MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 16 Nov 11

• Afghanistan (1)  Toronto Star columnist becomes legal rep for teenager wanting student visa to attend school in Canada.
• Afghanistan (2)  Someone (I’m guessing) in Ottawa is pissed at how ‘terps trying to come to Canada are being handled.  “Frustration is growing in government ranks that Ottawa is falling down on its vow to help Afghan interpreters and their families find a new life in Canada. “I would say longstanding and growing frustration,” a senior official said this week after the Star highlighted the plight. The target of that frustration is the Citizenship and Immigration department, which critics say is dragging its feet on a Conservative vow to help Afghans who helped the Canadian mission in Kandahar resettle in Canada. “There is a moral obligation to do the right thing here and it’s unfortunate that CIC doesn’t feel this way,” said the official, who asked to remain anonymous ….”
• Afghanistan (3a)  Canadian Info-Machine officer Commodore Bill Truelove:  Taliban losing a grip on its troops?  “The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) has said that “the Taliban leadership has lost control of their organization.” During an operational update by representatives from the ISAF headquarters and NATO on Monday, Canadian Commodore Bill Truelove, Deputy Director of the ISAF Communication Directorate, said the Taliban carried out several attacks recently in spite of the Afghan Eid holiday. “Over the past week, the Taliban showed their blatant disregard for this holy celebration through a series of attacks resulting in the deaths of many innocent civilians,” he told reporters in Kabul. Truelove said the attacks occurred after senior Taliban leaders issued specific orders to their troops, directing them to stop killing innocent Afghan civilians. “Still, enemy forces are realizing they are sacrificing their lives for a cause that is not just and under leaders who have no concern for this country or its people,” he added ….”
• Afghanistan (3b)  Does one Taliban post including alleged security plans for a major meeting (link to copy of post at non-terrorist site) constitute a “propaganda war”?  “Afghanistan’s propaganda wars are becoming almost as intense as the actual fighting, as all sides jockey for position ahead of an anticipated NATO withdrawal in 2014. On Sunday, the Taliban took their psychological operations to a new level when they attempted to derail a loya jirga, or national council, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan President, has called for Wednesday. This will discuss future U.S. troop withdrawals and possible peace talks with 2,000 community and tribal leaders. In addition to the usual threats to assassinate anyone who attends the meeting, the Taliban have published what they claim are highly classified documents detailing security arrangements for the council, scheduled to be held at the Polytechnical University in western Kabul ….”
• Afghanistan (4)  Senator Pamela Wallin on the training mission:  “…. Canada has engaged in what is an incredible act of faith, inspired by the knowledge that if we educate and train the next generation of citizens and soldiers we will truly be giving peace – and Afghanistan – a chance.”
• Afghanistan (5)  “International Criminal Court prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo says his office will be releasing a report in the coming weeks that will decide whether to launch a formal investigation into Canada’s treatment of Afghan detainees, among other things. “There are serious allegations of crimes committed by different parties,” he said in an exclusive interview with Postmedia News during a stop at the University of Ottawa on Tuesday. “We are trying to find who is really allegedly responsible for crimes to check if there’s a need for us to investigate or not.” Moreno-Ocampo said his report will not specifically focus on Canada’s treatment of detainees in Afghanistan, but all crimes allegedly committed in that country and seven others. Most allegations, he added, are against the Taliban, but all claims are being looked at ….”
• “Canadian Forces reservists can face extra hardships after returning from deployments, researchers say. Difficulty finding employment and poor post-mission communications between reservists and military units are major barriers to soldiers reintegrating into civilian life. The findings of a study by Defence Research and Development Canada in Toronto were presented at the second annual Canadian Military and Veteran Health Research Forum in Kingston. The study involved 125 Canadian reserve soldiers who returned from an overseas deployment. The troops were contacted six to eight months after returning and about one-quarter of them took part in the 20-minute electronic survey. The results showed many reservists struggle to find work following their deployments. The lack of work added greatly to their struggle to reintegrate themselves into civilian life, said researcher Donna Pickering Tuesday afternoon ….”  A bit more on the Forum here, and the latest, updated (as of yesterday) CF Info-Machine backgrounder on PTSD here.
