Canada's Minister of National Defence Art
Eggleton is caught in the "tangled web" of deceit he
spun; he has lost the credibility and respect that a
minister of the Crown needs to do his job.
The facts of this case are that on Jan. 28,
amid international controversy about U.S. treatment of prisoners from Afghanistan,
Prime Minister Jean Chretien was asked by reporters what Canadian
troops would do with any captives. It's hypothetical, he said,
since no prisoners had been captured.
The next day, Eggleton told Parliament that Canadian special forces
from the elite JTF2 unit captured al-Qaeda members on Jan.
20 and that he had been informed of that on
Jan. 25.
A day later, the minister said he was informed on
Jan. 21 and that he had seen a newspaper photo
of JTF2 members with prisoners on the 25th. Opposition MPs
called for his resignation for misleading Parliament, a polite term
for lying. On Feb. 7, MPs referred the issue to
a Commons committee.
A week ago, Eggleton told the committee he had not
had a "full understanding" after he was briefed and needed
more information before telling Chretien about the capture.
But on Monday, Canada's chief and deputy chief of defence
staff were unusually frank in telling the committee Eggleton had
been completely briefed about the mission and the prisoners. Source.
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