Evidence of meeting #5 for Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan in the 40th Parliament, 3rd Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was know.
A recording is available from Parliament.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
And you were not allowed to keep your notes, so you have no notes or record of what you told?
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
We were bound to...a breach of security; therefore, anything we said in a meeting was shredded right afterwards.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
So typically speaking, if you had a complaint, though, what would happen? If you had a meeting and said, “Here is a problem”, do you think that information would be written down and kept, or would it be destroyed?
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
If I had a complaint or a concern, then I would go through my chain of command. And the chain of command had a notebook...he would note it. After that, they went into their own computer room, which we were not allowed to enter, and I don't know what they did with that information. But definitely I informed every single one of them I could that there was a problem with the detainee transfer.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Bob Rae Liberal Toronto Centre, ON
When you've had a chance to reflect on it, can you give the committee the names of the people that you reported to, the names of the people you gave your information to, and the names of the people who took the notes down? You don't have to do it now. I'm just asking for future reference, if you could do that.
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
Yes.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
I have a question for you, Mr. Malgarai. You said you told Elissa Golberg, Canada's representative in Kandahar, about military intelligence wanting detainees transferred to NDS for hard questioning. Do cabinet ministers have the same information that you do or that Elissa did?
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
I cannot believe that Mr. Defence Minister, Peter MacKay, says he doesn't know. I can't believe that.
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
Because all of them knew when they were transferring the detainees.... For example, when they were transferring the detainees, Ed Jager was a representative of the government. He was there when the detainee put his head in front of him on the ground and said, “Shoot me in the head, put a bullet, do me a favour, rather than transfer me there.”
But if Mr. Peter MacKay says he doesn't know, I would like you to ask him that question in the House of Commons, in question period. I want him to sit right across from me and look in my eyes and say that he doesn't know.
3:45 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
In terms of the incident where you say the soldier shot an unarmed man, did you know what happened subsequently to the body of the man? Was it buried right away?
3:45 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
When they shot the person, they panicked, as I said in my testimony. They collected and captured every male in that area and they brought them in. So the people of that village, when they woke up in the morning...they left the body with a woman. The woman wanted to bring that body to KAF and protest, to release the detainees, but the government, the military, had worked out a deal with Assadullah Khalid, the ex-governor of Kandahar, and he sent his thugs and his army to suppress those people and threaten them not to demonstrate.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
You say that we sent detainees for hard questioning to NDS. How many instances do you personally know where that was done? Can you guesstimate?
3:50 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
When I was working for ASIC, before I moved to work for the commander, the problem was that we had some interpreters, LCAs, who did not speak Pashto. That's one of the major problems in Kandahar. Probably some of the transfers happened because of the lack of qualified Pashto-speaking interpreters on the ground. Therefore, if they had a critical case, they would ask me to go and interfere and translate those documents. I certainly translated many documents of detainee transfers to NDS.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Ujjal Dosanjh Liberal Vancouver South, BC
Where you knew that people were transferred pursuant to those....
3:50 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
Yes, and I was involved in the process, because I was the one who would clear them at the gate.
3:50 p.m.
Conservative
April 14th, 2010 / 3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
I notice a number of letters from your superiors, very glowing letters, about your work in Afghanistan. I assume it's safe to say they had great trust in you and obviously in the observations that you provided to your superiors.
3:50 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
Yes.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
Bryon Wilfert Liberal Richmond Hill, ON
You obviously were not alone in that capacity. You had other colleagues who did the same kind of work.
Would their experiences be similar to yours in terms of the nature of reporting to command and what they saw? Did you ever share any of that information?
3:50 p.m.
Advisor to the Former Commander of the Joint Task Force Afghanistan, As an Individual
When we were on the ground, because of the operation and security, we were not allowed to speak to each other or ask each other a question. If an interpreter was working for the battle group and he had a concern about something, he would go through his chain of command, because in the military everything is about action, but it's the biggest bureaucracy. So you have to go through your chain of command. If, for example, you're working for CIOFs and you go to the battle group, they will say, “Excuse me, I can't help you, that's a different chain of command”, and you would have to go and talk to them.
3:50 p.m.
Liberal
