say is unprepared for regulating the sort of mega-projects that have caused social, political and economic catastrophes in other developing nations.
Lorenzo Delesgues, executive director of Integrity Watch Afghanistan, an independent research organisation that last month published a report on Aynak, says Afghanistan is not evenly matched with the company. "This is a multi-national company that is far bigger financially than Afghanistan. It's like David and Goliath, only David doesn't have any laws or regulatory framework to help him."
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