(Canadian military in Afghanistan) JTF2 command 'encouraged' war crimes, soldier alleges

[alp227]

Source: CBC News

A member of Canada's elite special forces unit says he felt his peers were being "encouraged" by the Canadian Forces chain of command to commit war crimes in Afghanistan, according to new documents obtained by CBC News.

The documents from the military ombudsman's office show the member of the covert unit Joint Task Force 2, or JTF2, approached the watchdog in June 2008 to report the allegations of wrongdoing he had first made to his superior officers in 2006.

The soldier told the ombudsman's office "that although he reported what he witnessed to his chain of command, he does not believe they are investigating, and are being 'very nice to him,' " according to the documents, which CBC News obtained through access to information.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2011/01/18/military-jtf2-probe.html

[Catherina]

1. Of course they did. Just like ours. Witness the fate of our whistleblowers. n/t

[lonestarnot]

2. Now wait. I didn't go there, but are all the allegations based on "feelings?"

[sabrina 1]

3. No, his complaints were based on crimes he himself witnessed

according to the article:

The member alleged that a fellow JTF2 member was involved in the 2006 shooting death of an Afghan who had his hands up in the act of surrender. That CFNIS probe ended without any charges.

The soldier who raised those allegations also claimed that in January 2008, his team was sent to conduct a mission alongside an American special operations team. He said he witnessed the U.S. forces kill a man who was wounded and unarmed.

The documents make clear that the soldier didn't believe the military was taking his allegations seriously and that he had lost faith in the forces' leadership.

Just like Manning. He too tried to report war crimes and was ignored.

[JohnyCanuck]

4. I can believe it

Would not be surprised that some (maybe most) of the Canadian brass feel a need to demonstrate to "big-brother" that they can be "hard asses" too, just like them.