[R-G] Opposition party claims Canadian military wrote Afghan president's speech

[Anthony Fenton]

Copyright 2007 Associated Press
All Rights Reserved
Associated Press Worldstream

September 26, 2007 Wednesday 12:04 AM GMT

SECTION: INTERNATIONAL NEWS

LENGTH: 587 words

HEADLINE: Opposition party claims Canadian military wrote Afghan  
president's speech

BYLINE: By ROB GILLIES, Associated Press Writer

DATELINE: TORONTO

BODY:


Afghan President Hamid Karzai's speech to the Canadian Parliament  
last year was written by the Canadian military as part of an "staged  
political stunt," an opposition party charged.

The claim, based on heavily censored declassified documents obtained  
under freedom of information laws, ruffled diplomatic feathers  
Tuesday and prompted a strong denial from the Afghan ambassador in  
Ottawa.

"I can say something simple and say it's laughable and I could say  
something a bit more serious and say it verges on being insulting,"  
Afghanistan's Ambassador Omar Samad said Tuesday.

Dawn Black, the left-leaning New Democratic Party's defense  
spokesman, said the documents indicate Canadian military advisers  
were asked to prepare an initial draft of Karzai's speech, delivered  
on Sept. 22, 2006.

"What Canadians heard was not the voice of the Afghan people, but the  
talking points of the Department of National Defense," Black said.

"I find it incredible that any foreign head of state would be handed  
their remarks by the host country's military. It's totally incredible  
to me. When our prime minister visited the Parliament in Australia, I  
can't imagine the remarks were prepared by the Australian government."

Black quoted a situation report from Task Force Afghanistan as  
saying: "Team prepared initial draft of President (Karzai's) address  
to Parliament 22 Sep."

And Gen. David Fraser reports in the documents that: "key statistics,  
messages, themes, as well as overall structure (of the speech), were  
adopted by the president in his remarks."

Samad bristled at the allegation but acknowledged Canadian diplomats  
may have been asked for input as part of the normal planning process  
prior to a state visit.

But the ambassador said he and several other Afghan advisers,  
including the president's chief of staff, prepared their own versions  
of the remarks and the final speech went through several drafts,  
which Karzai edited himself.

"He personally added and took things out, and we worked on it for  
several hours before he delivered it," Samad said.

A Defense Department spokesman called Black's take on the matter "spin."

"When a visiting dignitary is asked to speak to Parliament, it's not  
precedent-setting nor a surprise that information on Canada would be  
provided to him or her," said Dan Dugas, the spokesman for Defense  
Minister Peter MacKay. "This NDP spin on this, this attempt to  
undermine Karzai's integrity, goes to show their opposition to a  
United Nations-NATO mission to help Afghanistan gain freedom."

In the speech, Karzai thanked the families of soldiers killed in  
combat and painted an optimistic, but not rosy picture of his  
country's future.

He also took direct aim at New Democratic Party Leader Jack Layton's  
opposition to the war, saying that those who believe the mission was  
weighted too heavily toward combat and not enough toward  
reconstruction were wrong.

The documents released by the NDP suggest the Canadian military's  
strategic advisory team a 15-member group that has been helping  
create and train a new Afghan civil service in Kabul was the  
organization that provided the draft of the speech.

Seventy-one Canadian soldiers and one diplomat have lost their lives  
in Afghanistan since 2002. Canada has about 2,300 soldiers in the  
country, mainly operating in Kandahar province, the former Taliban  
stronghold.

The Afghan mission is increasingly unpopular in Canada. Prime  
Minister Stephen Harper has said Canada's combat mission in  
Afghanistan will not be extended beyond 2009 without a consensus in  
Parliament.