• Another research tidbit from the same conference:  “Almost one-quarter of a group of frontline soldiers sent to fight in Afghanistan in 2007 have been diagnosed with mental health problems, according to a new study by the Canadian Forces. The figure shines a light on the psychological risks facing Canada’s battle-hardened veterans not only in CFB Gagetown, where the study was conducted, but at CFB Petawawa in Ontario, CFB Edmonton in Alberta, CFB Valcartier in Quebec and at other major military bases where soldiers have deployed in great numbers over the last few years. The study of 792 members of the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Canadian Regiment, found 23.1 per cent of soldiers who served in Kandahar four years ago were now being treated for their mental health problems. One in five of those soldiers have been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, one of the chief health risks to Canadian soldiers after a decade of combat in Afghanistan. The study was presented Tuesday at a military health-care conference (in Kingston) that is bringing together some of the country’s best minds to share the latest research on how to help soldiers with broken minds and bodies ….”
• “After almost five years of legal wrangling, Dennis Manuge says he’s relieved that Canada’s disabled veterans are finally getting their day in court. “How I feel about it is a little bit of relief and absolute faith in the justice system that we are going to begin to have our case (heard),” he said Tuesday. Manuge, of Musquodoboit Harbour, N.S., is the representative plaintiff in a lawsuit against the federal government that alleges it is illegally clawing back the long-term disability insurance benefits of injured veterans. The Federal Court in Halifax will begin hearing arguments Wednesday in the class action, which could potentially affect the benefits of as many as 6,000 injured veterans ….”
• A reminder:  “For the sixth year in a row, friends and families of Canadian troops deployed overseas will be able to send their holiday letters and parcels for free via Canada Post. The program, which started in 2006, has delivered close to 90,000 parcels to members of the Canadian Forces serving overseas in war zones. With capacity limitations on military aircraft carrying supplies to deployed forces, this program is restricted to family and friends of the deployed service men and women serving overseas in war zones. Troops serving on any of the deployed Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships are also included in the program. Canada Post will accept regular parcels free of charge to designated Canadian Forces Bases overseas from October 17, 2011 until January 13, 2012. Lettermail weighing up to 500 grams to deployed troops can be sent free of charge until December 31, 2012.”  More from Canada Post here.
• Canada’s mission to help Jamaica is wrapping up – safe travels home, folks!  More on OP Jaguar here.
• “Haiti’s efforts to restore its disbanded army could deplete resources from more pressing matters in the Caribbean nation, which is still recovering from the massive earthquake that killed hundreds of thousands of people almost two years ago, a Canadian diplomat said Tuesday. John Babcock, a spokesman for Canadian Minister of State of Foreign Affairs Diane Ablonczy, said in an email to The Associated Press that Haiti’s decision to create a second security force is a sovereign right but that its formation “seems premature” because of the difficult living conditions that many Haitians still face following the January 2010 earthquake. “Canada fears that creating a second security force will significantly reduce resources available for Haiti’s other important priorities,” one of them being the need to strengthen Haiti’s national police department, Babcock wrote. Haitian President Michel Martelly is moving ahead with a plan to restore the national army that was disbanded in 1995, and recruiting an initial force of 500 troops would cost an estimated $25 million. Babcock said Tuesday Canada wouldn’t help pay for a second security force, echoing sentiments of foreign diplomats who told Martelly in October they wouldn’t fund the force ….”  Here’s a bit of what Canada’s done for Haiti’s police force, as well as the official line on our relations with Haiti.
• Way Up North  More on how expensive it could be to keep troops in the north (again with no disclosure of “obtained” documents).
• At least one Canadian Press reporter is not personally averse to the idea of sharing documents obtained through Access to Information Act requests, even if his employer doesn’t seem to be using available technology to make that happen yet – one can hope….
• F-35 Tug o’ War  “U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has warned the F-35 project will be scrapped if a congressional “super committee” doesn’t come up with a credible plan to reduce the U.S. federal deficit by next week. Opposition parties in Ottawa jumped on the comments Tuesday, accusing the federal government of continuing to bury its head in the sand as the stealth fighter program suffers ever-increasing amounts of turbulence. But the government again stood firm, saying Panetta’s comments were in response to internal U.S. politics while expressing fresh confidence in the controversial military jet being delivered to Canada on time and on budget ….”  More on Canada continuing to stand behind its decision here, and how it could cost way more if the U.S. cancels here.
• “As the nuclear crisis over Iran heats up, Canada is veering toward a dangerous place. Israel is again contemplating a military attack on Iran to prevent its developing atomic weapons. This time it’s not clear that U.S. President Barack Obama can forestall the Jewish state …. In the past, Canada would have happily stayed on the sidelines …. Under Prime Minister Stephen Harper, however, Canada has taken a more militant approach to international affairs. His support for Israel has been rock-hard. He has also shown himself willing to deploy Canada’s small but effective military in combat operations the government deems politically useful …. In short, both sides now see the nuclear issue as life or death. The question for nations like Canada is not which country we like more but which alternative is worse. Is it better to let Iran follow in the footsteps of the U.S., France, Britain, Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Israel and North Korea by acquiring nuclear weapons? Or is better to unleash another Mideast war?”
