MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 6 Jan 11

• Hmmm, no more special committee of Cabinet to discuss the Afghanistan mission? “The Harper government has quietly shut down the powerful cabinet committee that steered the mission in Afghanistan. The decision to dismantle the committee came Tuesday, after Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s minor cabinet shuffle, The Canadian Press has learned. The committee had been chaired by Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon and included Defence Minister Peter MacKay, Veterans Affairs Minister Jean-Pierre Blackburn, Public Safety Minister Vic Toews and International Co-operation Minister Bev Oda. The committee tried to meet at least once a week while Parliament was sitting. It was responsible for sending quarterly mission progress reports to Parliament. A government official confirmed the decision was taken because Canada’s combat operations in Kandahar will end this summer. “Yes, the cabinet committee on Afghanistan has wrapped up, having fulfilled its purpose,” said Harper spokeswoman Sara MacIntyre ….” Shows how big a priority the future Afghanistan mission is for the government, right?  If you’re nostalgic, check out the Google cached version of the page (while it lasts) regarding the late Committee here, or a screen capture of the page at Scribd.com here.
• An editorial call for more front-line mentoring in the future Afghanistan mission. “…. Every combat soldier knows there’s no substitute for leading by example. So if Canadians are in a mentoring role to Afghan soldiers, they’re going to have to go into the field with their mentees if they hope to bring them to an acceptable level of trust and competence. (An RCMP official) notes in his interview that he had to be in the field in order to guide the Border Police and deter corruption and smuggling, and that it can’t be done through phone calls from Kabul. The same, or more so, with soldiers. So, if sometime deeper into 2011 Canada’s combat units are replaced by Afghan units trained by Canadians, odds are that Canadian mentors will be on operations with their Afghan wards. If so, casualties are inevitable. Our soldiers know this. And accept it. It’s what they do, for heaven’s sake, and there is no such thing as absolute security and safety within the military. Or police ….” Note to columnist:  NOT if Canada imposes a caveat keeping out of the front lines they won’t.
• Here’s the only line you have to read to learn about the Taliban in Afghanistan, from an elder Canadian troops dealt with in southern Afghanistan:  “The Taliban won’t let us work for you. The Taliban won’t let our children go to school.”
• Apparently not much regret on the part of one of the Toronto 18 terrorist attack plotters. “Convicted terrorist Shareef Abdelhaleem has provided the courts with no indication of remorse and little hope he will reform, the Crown asserted Wednesday at a hearing for the final Toronto 18 bomb plotter awaiting sentence. In requesting life imprisonment for the group’s second-in-command, Crown attorney Iona Jaffe suggested Abdelhaleem remains a danger to society nearly five years after police dismantled the homegrown terrorist cell ….”
• You Read it Here First (1)  31 Jul 10, MILNEWS.ca:  Study: CF Snipers “coping as well or better than regular soldiers” – 31 Jul 10, Army.ca:  Study: CF Snipers “coping as well or better than regular soldiers” – 5 Jan 11, Postmedia News:  Canadian snipers less stressed than average soldier: Study Here’s a link to the study (at Scribd.com), since I can’t find one via Postmedia News.
• You Read it Here First (2) 31 Dec 10, Army.ca:  Paper: Canada’s energy system needs better protection plan (with a copy of the study attached) – 4 Jan 11, Postmedia News:  Canada ill-prepared for attacks on critical energy infrastructure: Study (with no study attached that I could see, but “now (allegedly) reported for the first time by Postmedia News”)
• This one speaks for itself:  “A British company has developed blast-resistant boxer shorts it wants to market to Canadian soldiers heading to Afghanistan. BCB International Ltd. claims the protective Kevlar shorts, in development for about a year, will help reduce the number of Canadian troops who suffer groin injuries when mines go off underfoot or roadside bombs blast their military vehicles. The boxers cost about 54 English pounds or C$84. “We’re selling lots through the good old eBay retail sales,” John Rix, the company’s manager of military sales, said Tuesday in a telephone interview. The shorts have been on sale for about two months, he said. BCB spent about $75,000 developing the product ….” More on the “Blast Boxers” here.

MILNEWS.ca News Highlights – 18 Dec 10

• Remember the Toronto 18 terrorists? Some of the cases have wrapped up appeals at the Ontario Court of Appeal, and guess what?  MORE TIME FOR YOU (and you with the life sentence, keep it)! More in news releases here and here – more from mainstream media here, here, here and here.
• Also, remember this guy, getting on the plane in Hong Kong looking like an old man and getting off the plane in Vancouver looking like a young Chinese man? It seems participants on jihadi online forums are talking about his stunt.  “The young Chinese asylum seeker who boarded a plane for Canada disguised as an elderly white man has drawn the attention of visitors to an extremist Islamist website, who have praised the elaborate plan as a potential tactic. Shumukh al-Islam, an al-Qaida affiliated website meaning Islamic Honour, has an ongoing Arabic-language discussion on the young man’s entry into Canada that cites the details of his arrival here. A forum on the site praised the idea as a tool for so-called “holy warriors.” “This is a great idea that can benefit the mujahedeen,” one member, with the name Attique of the North, wrote shortly after the discussion began on Shumukh al-Islam last Tuesday. “Truly this will benefit the mujahedeen,” another anonymous person wrote ….”
• Remember the mayor of Kandahar City being underwhelmed about how Western (including Canadian) aid money was being spent? Lots of interesting discussion of that story here at Army.ca – well worth a look.
• Some CF-generated copy of what the troops are up to in Afghanistan (1):  “In June 2009, in anticipation of the up-coming Afghan presidential election, Task Force Kandahar (TFK) was tasked to converge on Salavat, a village near Nakhoney in Panjwa’i District, to disrupt a key insurgent staging area. The two-day operation, called CONSTRICTOR, involved the entire 2nd Battalion Royal 22e Régiment Battle Group and close to 200 Afghan soldiers and police. By its end, Salavat had yielded up close to 80 kg of explosives, emplaced IEDs and shell casings, plus night letters, pieces of uniform clothing, and some weapons old enough to be museum pieces — all typical signs of insurgent presence ….”
• Some CF-generated copy of what the troops are up to in Afghanistan (2):  “By the end of 2010, the Civil-Military Co-operation (CIMIC) Company in Task Force Kandahar is expected to reach a major milestone: the completion of more than 500 development and reconstruction projects that will make an immediate positive impact on local Afghans. “Five hundred completed projects is unprecedented, and a great accomplishment for TFK CIMIC personnel. To be able to accomplish so much in such a short time and within this environment, is something I did not think was possible, but through the hard work of our personnel and our partners, we did it,” said Major William Carrie Riddell, the officer commanding TFK CIMIC Company on Roto 9 ….”