More Foreign Affairs Incompetency

We need a serious shake up in the Foreign Affairs department. This is not the first time this has happened.

"Canadian diplomats failed to contact the Chinese family of Huseyin Celil for more than 10 months after the Canadian citizen was arrested,"

So while the Harpocrites saber rattle and endanger our trading relationship with China they should get their ducks in a row before beaking off.

Foreign Affairs failed to protect Maher Arar, instead acting as a conduit for CSIS.

They failed Canadian businessman William Sampson when he was arrested and tried in secret in Saudi Arabia.

The BC Civil Liberties Association has proposed a bill that would force Foreign Affairs and other Canadian government agencies to protect Canadians abroad from torture.

It is not just a case of sloppiness or bureaucratic failure it is explicit policy, based on Canada's Security Laws. All of these cases, except Sampson (but he was judged guilty of a crime, by the Suadi's, thus reluctance on the part of FA to do anything) were because the Canadians were considered terrorists by Canada's allies.

Iacobucci's remit is to examine the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nurredin. All are Canadian citizens born abroad. All have been under investigation by the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or both. All ended up being jailed and tortured in Syria and (in the case of El Maati) Egypt.

As such it fits in with a longstanding cold war security regime that exists in Ottawa amongst Foreign Affairs and Intelligence services.

Britain, the US and Canada had begun talking about psychological warfare together at least as early as June 1951, when Sir Henry Tizard, the Ministry of Defence's senior scientist, met Canadian scientists and Cyril Haskins, the senior CIA researcher, in Montreal. Among the Canadians was Donald Hebb of McGill University, who was looking for funds to research "sensory deprivation" - blocking out sight, sound and touch to affect people's personality and sense of identity. Early photographs show volunteers, goggled and muffled, looking eerily similar to prisoners arriving at Guantánamo.

And while there are commentators asking why Arar did not sue his captors it is important to remember that Sampson was unable to sue Saudi Arabia as Arar was denied the right to sue Syria.

In the area of justice and oversight Canada is also failing to meet recommendations set out by the UN human rights committees. Canada must change the State Immunity Act to allow individuals to seek redress in Canadian Courts for torture and other serious human rights violations suffered abroad, says Amnesty International Canada.

Canadians cannot seek redress for torture in other countries and rejected refugees who may face the danger of torture, as the Committee against Torture has noted, are being denied a judicial review on the merits of their cases. The Committee has called for this type of review. Canada must meet this recommendation, says Amnesty International Canada, and live up to the requirement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and establish the refugee appeal process.

After all like it or not Huseyin Celil is considered a 'terrorist' by the Chinese. And the Harper government has been quick off the mark to use that label in questionable circumstances too, like they did when in opposition alluding to Maher Arar, being a terrorist.

The Harpocrites are very selective in whom they label terrorists, for instance Jason Kenney spoke on behalf of the PM at an event held by an Iranian terrorist organization.

And let's not forget that the Harpocrites major reason for challenging China over 'human rights' is their close relationship with and support for the fascist cult the Falun Gong.

And when they banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization it had less to do with Sri Lanka and more to do with cutting off Liberal Party support in the Tamil community in Canada.

And recent actions by the Sri Lanken government of breaking the peace agreement and using child soldiers means that instead of being an honest broker the Canadian government choose sides like they did with Israel. And the side they choose is guilty of state terrorism.

The fact that the Karuna faction has abducted so many children in Government-controlled areas in the eastern districts of Sri Lanka raises the question why the Government has not more effectively protected those children, investigated the complaints made by the children’s families, and secured the release and return of the children from the Karuna faction camps that are located in areas under Government control.

Based on the facts and circumstances set out in this report, I have concluded that certain elements of the Sri Lankan security forces are complicit in the abduction of children by the Karuna faction, and that at least some elements of the security forces have facilitated and sometimes participated in those abductions.

Ambassador Allan Rock, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict,

Terrorism is a broad brush pejorative for labeling the supposed 'enemies of the state', whereas others would call most of these organizations National Liberation Movements and the difference is crucial.

Whether the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Kurds, or the Palestinians in the territories occupied by Israel, the Canadian government is targeting as terrorists people who are, in fact "victimized refugee groups involved in an armed conflict in terms of their self-determination rights", she asserts.

But it has been deliberately obscured by the American Empire and quickly adopted by other states to justify their repression of National Liberation Movements and oppositional groups, including those engaged in armed struggle.

Once you use the ideology of the War on Terror, you throw out your right to defend your citizens accused of being terrorists. This is the catch 22 Harper finds himself in over the Celil case.

Foreign Affairs deals with state to state relations, and the Chinese State has declared Celil a terrorist. Thus Foreign Affairs deems him a security threat, just as they did with Arar.

And they do so because of what Harper prides himself on most, being the Law and Order PM. Foreign Affairs is just carrying out their operations under the existing security laws. Laws which must be changed in the interests of all Canadians, here or abroad.



See

CIA

RCMP

Arar

Foreign Affairs

Terrorism

China


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