The Sandbox and Areas Reports Thread (May 2007)
News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
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Articles found May 1, 2007
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It's all about the bang and thunder
TheStar.com May 01, 2007 Rosie DiManno
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SPERWAN GHAR–Heavy metal Guns N' Roses music is blasting from the big gunners' hooch.
Naturally.
It's all about the bang and the thunder for D Battery, B Troop, 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which is a quaint regimental anachronism.
They laid down some 700 rounds of mortar in Helmand province during the last month in support of British, American and Dutch infantry operations against a hardcore Taliban redoubt in the strategic Sangin River valley, fiercely contested for its water, hydropower source and the skein of supply routes that crisscross the district.
Just soothing their ears now with a dose of primordial rock licks, back at base, in preparation for the next howitzers-hither summons.
"Napoleon said artillery wins wars, infantry holds ground," quotes Bombardier Michael Hobb, a ridiculously cherubic-looking 20-year-old from Yarmouth, N.S. "Napoleon was in the artillery, you know."
He continues to wax rapturously about his particular component of Task Force Afghanistan, the sheer orgiastic thrust of firing cannons that, while technologically advanced to the point of pin-sharp precision, still pretty much resemble – to an untutored eye – the lumbering contraptions dragged into the field by Napoleon's forces a couple of centuries ago.
"Big guns, big boom."
"A ruuuuush," offers Gunner Adam Hannaford, 23, of Hamilton, drawing out the word so that it sounds like a rocket hiss.
Or, as described by Gunner Robert Kelly, 25: "Hours of boredom and then an intense moment of adrenaline." Adding: "All elbows and a--holes." As in elbows cocked to pull the lanyards and sphincters clenched in the heat of battle.
One fellow compares the subliminally percussive sensation to sex; another says it's as sweetly satisfying as chocolate.
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New NATO commander takes over in southern Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update May 1, 2007 at 5:43 AM EDT
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KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The incoming commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan says one of his biggest concerns is improving the quality of Afghan security forces.
Major-General Jacko Page, a British officer with experience in Sarajevo and Iraq, formally took control of troops in the southern region -- including Canadian forces based in Kandahar -- at a ceremony on the back of a flatbed truck this morning.
“A lot has already been achieved, but there is, of course, a lot more to do,” Maj.-Gen. Page said, in a speech. “One of my priorities will be contributing the building of the Afghan national security forces.”
The behaviour of Afghan forces is now under scrutiny from Canadian investigators, as they try to determine whether suspected Taliban insurgents are tortured in Afghan custody.
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Letter outlines torture allegations in Afghanistan
Opposition continues to call for O'Connor's resignation
Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
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OTTAWA -- The Conservative government continued to deny the existence of torture in Afghan prisons despite the emergence Monday of a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay last year that asked NATO to curb such abuses.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch gave copies to MacKay and other NATO foreign ministers of a letter dated Nov. 28, 2006, on the eve of the alliance's summit at Riga, Latvia, that cited "credible reports" of torture and abuse in Afghan prisons.
The letter identified Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or NDS, which Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said last week had agreed to grant full access to Canadian officials to monitor the well-being of detainees transferred there by Canadian troops. O'Connor's announcement of the NDS "arrangement" turned out to be premature; it caught MacKay off guard, and was later found to be a deal that was still being negotiated.
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Prisoners told Canadians of torture, Day says
CAMPBELL CLARK From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 1, 2007 at 4:39 AM EDT
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OTTAWA — Correctional Service Canada officials tasked with helping improve Afghanistan's jails were told by two prisoners that they had been tortured, Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.
It remains unclear whether the two were among those handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan officials or when the prisoners made the allegations of torture.
But a spokeswoman for Mr. Day said the minister was informed of the reports last week. He has made no previous mention of their existence despite repeated questions following a furor that erupted after The Globe and Mail's reports on detainee abuse were published.
Mr. Day said: "They've actually talked to detainees about the possibility, if they were tortured or not. We've actually had a couple of incidents where detainees said they were."
More on link
News only - commentary elsewhere, please.
Thanks for helping this "news only" thread system work!Articles found
Articles found May 1, 2007
]Article Link
It's all about the bang and thunder
TheStar.com May 01, 2007 Rosie DiManno
Article Link
SPERWAN GHAR–Heavy metal Guns N' Roses music is blasting from the big gunners' hooch.