• A bit of Canadian aviation history will become a bit of a British monument honouring Bomber Command (PDF).  “A Royal Canadian Air Force C-17 Transport (landed) in Lethbridge, Alberta on Remembrance Day to pick up 800 pounds of aluminum that was once part of a wartime RCAF Halifax Bomber. The metal will become part of a £6,000,000 Bomber Command Memorial currently under construction in Green Park, London. The aluminum is being provided by the Bomber Command Museum of Canada to draw attention to the fact that 10,000 of the over 55,000 airmen lost with Bomber Command during World War II were Canadians. Halifax Bomber LW682 was part of 426 “Thunderbird” Squadron RCAF. It was shot down in 1944 and crashed into a swamp in Belgium. The seven Canadians and one Briton aboard were killed. The bodies of three of the Canadian airmen, missing in action and entombed in the Halifax bomber, were recovered in 1997 and given a full military funeral in Gerarrdsbergen, Belgium. The recovered parts of the Halifax were all saved and brought to Canada. Some of the parts were used in the restoration of the Halifax currently on display at Trenton, Ontario. The unusable aluminum was saved due to the rarity and heritage of this RCAF metal and was then melted down into ingots to be used into the future for Air Force Memorials, plaques, and statues by the Bomber Command Museum of Canada ….”

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 14 Oct 11

• Afghanistan (1)  ISAF:  U.N. Mandated for Another Year (h/t to Mark Collins of The 3Ds Blog for spotting that)
• Afghanistan (2)  Globe & Mail columnist:  Afghanistan continues to be lost cause.  “…. The timeless intractability of a country that only Afghans can understand has shown itself again immune from the ministrations of outsiders with all their money and might, good intentions and hubris.”
• “The Canadian Forces are accepting just over half the applications they normally would in a year, and unless the applicants have certain specific skills, they are being told to try again later. Out of 100 categories of jobs or trades in the Forces, only 13 list current openings, including dentists, musicians and social workers. The military normally recruits around 5,000 people in a year. This year, it expects to recruit only 2,800. “For this year we have pretty much accomplished our raw numbers,” Lt.-Cmdr. Robert Bedard, a military recruiter, said Wednesday. Fewer recruits are needed because fewer members are leaving the military and more reservists are switching to regular forces. The application process is also highly competitive ….”
• “For the sixth year in a row, friends and families of Canadian troops deployed overseas will be able to send their holiday letters and parcels for free via Canada Post. The program, which started in 2006, has delivered close to 90,000 parcels to members of the Canadian Forces serving overseas in war zones. “Serving your country so far from home is particularly difficult during the holiday season,” said Steven Fletcher, Minister of State (Transport). “With the help of Canada Post, this program has enabled us to bring some extra holiday cheer to our men and women serving this country.” …. With capacity limitations on military aircraft carrying supplies to deployed forces, this program is restricted to family and friends of the deployed service men and women serving overseas in war zones. That includes members of the Canadian Forces serving, for example, in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Sudan, Sinai, Jerusalem, etc. Troops serving on any of the deployed Her Majesty’s Canadian Ships are also included in the program ….”  More here.
• What’s Canada Buying?  Defensive electronics for Chinooks.  “The Department of National Defence (DND) requires the equipment and support services to install a Defensive Electronic Warfare Suite (DEWS) Laboratory for the Electronic Warfare Operational Support (EWOS) facility. The EWOS facility is located at the Canadian Forces Aerospace Warfare Centre at the Shirley’s Bay Campus, Ottawa. To provide the necessary operational support for the Medium-to-Heavy Lift Helicopter Project (MHLH), a DEWS laboratory must be established at EWOS ….”
• “A Canadian defence contractor plans to move its new corporate headquarters to northern New York, a move company officials say could create more than 200 jobs over the next two years. John Hensler, vice-president of Ottawa-based General Propulsion Inc., tells the Watertown Daily Times (http://bit.ly/ozy4h5 ) that the company has an agreement with officials in Ogdensburg to move its headquarters in the Franklin County city located on the St. Lawrence River. Hensler says the plans call for hiring 20 workers for the new site and adding another 200 as the facility expands. General Propulsion develops technologies for the Canadian and American navies and private companies including Rolls-Royce, Siemens and Westinghouse ….”
