Paul S. Graham

Photo: John D. McHugh/AFP/Getty Images. Soldiers from the 1st Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry handcuff and search a suspected Taliban prisoner. Ottawa revealed that it stopped the transfer of Afghan detainees in November. Caption: National Post, Oct. 3, 2008

Like a mangy cat with diarrhea, the federal government is trying, so far unsucessfully, to cover up its role in the torture of prisoners taken by Canadian troops in Afghanistan. According to the Canadian Press:

The federal government wants the courts to block public hearings into the transfer of Afghan detainees.

At issue is whether Canadian soldiers were ordered to transfer prisoners to Afghan security, despite knowing the detainees would likely be tortured.

The government had promised full co-operation, but is now asking the Federal Court to outlaw the hearings.

Government lawyers say the independent Military Police Complaints Commission can only investigate individual cases of tortured prisoners.

They want a court order barring the agency from probing allegations that transferred prisoners were tortured and that Canadian officials knew it would happen.

Commission chairman Peter Tinsley ordered the public hearings last spring, saying it was the only way to ensure a full investigation of the allegations.

“It’s troubling and disappointing, but not at all surprising, that the government is again trying to obstruct the holding of a public hearing,” said Alex Neve, secretary-general of Amnesty International Canada told the Globe and Mail. “They are always looking for ways to avoid transparency and accountability.”

There have been several instances of Canadian soldiers refusing to turn over prisoners to Afghan security for fear they would be tortured.

But the federal government has refused to say how many prisoners it has turned over and whether it can account for all of them.

http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id=2215007&server=vimeo.com&show_title=1&show_byline=1&show_portrait=0&color=&fullscreen=1

New York Times Special Edition Video News Release – Nov. 12, 2008 from H Schweppes on Vimeo.

On November 12, thousands of volunteers distributed 1.2 million copies of a “special edition” of the New York Times, datelined July 4, 2009, that declared, among many other wonderful developments, that the Afghanistan and Iraq wars were over and that the troops would be coming home within weeks. Other articles revealed plans for universal healthcare, free post secondary education, rebuilding the nations crumbling infrastructure, and the nationalization of the oil industry to pay for climate change adaptation.

This highly creative work of political satire was the product of a group that calls itself the “Yes Men” — perhaps as a riff on Obama’s “Yes we can!” election slogan. In the words of the publishers:

This special edition of The New York Times comes from a future in which we are accomplishing what we know today to be possible.

The dozens of volunteer citizens who produced this paper spent the last eight years dreaming of a better world for themselves, their friends, and any descendants they might end up having. Today, that better world, though still very far away, is finally possible — but only if millions of us demand it, and finally force our government to do its job.

Part belly laugh, part bolshevism, this is political agitation on a grand scale; it will be difficult to ignore. Check out the web version of the July 4, 2009 New York Times here.