MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – October 13, 2012

• Afghanistan (1a)  Canadian reported kidnapped in Wardak province (with nothing on the Taliban’s web page yet saying “spies” were “arrested”)  “Two foreign citizens were kidnapped by armed insurgents on their way from southern Ghazni province to the central capital Kabul, an official said on Thursday.  A government official based in Maidan Wardak province confided to PAN the foreigners — a man and a woman — were travelling in a car that went missing in the Shashgaw area on the Kabul-Ghazni highway. A resident of the area said on condition of anonymity that the kidnap victims were an American woman and a Canadian man. They were seized by the Taliban between Shashgaw and Salar areas of Syedabad district on Wednesday.  A Taliban commander in Syedabad, meanwhile, confirmed the abduction of the foreigners by the fighters. However, he refused to give details. Ghazni Public Health Director Baz M. Himmat said the body of a woman was brought to the civil hospital by Afghan soldiers. The woman was mysteriously killed and her body founded on the Kabul-Kandahar highway, he said. The 25-years-old victim, wearing Afghan dress, could not be identified.”  Italian media (here in Google English) say the folks are members of an un-named NGO.  More on this one here, here, here, here, here and, aggregated, here (Google News).
• Afghanistan (1b)  A little bit more detail on the reportedly missing Canadian  “Two foreigners, thought to be a Canadian and a U.S. citizen, were reported missing on Saturday by a provincial reconstruction team in volatile Wardak, west of Kabul, and were feared to have been kidnapped, Afghan police said.  Rumours of the abduction of a man and a woman by either insurgents or criminal gangs have circulated for several days, but U.S. and Canadian diplomats said they were unaware of anyone reported missing.  “According to the Provincial Reconstruction Team report they had planned to travel from Kabul to Wardak,” Wardak police spokesman Wali Mohammad told Reuters.  “The missing foreigners were in contact until they reached the Kampany area on Kabul’s outskirts. After that they lost contact,” Mohammad said.  “We have information they may have been kidnapped.” …. NATO-led forces said they were aware of the kidnap reports, but the search for the missing pair was being handled by diplomats and Afghan police.  A U.S. embassy spokesman in Kabul late on Friday said there was no information on a missing American, but diplomatic officials are often reluctant to talk about kidnappings in hope it could smooth the way for negotiations on a release.  Canada’s Department of Foreign Affairs said it was looking into the reports, but gave no confirmation of a missing citizen.”  The only PRT I can find in Wardak province has the Turkish government as the lead – more from its web page here, with a bit of a picture/map where it is here.
• Afghanistan (2a)  Caveat:  no sign of subject report being shared, so no indication of what else might be in it.  “Hampered by an increasingly hostile work environment and a bureaucratic culture that discouraged innovation, Canada’s aid blitz in Afghanistan seemed at times “divorced from reality” in the war-ravaged country, concludes a previously secret review of the $1.5-billion program.  It and other audits of the Canadian International Development Agency’s huge involvement in Kandahar and elsewhere in Afghanistan depict a well-meaning drive for results the government could boast about — a push that faced “intractable” security problems, political pressures and the “vaguely envisaged” challenge of building a new nation.  The reports drafted for CIDA by two outside consultants seem written to avoid offending federal officials, and do actually praise many of the agency’s achievements. But the diplomatic phrasing cannot hide fundamental concerns about Canada’s ambitious development program as it unfolded.  Nipa Banerjee, who headed the agency’s Afghanistan operation from 2003 to 2006, said some of the comments reflect what she knows about Canadian projects in Kandahar.  “All the projects have failed. None of them have been successful,” said Ms. Banerjee, now a professor in the University of Ottawa’s school of international development. “I think we went into Kandahar to increase our international profile … rather than thinking about the interests of the people of Kandahar. It was too much politicized and militarized and securitized, and as a result we ended up with failure.” ….”  P.S. – 1)  the review ain’t secret if it’s been released, and 2)  the review couldn’t have been all that secret if it was publicly tendered earlier this year (with a later tender call for someone to protect them), right?
• Afghanistan (2b)  Speaking of CIDA, even ceasefire.ca is praising (sort of) the Americans for helping out where it appears Canada has walked away in Kandahar - more in the Toronto Star here.    
• Khadr Boy  More on that “charge him with treason” thing  “Public Safety Minister Vic Toews offered no comment Friday on whether the feds would consider charging Omar Khadr with treason after fresh revelations suggest the boy terrorist knew he was targeting Canadian soldiers.  Layne Morris, a former sergeant with the U.S. special forces, told Ezra Levant on Sun News Network’s program The Source that Christopher Speer, the U.S. army medic killed by Khadr, was operating from an army outpost in eastern Afghanistan secured by Canadian soldiers. That would have been clear to anyone watching the base, as a Canadian flag flew prominently overhead.  Morris says Khadr would have known the IEDs he was building and planting would be targeting Canadians as well as Americans.  “I’ve often wondered when I heard that Omar engaged in those activities, I wonder if he was conflicted at all to look at Canadians running that base. And I wonder if he said to himself, ‘wow, those are my countrymen. I shouldn’t be engaged in this type of conflict against them,’” Morris said.  Asked about Morris’ statement, Toews said Friday that Khadr was now in the hands of Corrections Canada and the National Parole Board, and any further legal proceedings are outside his jurisdiction ….”
• Sad….  “Ottawa police are looking for two men suspected of drawing a swastika and an offensive message at the Canadian War Museum.  Police said in the early morning of Aug. 27, two men arrived at the Ottawa museum in separate cars and painted a swastika at the back of museum and defaced a Royal Canadian Air Force plane.  The police have released pictures of the men, in hopes someone will identify them.  Police said both men were wearing jeans and T-shirts with logos at the front.  “The men and women who served under the RCAF and in all branches of the Canadian Armed Forces made great sacrifices, and these blatant acts are incredibly disrespectful to their memory and honoured legacy,” said Jean-Christophe de le Rue, spokesman for Veterans Affairs Canada.  “Those responsible for this heinous act should face the full extent of the law and we encourage anyone with information on this vandalism to contact local authorities so that those responsible may be brought to justice.” ….” – more from the Ottawa police service here.
• Head’s up if you live near Godfrey, Ontario  “Soldiers will be armed and sounds of blank small arms ammunition will be heard in the area of Godfrey, Ontario from 13-14 October 2012, from 6 a.m. Saturday to 12 a.m. Sunday. Approximately 100 army reservists from across 33 Canadian Brigade Group (33 CBG) will be taking part in Exercise RIVER WOLF II.  Motorists are asked to remain vigilant and drive with care as military personnel and vehicles may be seen in the area of Godfrey, ONT. Exercise RIVER WOLF II will allow soldiers the opportunity to train in a combined unit environment at the same time practice skills in an unfamiliar location among a civilian population.  33 Canadian Brigade Group (33 CBG) comprises 15 Army Reserve units across eastern Ontario, spanning from Cornwall to Oshawa to Timmins, ONT. There are approximately 2000 personnel employed throughout 20 communities within the brigade.”
• A new video’s up on YouTube showcasing the CF, with commentary on the new material at Milnet.ca.     
• Delisle Spy Case  The Russian Ambassador to Canada’s messaging on the fracas?  “…. “I’m not going to comment on recent developments,” he says. But then he says that in his decades of service in the U.S., he dealt with all kinds of delicate security issues. “But with all due respect to Canada, it’s not one of our security concerns.” This spy business? “It’s very marginal. It will die away.” ….”
  
