Fire in the hole!

Yes, there are details surrounding military operations which should not be released into the public domain. They are known as Essential Elements of Friendly Information (EEFI). The primary consideration, particularly in the Afghanistan situation, is the security of the troops operating in that country.

Prisoners and the treatment of prisoners does not fall under that category in any way, shape or form. In fact, there is a requirement to transmit information through a third party identifying exactly who has been captured.

But then, it is contingent upon the Canadian Forces and the Minister of National Defence to brief this country specifying exactly what type of information is now being withheld and under what authority. And, when information would become available.

Nothing more or less works.

Because if you refuse to tell us anything, we can make up anything we want to and you can't call us wrong.

I'm can see there is at least one brigadier-general who remembers that little lesson from Staff College. I certainly do. It was the double-edged sword that was mentioned when you put a clamp on information.

Example. This was in the Globe and Mail article:

In early June of last year, Ms. Jansen voiced her concerns to Brigadier-General A.J. Howard about fully severing two items that were the subject of an information request. “We can't just apply a blanket exemption based on speculations,” she wrote.

Brig.-Gen. Howard replied: “I will not address this any further by e-mail… If you would like to drop by my office so I can explain all of this to your satisfaction I would be happy for you to do so.

“My advice – tread carefully on both of these matters – there are very serious diplomatic and allied issues at stake here.”

It is unclear what the two items are – in the documents obtained by The Globe, they are fully severed.

You see? Now we are allowed to speculate and neither the CF nor DND can fight back. We won't know with absolute certainty that we're correct, but neither can the CF deny anything speculative because they sever too much.

So, what the G&M should be looking at is whether they asked anything about actions involving Canadian troops and Afghan National Army units which resulted in an exchange of fire with each other.

Has that happened? According to the rumour mill, it has.