Thursday, April 15, 2010

Colvin, Kafka, and Catch-22

Over at the Military Police Complaints Commission, Department of Justice lawyer Alain Préfontaine is trying to prove that diplomat Richard Colvin's emails flagging abuse of Afghan prisoners were so vaguely worded that the government could not possibly be held responsible for failing to understand what he was talking about.

Colvin and MPCC chair Glenn Stannard have the blacked out versions to work from. Colvin is not allowed to divulge what he remembers is under all that black ink.

If we could just all see the unredacted versions, says Colvin, they would reveal the crucial information.

Well I have seen the unredacted versions, says Préfontaine, representing the government that blacked out the emails, and I can tell you there's nothing of importance there.

Then why can't we see them? asks MPCC chair Stannard, who apparently doesn't have the clearance to see the very emails he's holding hearings about.

"Because," Préfontaine answered, "disclosure would be injurious to either national defence, international relations or national security."

I do hope you're keeping up here. Colvin's emails are apparently so sensitive they must be blacked out while simultaneously being so unimportant there's no need to see them.
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6 comments:

Anonymous said...

I feel like a bug staring at the ceiling,
and I can't get up.
I awoke into a Kanada I'd never known before.

thwap said...

This is the sort of crap that is just crying out for a comeuppance.

Anonymous said...

Or maybe it was a dream,
a dream of AmeriKanada.
Where the last of honesty is crucified,
on the false homespun lies of a deceitful web.

the regina mom said...

I feel like exploding, blowing my top, shouting to and from the rooftops. My anger knows no bounds in this moment. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Anonymous said...

The feared apparatus, was not a mechanical form of torture. Rather, a terrible conceit of the State, that could numb the horror of truth, into a complacency.

Anonymous said...

The Castle walls were made thick with the blood of apologetic peons, and the unheard sounds of acquiescence.
But inside were the screams of a silenced people.

Perhaps there is a tale to be told.

If an unsevered ear,
and a loosened tongue,
could be found.

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