On non-communication

John Geddes' response to Gen. Walter Natynczyk's bombshell admission of torture inflicted on Canadian detainees in Afghanistan focues on the apparent lack of communication between Natynczyk and Peter MacKay. But there's a more glaring example of non-communication in the Globe and Mail's version of the story:

Gen. Natynczyk’s version on Tuesday contradicted the sworn affidavit, filed in Federal Court to counter the efforts of human-rights groups efforts to get transfers halted.

Then-Colonel Steve Noonan had been selected by the military to provide the sworn affidavit in the government’s defence in the case. His April, 2007, affidavit has never been corrected or withdrawn.

“There was one incident in which the CF took custody of detainee who had been turned over to the local ANP by the CF In this case, the CF “learned that the detainee had been beaten by the local ANP,” Col. Noonan said in his affidavit. He has since been promoted to Brigadier-General.

In other words, the Harper Cons' recent attempts to deny the existence of any evidence that a Canadian detainee had been tortured came two and a half years after sworn evidence to the contrary was presented on behalf of the government itself. And it's hard to see how that kind of gap between what the Cons have been spouting in the House of Commons and what was presented as the evidence on the government's own behalf could come about without a complete breakdown in communication between the Cons and the Justice and Defence departments which they're supposed to be overseeing.