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‘Nobody quite knew what to do’

Canadian Press reports evidence of a December 2006 meeting in Ottawa to discuss Asadullah Khalid, a notorious Afghan governor known to have participated in torture.

The meeting in December of that year – months before torture claims became public – was the culmination of months of pressure from foreign affairs officials on the ground who wanted to see Asadullah Khalid shifted elsewhere, defence and foreign affairs sources said. One source said the meeting was at the Privy Council Office and involved Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s then-national security adviser, Margaret Bloodworth…

Both foreign affairs and defence sources said no notes were kept of the Khalid meeting. “There was no policy for dealing with something like this, something so sensitive,” said one source. “Nobody quite knew what to do.”

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