The Conservative government was warned last summer that working with the Afghan secret police would lead to allegations that Canada condoned abuse and that Canadians may face legal liability for complicity in torture.
The information, contained in a candid top-level government memo shared with CBC News, shows that officials were worried that Canada's relationship with the Afghan National Directorate of Security (NDS) was risky — and possibly illegal — even while the government was defending it.
The document warns the NDS is so secretive, even Canada and its allies are in the dark about most of what it does.
The NDS has wider powers of arrest and detention than most intelligence agencies, the memo says, and as a result, “there is considerable scope for the use of improper methods.” Engaging with the NDS “entails a degree of risk to Canadian interests,” it adds.
The document doesn't detail those risks specifically, but human rights lawyer Paul Champ said he has an idea of what they are.
Champ is the lawyer at the centre of several investigations into the alleged abuse of Afghan detainees. He said the NDS can't be trusted with detainees transferred into their custody by Canadian soldiers and the Conservative government is well aware of this.
“Make no mistake, the methods of the NDS are well known,” Champ told CBC News. “It's electric shocks, it's pulling out toenails, it's beating people with chains, it's hanging them for days. So when someone says abuse, that's a euphemism for torture.”
The memo's assessment of the NDS seems to make use of that euphemism. It cautions Canada ought to be concerned about its ongoing and longstanding relationship with the Afghan secret police.
“Canadian partnership in NDS projects without prior insight into its methods runs the risk of appearing to condone human rights abuses and acts which would be illegal under Canadian law,” the document states.
2007 transfer agreement fixed problems: Tories
Government officials admit that Canada has used the fruits of NDS intelligence-gathering. Brig-Gen. Denis Thompson, former commander of the Canadian mission in Afghanistan, told a parliamentary committee last week that his assessment of the NDS in fighting the insurgency “is that they were a very valuable partner, and I mean, we acted on the intelligence we received from the NDS.”
But the government says that after allegations of torture of Afghan detainees first came to light in April 2007, Canada acted quickly to fix its transfer agreement with the Afghans.
Under the 2007 agreement, the government gained access to the prisons of the NDS and had Canadian monitors follow up on the condition of detainees. This scrutiny is supposed to ensure that detainees are protected from being tortured.
“Over three years ago, we've dealt with this issue,” Defence Minister Peter MacKay said in late March. “We've had a new transfer arrangement in place now that allows for monitoring [and] mentoring.”
