On security concerns

The Cons' complete disinterest in engaging with reality takes another turn for the worse, as Con MP Dean Del Mastro has withdrawn from the planned multi-party fact-finding mission to Syria and Lebanon:

The Conservative government has withdrawn from an all-party trip to Beirut and other Middle East capitals.

MP Dean Del Mastro, who had been the government's liaison with Canada's Lebanese community, was to join Liberal, Bloc and New Democrat MPs for the trip starting Tuesday.

Accompanying MPs as principal organizer is Mazen Chouaib, executive director of the National Council of Canada-Arab Relations.

Chouaib says Del Mastro told him he could no longer go because the Prime Minister's Office has security concerns.

One wonders how it is that the PMO didn't determine until the past day or so that Lebanon and Syria may not be the safest places on the face of the planet. But then, the risk faced by the parliamentary delegation has to be far lower than that encountered daily by Lebanese civilians thanks to actions which Harper has gone out of his way to defend.

Which may go a long way toward explaining Harper's real reason for not wanting his MP to participate. As long as Del Mastro stays at home, PMS can claim that the reports from the trip are tainted by partisan bias, and argue that the damage wrought on Lebanese civilians is being overstated by opposition members. The PMO's real "security concern" is likely the danger of allowing a party member to be exposed to the facts which MPS wants to deny - though it remains to be seen just how long the Cons can hole up in their bubble against intrusion by the real world.