Naturally.
It's all about the bang and the thunder for D Battery, B Troop, 2nd Royal Canadian Horse Artillery, which is a quaint regimental anachronism.
They laid down some 700 rounds of mortar in Helmand province during the last month in support of British, American and Dutch infantry operations against a hardcore Taliban redoubt in the strategic Sangin River valley, fiercely contested for its water, hydropower source and the skein of supply routes that crisscross the district.
Just soothing their ears now with a dose of primordial rock licks, back at base, in preparation for the next howitzers-hither summons.
"Napoleon said artillery wins wars, infantry holds ground," quotes Bombardier Michael Hobb, a ridiculously cherubic-looking 20-year-old from Yarmouth, N.S. "Napoleon was in the artillery, you know."
He continues to wax rapturously about his particular component of Task Force Afghanistan, the sheer orgiastic thrust of firing cannons that, while technologically advanced to the point of pin-sharp precision, still pretty much resemble – to an untutored eye – the lumbering contraptions dragged into the field by Napoleon's forces a couple of centuries ago.
"Big guns, big boom."
"A ruuuuush," offers Gunner Adam Hannaford, 23, of Hamilton, drawing out the word so that it sounds like a rocket hiss.
Or, as described by Gunner Robert Kelly, 25: "Hours of boredom and then an intense moment of adrenaline." Adding: "All elbows and a--holes." As in elbows cocked to pull the lanyards and sphincters clenched in the heat of battle.
One fellow compares the subliminally percussive sensation to sex; another says it's as sweetly satisfying as chocolate.
More on link
New NATO commander takes over in southern Afghanistan
GRAEME SMITH Globe and Mail Update May 1, 2007 at 5:43 AM EDT
Article Link
KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN — The incoming commander of NATO forces in southern Afghanistan says one of his biggest concerns is improving the quality of Afghan security forces.
Major-General Jacko Page, a British officer with experience in Sarajevo and Iraq, formally took control of troops in the southern region -- including Canadian forces based in Kandahar -- at a ceremony on the back of a flatbed truck this morning.
“A lot has already been achieved, but there is, of course, a lot more to do,” Maj.-Gen. Page said, in a speech. “One of my priorities will be contributing the building of the Afghan national security forces.”
The behaviour of Afghan forces is now under scrutiny from Canadian investigators, as they try to determine whether suspected Taliban insurgents are tortured in Afghan custody.
More on link
Letter outlines torture allegations in Afghanistan
Opposition continues to call for O'Connor's resignation
Mike Blanchfield, CanWest News Service Published: Tuesday, May 01, 2007
Article Link
OTTAWA -- The Conservative government continued to deny the existence of torture in Afghan prisons despite the emergence Monday of a letter to Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay last year that asked NATO to curb such abuses.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch gave copies to MacKay and other NATO foreign ministers of a letter dated Nov. 28, 2006, on the eve of the alliance's summit at Riga, Latvia, that cited "credible reports" of torture and abuse in Afghan prisons.
The letter identified Afghanistan's National Directorate of Security, or NDS, which Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor said last week had agreed to grant full access to Canadian officials to monitor the well-being of detainees transferred there by Canadian troops. O'Connor's announcement of the NDS "arrangement" turned out to be premature; it caught MacKay off guard, and was later found to be a deal that was still being negotiated.
More on link
Prisoners told Canadians of torture, Day says
CAMPBELL CLARK From Tuesday's Globe and Mail May 1, 2007 at 4:39 AM EDT
Article Link
OTTAWA — Correctional Service Canada officials tasked with helping improve Afghanistan's jails were told by two prisoners that they had been tortured, Public Security Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday.
It remains unclear whether the two were among those handed over by Canadian soldiers to Afghan officials or when the prisoners made the allegations of torture.
But a spokeswoman for Mr. Day said the minister was informed of the reports last week. He has made no previous mention of their existence despite repeated questions following a furor that erupted after The Globe and Mail's reports on detainee abuse were published.
Mr. Day said: "They've actually talked to detainees about the possibility, if they were tortured or not. We've actually had a couple of incidents where detainees said they were."
More on link