Michael's Dispatches

Rochelle,

A 30 second web search would have revealed this:

"Former Canadian brigadier-general Daniel Menard in Afghan jail accused of gun smuggling"

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/.../forme.../article16603584/

Thank you for your honest journalism Michael. It almost cures my cynicism.

Google cache - the original article:

http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&ved=0CDoQIDAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwebcache.googleusercontent.com%2Fsearch%3Fq%3Dcache%3AmnYFUuedyGcJ%3Awww.thetimes.co.uk%2Ftto%2Fnews%2Fworld%2Fasia%2Fafghanistan%2Farticle3989700.ece%2B%26cd%3D1%26hl%3Den%26ct%3Dclnk%26gl%3Dus%26client%3Dfirefox-a&ei=8gjrUuP_MYvNkAforYHACg&usg=AFQjCNFeHVvM1t4uuEsv5FBx2vHqdjlBxg&sig2=49EC5vY-6anHIw8Ae7xnLw

Gun smuggling IS gun running. :-*

James,

It is important to pay attention to what I wrote, and the context.

If I say, "Joe Smith arrested for money laundering," and link to an article that quotes officials saying that Joe Smith was arrested for money laundering, that does NOT say that I said he was money laundering. What is says is that officials say he was money laundering. Was Joe Smith money laundering? Heck if I know.

The original article I linked to clearly said that Afghan officials accused Menard of gunrunning. Did they, or was the journalist off? I have no idea, but what the article clearly said was that he was arrested for gunrunning. The paper immediately removed the article. Why did they remove it? I have no idea.

A company spokesman later was quoted that the arrest had something to do with a minor paperwork issue. Again, did the company spokesman Really say this, or was the journalist off? If he really did say it, was it Really true, or was perhaps Menard guilty of some gun infraction such as transporting guns that were not authorized (gunrunning)?

It is important to pay attention to what was actually written. As it stands, some people appear to be saying that Menard was gunrunning, while the company spokesman naturally says it was a paperwork issue. Do you think a company spokesman is going to come out and say, "Yes, we run guns"? Of course not. Were they running guns? I have no idea.

Is Menard in jail? That seems to be true. Another thing that is true is that Afghan officials have history of muscling people like this. Another thing that is true is that there are LOADS of contractors there with illegal weapons. I myself sometimes had grenades, a pistol, an AK, when not embedded and in high danger. If I had been arrested, they likely would have called that gunrunning.

I cannot fathom to remember all the contractors who had illegal weapons and were selling and trading them. It was common knowledge that some special forces teams would trade AK-47s or grenades to contractors, for cases of beer. That is gunrunning on both sides.

Bottom line: Menard is in prison and has been accused of gunrunning in at least one paper, as quoted by Afghan officials, if the quotes are true and accurate. What is true and accurate is that gunrunning is common, and Afghan authorities muscling people is also common.

Most appreciated.

On a side note, if someone is caught gunrunning, naturally they are going to say something like "sloppy paperwork." Remember that it was Menard who tried to hide from responsibility for letting the Tarnak River Bridge get blown up, and then he tried to hide nearly shooting one of our helicopters with his rifle, and then he tried to hide the affair that ultimately got him reduced in rank from brigadier general to colonel. It was I who revealed all of this.