Let's talk about timelines

Gotta love straight-up news stories, written without a hint of misplaced editorializing...or blog post written without a hint of sarcasm:

The Kandahar office of Afghanistan's human rights commission has agreed to act as a watchdog for detainees captured by Canadians to ensure that valid complaints of abuse are investigated, the Canadian Press has learned.

The secret agreement with military commanders papers over concerns raised by human rights groups about the practice of handing captured Taliban prisoners over to Afghan authorities who have a reputation for torture. It could also take some of the fire out of a burning debate over allegations that Canadian troops abused detainees last spring. [Babbler's bold]

Of course, buried way down at the bottom of the story is a little tidbit of information that shows the CF isn't simply trying to do damage control on the allegations raised by Amir Attaran, Amnesty International, and their ilk:

The negotiations were started almost a year ago when Nader Naderi, commissioner of the Afghan human rights commission based in Kabul, went to Canada and met with the minister of defence. [Babbler's bold]

That's right: the CF didn't wait until Attaran and Koring started fishing with abuse allegations a month ago, or when Amnesty International raised another complaint a week ago. They were talking with Abdul Quadar Noorzai, of the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission in Kandahar last summer.

In fact, the intent to pursue such an agreement was written into the original detainee transfer agreement signed in December 2005 - see paragraph 11:

11. Participants recognize the legitimate role of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission within the territory of Afghanistan, including in regard to the treatment of detainees, and undertake to cooperate fully with the Commission in the exercise of its role.

The Canadian Forces didn't sign this agreement to "paper over" anything. The truth is they were committed to cooperating with the Human Rights Commission in Afghanistan before the likes of Attaran and Amnesty even had a detainee agreement to object to.

Even when they do the right thing, the CF can't get decently accurate reporting from our nation's press. I wonder why.