Canadian military aware of children being ass-raped by Afghan allies since 2007

but, according to David Pugliese in NaPo this evening :

"the concern at the time was that the incident might be reported in the news media"

You're shocked I'm sure.

The incident was reported in the media. In June 2008, the Toronto Star reported that in late 2006 a Canadian soldier had heard an Afghan soldier raping a young boy and later saw the boy's "lower intestines falling out of his body." Military police reported being told by their commanders not to interfere when Afghan soldiers and police had anal sex with children.

It took till May of this year for Maj. Francis Bolduc of the Canadian Forces National Investigation Service to state in its "thorough investigation" that the allegations were "unfounded" and what's more were "never reported to Canadian military commanders".

Seems that investigation was all bullshit, according to meetings and emails flying back and forth between generals in Afghanistan and the Defence Department's civilian and military public affairs staff since 2007.

Pugliese :

"The issue is sensitive for the Canadian Forces and the federal government as the Afghanistan mission has been promoted to the public as being about protecting Afghan civilians."

Or, as Christopher Sands of the Hudson Institute put it last year :

"Canadians are rather conflicted about why they're in Afghanistan. Some people saw this as an apology for not going to Iraq [and] some people actually genuinely think that being in Afghanistan is about helping the Afghan people."

No, they don't. Not any more. They just don't have the guts to come out and say that bombing the crap out of people who never did anything to us is the price of keeping those trucks flowing back and forth across the US border.

Another investigation is being undertaken by Lt.-Gen. Andrew Leslie, "even though, according to military records, a member of his staff was informed about the sexual abuse issue back in 2007."
It will only look into the one assault reported in The Star in 2008, and "identify the actions taken by individual CF members and the chain of command in response to that incident, as well as assess whether medical care was provided to any soldier who witnessed the incident."

Words. Fail.

Alternate link as NaPo link has gone down twice now.
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