Warren Kinsella compares Canadian detainee issue to Abu Ghraib atrocity

On Monday, I wrote an Op-Ed in the Toronto Star noting that the Liberal Party has accused the Canadian Forces of war crimes. In it, I quoted Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh, who had publicly called our military "morally weak" and had accused the Canadian Forces of engaging in a "cover-up". My thesis was that the Liberals had moved from criticizing politicians like Stephen Harper and Peter MacKay, which is fine, to criticizing our men and women in uniform, which isn't fine.

Dosanjh wrote a letter to the Star in reply, but he had the smarts not to deny the public record. He had indeed called the Canadian Forces "morally weak", so no point pretending he didn't.

In that same Op-Ed I also pointed out that Liberal spin-doctor Warren Kinsella compared the Canadian detainee issue with Abu Ghraib, the U.S.-run prison in Iraq synonymous with torture and other atrocities.

Like Dosanjh, Kinsella wrote a letter to the Star. Unlike Dosanjh, Kinsella is pretending he never said such a thing.

Well, here's the transcript of his November 20th appearance on CTV, discussing detainees. See for yourself.

Out of the blue, Kinsella says "in the United States when the Abu Ghraib stories were taking place it became a huge issue politically." He simply brought up that war crime, out of the blue.

The other panelist, Tim Powers, immediately pointed out the Canadian situation "is nowhere near Abu Ghraib". CTV host Tom Clark agreed with Powers, saying "we all know that." But Kinsella insisted "we don't know that" -- twice.

Abu Ghraib is synonymous with torture. Does Kinsella still believe that "we don't know" if our Canadian Forces are involved in Abu Ghraib-style war crimes?

When it comes to terrorists like Omar Khadr, the Liberals insist that they're innocent until proven guilty. Wouldn't it be nice if they took the same approach to our Canadian Forces -- instead of suggesting "we don't know" if they're war criminals?