[R-G] Publicly available document stamped 'secret' by military

[Anthony Fenton]

http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=ae71b937-cc06-4a8f-9d2c-bf6c0cddd593

Publicly available document stamped 'secret' by military
David Pugliese ,  Canwest News Service
Published: Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Canadian Forces' counter-insurgency manual, already widely  
distributed among military units as well as to some members of the  
public and with at least one draft version available on the Internet,  
is now deemed to be secret by the Defence Department.

The department is remaining silent on why it considers the document,  
which does not discuss specific tactical information, to now be out of  
bounds for the public.

Last year the Canadian Forces distributed the manual, which is not  
classified as secret, to those members of the public who asked for it  
under the Access to Information law. The NDP also obtained a draft  
version of the manual last year and that is available to be downloaded  
on at least one website.

The 2005 draft version became controversial after media reports  
outlined how the manual included radical native groups with the Tamil  
Tigers, Hezbollah and Islamic Jihad as potential military opponents.  
Native leaders protested that aspect of the counter-insurgency manual,  
alleging the Canadian Forces were trying to criminalize the efforts of  
Aboriginal Peoples to demonstrate in an effort to draw attention to  
poverty and land claims.

It's not clear if the move by the Defence Department to withhold the  
final version of the manual is linked to that issue. The department  
did not answer questions about what it intends to do about the copies  
of the manual already in public hands.

In contrast, the U.S. army has posted its manual on its website to be  
downloaded for free by anyone. The U.S. Marine and U.S. army manuals  
were also combined into a book that is sold on Amazon.com. Those  
manuals highlight examples from wars in Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam as  
well as past campaigns to deal with insurgents in the Philippines,  
Malaysia and South America.

Since the Defence Department already released its manual on several  
occasions in the last year to the public, the move to stop its  
distribution has puzzled some observers.

"There are copies of this manual out there already and numerous copies  
of the draft version made, so why all of sudden is it secret?" asked  
NDP defence critic Dawn Black, whose office obtained the draft version  
of the document last year. "It's impossible to understand this  
government's continuing obsession with secrecy."

The Canadian manual does not focus entirely on Afghanistan, according  
to its author. It details the basic guiding principles of how to fight  
a guerrilla war, such as emphasizing the importance of gaining the  
trust of the people.

"It aims at the philosophy and principles and overall concepts within  
which your lower level tactics and procedures are conducted," Maj.  
David Lambert said last year in an interview with the Citizen.  
"Whether you're doing an attack against a Soviet defence position or  
an attack against an insurgent strongpoint the principles are still  
the same but the context (is different)."

Liberal Senator Colin Kenny said the decision by the Defence  
Department to make a once publicly available document now secret  
doesn't make sense.

"This appears to be secrecy for secrecy's sake," said Kenny, chairman  
of the Senate defence and security committee. "There seems to be a  
fundamental lack of judgment here."

Lambert, who has written army doctrine and procedures, said the focus  
of the manual wasn't centred on Afghanistan because many of the  
principles outlined in the manual can be applied to any type of  
military campaign.

"Even in major combat you're still doing major humanitarian relief,  
you're still doing some other aspects other than the offensive and  
defensive, and you're certainly building up ideally for when you do  
need to make that transition," he said.

The decision to withhold the manual was made by the military's  
Strategic Joint Staff. A special unit of the Strategic Joint Staff  
examines information being released by the military so that it doesn't  
put Canadian troops at risk, according to Canadian Forces officials.

But some defence officials have acknowledged privately they view the  
unit as being involved in political damage control.

While the Strategic Joint Staff has concentrated on reviewing  
documents related to Afghanistan, it has also examined files that  
could be potentially embarrassing to the government and the military.

Among those were files on contracts awarded to lobbyists, some alleged  
to have special access to defence chief Gen. Rick Hillier, the navy's  
practice of throwing garbage into the ocean, the deployment of a  
Canadian general to Iraq, the number of soldiers used to protect the  
1976 Montreal Olympics, the mysterious death of Royal Military College  
cadet Joe Grozelle, the military's exclusion of personnel because of  
their race or gender and the death of a Canadian peacekeeper in Lebanon.

The SJS team has also already ordered previously public details about  
Afghanistan detainees to be withheld, prompting claims by opposition  
MPs the review is designed to protect the Conservative government and  
stifle debate on allegations prisoners might have been abused.

Ottawa Citizen