• Meanwhile, a rabble.ca columnist says spending on intelligence sucks  “…. Recent reports in the media indicate that Canada is in the process of building a mega complex for the Communication Security Establishment (CSE), the agency that spies on communications originating oversees including phone calls (there is still ambiguity as to whether CSE is now spying on domestic communications involving Canadian citizens), Internet activities and other electronic communications. It is estimated that the facility will cost up to $880-million. We are told up to 1800 employees will be working there.  So why did the Harper government decide to enter that risky business from the big door? How could such lavish expenses be justified, especially in a hard economic context of federal cuts and public austerity agenda?   The answer to this question, found in the documents that were revealed by the same media reports, justifies the new building as follows: “It will distinguish Canada as a leader among its intelligence allies for this type of showcase facility.” But aren’t there a million other ways to distinguish Canada? Why this one particular? ….”
• The REST of the story of the making of “Argo”, the film highlighting how some Americans were snuck out of Iran while 50+ of their countrymen were held hostage at the U.S. embassy  “…. as is often the case with Hollywood, Argo trumpets America’s involvement in the caper at the expense of other players, specifically the Canadian Embassy. But, as is perhaps less often the case with Hollywood, when Affleck learned the film may have given Canada, and Taylor in particular, short shrift, he invited the former ambassador and his wife to L.A. to watch the film and eventually make changes to the postscript.  “I don’t focus my views on my own involvement,” says (Canadian ambassador at the time of the Iran hostage crisis Ken) Taylor, in an phone interview from his home in New York City. “The entire Canadian Embassy was at play. I don’t think it gives credit to Canada. And I made that pretty clear, I think.”  Of course, by the time Taylor and his wife Pat watched Argo in L.A. last month, the actual film couldn’t be changed.  So Affleck suggested Taylor rewrite the postscript, reportedly at considerable cost to the studio ….”
  

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