A classified war: Afghanistan and the Canberra malaise

…What I am confident of is that in terms of the processes that we have put in place, in the terms of the arrangements that we have made for people within our care and responsibility we have taken every reasonable sensible and necessary step that we can to do our best to ensure that people are treated in a humane civilised and dignified manner if they are detained by Australian forces. We are very vigilant about that…

It has been reported that the Parwan Detention Facility at the US airbase at Bagram has a suspect area that is distinct from its main prison.

Minister Smith provided an update on detainee management in July this year. He confirmed that detainees apprehended by the ADF are transferred either to Afghan custody in Tarin Kot, or to U.S. custody at the detention facility in Parwan, or released if there is insufficient evidence to seek their prosecution through the Afghan judicial system. He said arrangements in place with both the Afghan and U.S. governments include assurances on the humane treatment of detainees and access to those detainees by Australian officials and humanitarian organisations to monitor their ongoing welfare.

Yet the ADF response to questions about the coming U.N. report was to say that no Afghans detained by Australian troops have been handed over to the police-run prison in Tarin Kot in the past two years. Is this inconsistent with Minister Smith's update on detainee management? How many facilities, run by whom, exist in Tarin Kot?

The often misleading and selective spin of information relating to the war in Afghanistan highlights the Government's weakening position in terms of Australian involvement. The forthcoming visit of President Obama will change nothing on the ground in Afghanistan, although he might ask us to stay long enough to turn the lights out, and it will change nothing on the floor of the ASX.