26 November, 2009

- It is Better That We As Canadians Clear the Air than to Have it Come up in the International Criminal Court, in The Hague - continued

In G&M post - see below:

JR_1 wrote: "We know what was in those emails from Colvin …"

I posted, in reply:

The fact is we don't know what was in those E-mail and other important documents. The MP's on the Committee have made that and the difficultly in doing a proper job without them very clear.

Without the production of the pertinent documents and affording proper cross-examination there is hardly any point in waiting until the committee is finished.

That is why a Public Inquiry is required - to compel production of the documents and afford proper cross-examination of witnesses. For Harper, MacKay and the Con's to withhold the documents, viciously attack Colvin's credibility and do it in Parliament and national media where Colvin has no chance to defend himself, is reprehensible and smacks of a serious cover-up.

Until there is a full-fledged Public Inquiry with suitable access to all the documents involved, the best source for their contents is Colvin himself, considering he wrote them and he is not facing the possibility of accusations of being complicit in war crimes, or other violations of International or domestic law. Colvin's testimony is quite blunt and quite damning. It is not sufficient for Mackay, Harper or anyone else to simply deny everything. This is especially true given the amount of clear and convincing documentation that was published at the time from very credible and reliable sources setting the torture and abuse by the Afghan authorities.

Why should we have to wait until it come up in the International Criminal Court, in The Hague, to find out the truth.

Lloyd MacIlquham cicblog.com/comments.html