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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Mercenaries in Kabul : From Animal House to Apocalypse Now

.ArmorGroup mercenaries in charge of security at the US embassy in Kabul :

"dancing naked around a fire, licking each others nipples and grabbing each others testicles, sex acts, peeing on each other, vodka shots from butt cracks, eating potato chips from clenched buttocks..."

Well, boyz will be boyz, stress of the mission and all that, leading directly to :

"hazing, weekly ritual humiliation, forced by their supervisors to take part in the demeaning sex games. Anyone who refused to take part in the games was ridiculed, humiliated, demoted or even fired. Those who took part were rewarded with better shifts and postings."

and sexual predation and intimidation of Afghan employees :

"An Afghan national who works in the dining hall at Camp Sullivan submitted a signed statement to the POGO [US Project On Government Oversight] in which he described how a guard had grabbed him and said: "You are very good for fucking." The man was accompanied by four other men and all were only wearing short underwear and carrying bottles of alcohol. The man said he was too afraid of them to say anything."

"The climate of fear and coercion" according to the US Project on Government Oversight, has led to "complete distrust of leadership and a breakdown of the chain of command, compromising security."

As in the "cowboy mission" - complete with weapons and night-vision goggles - leaving embassy staff "largely night-blind" in the event of an emergency:

In May, 18 guards, who are not trained for such missions, dressed up as mujahedin fighters and went out on unauthorised night-time military operations in the Afghan capital. The guards are said to have photographed themselves taking part in the "undercover" operation, later posting the images online.

"They were living out some sort of delusion," one of the whistleblower guards told The Washington Post.

The report reveals that, instead of taking action against the guards involved, ArmorGroup North America gave them a mocked-up citation which improperly bore the seal of the US State Department and praised them for their "intrepidity".

ArmorGroup North America has been protecting almost 1,000 US diplomats and Kabul embassy personnel. The 450 security personnel assigned to the embassy, including Canadians, all live at Camp Sullivan, where the sex parties took place. "

At a Senate hearing on waste, fraud and abuse by ArmorGroup in June, senator Claire McCaskill asked in exasperation: "Is this the best we can do?"

The [POGO] report accuses the State Department of being complicit in the problems, citing numerous letters in which the agency expressed concerns about security deficiencies at the American mission in Kabul and threatened to terminate ArmorGroup’s contract. Yet in sworn testimony to Congress, the report said, department officials said the problems had been fixed.

The State Department renewed the company’s contract, worth $180 million a year, through July 2010.

30 supervisors and guards are alleged to have been the instigators of the sex parties, hazing, and cowboy mission.
The State Department has demanded that the security guards in the photos be fired.
ArmorGroup has fired eight and two have resigned. Their identities are being witheld.

The Guardian : Guards gone wild :
"As of 30 June, there were nearly 74,000 military contractors – including 5,165 armed private security guards – in Afghanistan, far outnumbering the roughly 58,000 US troops in the country.

Privatised war: It gives those in power an easy way to circumvent traditional democratic processes. They can escalate war under the radar with far less interference from the public.

Hiring additional contractors in Afghanistan – the vast majority of whom are local nationals or citizens from other poor countries – simply doesn't generate the headlines that sending more US troops does. Moreover, contractor deaths are not counted in any official tally of casualties, which ultimately serves to slow the growth of public opposition to the war."
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The Star's appallingly etiolated coverage :
U.S. embassy in Afghanistan cuts out booze :

"Private guards accused of wild partying, hazing
Photos were released of guards and supervisors in various stages of nudity at parties flowing with booze."

is the reason for this post.
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