• F-35 Tug o’ War  More U.S. jitters?  “Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey told House lawmakers Thursday that he supports the “concept” of a fifth-generation fighter, but he wavered more than any Pentagon official in recent history in questioning whether DoD can afford all three flavors of the F-35 Lightning II. Appearing with Secretary Panetta before the House Armed Services Committee, Dempsey said “I’m concerned about the three variants, whether we can afford all three.” In doing so, the chairman took a dramatically different line from other DoD leaders, saying not ‘We must have the jets and we’ll get their costs down,’ but ‘We need an airplane but we might not be able to buy the ones we’re trying to roll out.’ ….”
• “The Canadian military is keeping a watch on aboriginal groups through an intelligence unit that is meant to protect the Forces and the Department of National Defence from espionage, terrorists and saboteurs. The Canadian Forces’ National Counter-Intelligence Unit assembled at least eight reports on the activities of native organizations between January, 2010, and July, 2011, according to records released under access to information law ….”  The Chiefs of Ontario are underwhelmed.  So is the Assembly of First Nations.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 15 Dec 10

• Huge storm in SW Ontario.  CF Hercules and Griffon helicopters help rescue stranded drivers.  Well done all who helped out. More from Reuters, the New York Times, the Detroit News,
• A reminder from an MP speaking in the House of Commons:  Canada Post is letting you mail parcels to a named, individual soldier overseas free of charge until 7 Jan 11 (letters you can send for free until 31 Dec 10). More details from Canada Post here.
• The process has begun to consider a new law, the Independent and Effective Office of the Veterans’ Ombudsman Act, to make the Veterans Ombudsman more arms length from the Department of National Defence. A caveat: As a private member’s bill, the chances of going all the way are slim, but let’s see how it goes.
• Interesting prediction for Afghanistan at the Flit blog by former OMLT’eer Bruce Ralston: “…. We should be assuming we will leave a civil war in our wake, or one will crop up shortly thereafter, and that we will have to manage that, and configure our forces now and in future to do so ….” (Hat tip to Mark at the Unambiguously Ambidextrous blog for that one).
• Another idea from Bruce:  think Rhodesia for answers to Afghanistan. “…. The sheer untapped potential of ANSF platoon houses with embedded enablers (not Western companies with a few doorkickers) in the cleared areas, combined with modern ISR- and CAS-enabled Rhodesian style pseudo-operators and fireforces replacing large-scale sweep ops in the uncleared Pashtun areas, with the highways patrolled by mine-resistant vehicles in the IED zones and Q-Cars (a land derivative of the Q-Ship) in the ambush zones simply boggles the mind ….”
• Taliban Propaganda Watch: Taliban suggests U.S. lack of success in Afghanistan killed envoy Robert Holbrooke.
• By the way, it’s not just Canada wrestling with the best way to deal with detainees in Afghanistan. “DIGGER morale has taken a hit in Afghanistan, the Australia Defence Association says. The cause, says the association, is a rule allowing only 96 hours to determine the status of suspected Taliban after which they must be released, says the Australia Defence Association. The problem would particularly affect special forces soldiers who risked their lives to capture insurgents, including some who had been previously caught and released, said ADA executive director Neil James. Mr James, a former officer who wrote the army’s interrogation manual, said the situation was untenable. “There is a growing morale problem in the force, both among the troops who capture the people, only to see them released four days later (and) among the interrogators who aren’t allowed to interrogate,” he said ….” More on the new approach from the Australian Defence Minister’s news release here.
• Nice to see communities thinking about Canadian troops deployed overseas that AREN’T just in Afghanistan. “The words “Thank you” can go a long way, especially this time of year. Just ask Lt. Dean Pask, a member of a small Canadian Forces contingent stationed in Africa, who says a batch of Christmas cards sent from Sarnia were a pleasant surprise. “I would say there were over 100 cards,” said Pask, joined by eight other Canadians in Sierra Leone as part of the International Military Advisory Training Team (IMATT). Each soldier received a stack of cards in their latest mail batch, and Pask contacted The Observer to deliver a thank you message to the Sarnia community. “We started opening them and sharing them with each other,” he said. “Then I noticed that all of mine were from Sarnia. I went around asking the others, and they all had cards from Sarnia too ….” More on IMATT here, and on what other Canadian troops are doing with the UN Mission in Sierra Leone right here.
• Where to put search and rescue Hercs on the East Coast? “CBC News has obtained a report that suggests the Canadian Forces may be making a mistake by basing its search and rescue Hercules aircraft in Nova Scotia and not central Newfoundland. The National Research Council report says rescue response times would be faster if the fixed-wing aircraft was based at 9 Wing Gander. The report notes that the military’s own study confirms that a Gander-based Hercules would result in significant improvements in response times to distress calls ….” CBC has not posted a copy of the report they say they have, so take it as you will.