Sinclair is now the assistant deputy minister policy at Department of National Defence. Sinclair was copied on some of Colvin's memos. Position: Former assistant deputy minister in the international security branch of Foreign Affairs, now associate deputy minister at Indian and Northern Affairs.
Swords was ultimately Colvin's boss when he worked in Kandahar. She was copied on some of Colvin's memos. Response to Colvin's testimony: Swords told the Afghanistan committee on Dec.
She recalled that, by April , and largely due to the efforts of David Mulroney, the creation of the Afghanistan task force had greatly improved coordination. She stressed that Canada's detainee transfer policy was inspired by two things -- respect for Afghan sovereignty, and for international humanitarian law.
She recalled that, in September , she was briefed on problems with notification of transfers, which was an "important issue" given that it was the International Comittee of the Red Cross that was responsible for following up. As a result, they began giving "informal notification by phone," as well as the official notification.
During her testimony, Swords insisted that, due to Canada's role in Afghanistan, officials were especially receptive to concerns raised by Canadian officials, including, on several occasions, refusal of access to NDS facilties. By April — which would be about the same time that the Globe and Mail story was breaking — she said they had developed a "contingency plan" in the event than an allegation of torture was received, which included consideration of how Canada could set up its own monitoring regime.
Position: Former ambassador to Afghanistan in and part of Sproule is now the deputy legal adviser and director general of the Legal Affairs Bureau at Foreign Affairs.
Sproule was Colvin's boss in Kandahar and was included on some of Colvin's memos. Response to Colvin's testimony: Sproule referred all questions to the communications desk at the Afghanistan Task Force.
Position: Former ambassador to Afghanistan in and Lalani was Colvin's boss in Afghanistan. Omar Saeed Sheikh was accused of murdering Daniel Pearl in February in Karachi and had been sentenced to death in the case by an anti-terrorism court.
Headley, a Pakistan-born American national of mixed parentage, would have experienced a sense of shock. Eggs, custard pies and rotten tomatoes used to be the missile of choice for pelting a politician -- but it seems shoes are fast catching on as the new weapon of humiliation. Have you read these stories?
China in talking closely with US for virtual summit. ET NOW. Brand Solutions. Video series featuring innovators. ET Financial Inclusion Summit. Above all, discreet. Hardly the portrait of a rogue field officer whose reports warning that Afghan detainees faced likely torture could not be deemed "credible.
The Canadian government's attack on the credibility of a man whom several colleagues described as a consummate professional, and ministerial suggestions he is spouting Taliban "lies" about the treatment of detainees, have shocked those who worked alongside Colvin in Afghanistan.
Michael Semple, Colvin's counterpart for the European Union mission in Kabul and an expert on that country, told the Star he was "totally flabbergasted" by the comments of Defence Minister Peter MacKay and cabinet colleague John Baird. Colvin, Semple said, was an "absolutely rock solid" diplomatic staffer who stepped up and volunteered to go in as a civilian representative with Canada's Provincial Reconstruction Team in Kandahar after Glyn Berry, a close friend of Semple, was killed by a suicide car bomber outside Kandahar.
Berry had been political director of the reconstruction team, coordinating reconstruction projects in the southern region of Kandahar, and worked night and day to rebuild Afghanistan after the fall of the Taliban.
Semple said he knew only half of what emerged in Colvin's testimony — "the half of it which was appropriate for me to know. Despite their common interest in the Afghan detainee file, Colvin never shared with him details of the Canadian government's internal wrangles over the issue — "which I actually take as absolutely ruling out this notion that he was somehow rogue or maverick. Life as a foreign service officer in a war zone like Afghanistan, without family and with a single-minded focus on work, is gruelling.
Colvin, Semple said, was part of an informal peer group of representatives of "like-minded countries" — people who are "mid-level in their careers who still have the energy to work hard He described Colvin as a "friendly colleague" whom he knew to work from morning to night.
Neither he nor Colvin was "part of the party crowd. Colvin, 40, may have had the seed for that kind of life planted by an uncle who worked in the British foreign service. Now 40, he still speaks with an accent, which was evident when he testified about the handling of detainees before a parliamentary committee on Wednesday.
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