Forces promote chief of tarnished mission

This is from Canada.com
So General Hillier intervened to get this chap promoted or at least considered again for promotion even though from the Somali inquiry it seems that he was not up to snuff. It seems that some of the intelligence officers who screwed up in the Arar case also were promoted. But Labbe has played a key role in Afghanistan so he should be rewarded on the basis of his contribution to our mission to help U.S. imperialism.


Friday » July 25 » 2008

Forces promote chief of tarnished mission
Quietly minted general commanded paratroopers who tortured Somali teen to death

David Pugliese
The Ottawa Citizen
Friday, July 25, 2008
Canada's military leadership has quietly promoted to general the soldier who led the ill-fated Somalia mission and who was subsequently found by a government inquiry to have failed in his duty as a commander.
The military has not publicized the July 2 promotion of Col. Serge Labbé to the rank of brigadier general. But sources contacted the Citizen about the promotion and the Defence Department yesterday confirmed that the new rank for the officer will be retroactive to 2000.
Dan Dugas, the communications director for Defence Minister Peter MacKay, said the minister signed off on the promotion based on the recommendation of Gen. Rick Hillier, who recently retired as chief of the defence staff. "Mr. MacKay takes the advice of the Chief of the Defence Staff on staffing issues," Mr. Dugas said.
Gen. Hillier and Brig.-Gen. Labbé worked together in Kabul in 2004, and the former colonel has been a key player at NATO and in the Afghanistan mission.
Brig.-Gen Labbé was considered a rising star in the Forces when he was selected to lead the 1992-93 mission to Somalia. During that deployment, Canadian paratroopers tortured to death 16-year-old Somali Shidane Arone, documenting the beating in a series of photographs.
During the same mission, two Somalis were shot in the back after they entered a Canadian camp. It was later revealed that paratroopers put out food and water as "bait," and it was alleged by a military doctor that one of the Somalis was killed "execution-style" by a soldier.
The Somalia inquiry, set up to investigate problems with the mission, also heard allegations that Brig.-Gen. Labbé offered a case of champagne to the first soldier who killed a Somali. Another officer testified the then-colonel said he was "looking forward to my first dead Somali."
Brig.-Gen. Labbé, who was never charged in connection with any incidents in Somalia, has vehemently denied making the champagne statement and has said other comments attributed to him were misinterpreted.
In 1997, the Somalia inquiry concluded Brig.-Gen. Labbé exercised poor and inappropriate leadership by failing to ensure Canadian troops were adequately trained and tested on the Geneva Conventions and that he failed in his duty as a commander.
Brig.-Gen Labbé was denied his promotion twice before by military review boards. But earlier this year, Gen. Hillier ordered a review of the officer's file as "he believed that the situation merited a closer look because there may have been an oversight in the years following 1998," the Defence Department said in an e-mail.
"In Feb 2008, the CDS directed a review of promotion board reports that ascertained that (Brig.-Gen. Labbé's) file was not given due consideration for promotion during the period 2000-2003," the Defence Department e-mail said. "The rationale for the promotion was based on an overall assessment of performance of the individual in his rank, relative to that of his peers."
Brig.-Gen. Labbé declined through a Defence Department spokesman to be interviewed.
A colleague of Brig.-Gen. Labbé said the officer is currently in Kabul as head of the Strategic Advisory Team, which provides support to Afghan government ministries. He is expected back in Canada in August and is expected to retire after that, according to the general's colleague.
In 2005, then-governor general Adrienne Clarkson awarded both Gen. Hillier and Brig.-Gen. Labbé the meritorious service cross for their work in Afghanistan. Gen. Hillier was honoured for his contribution as commander of the international force in Kabul and Brig.-Gen. Labbé was cited for his work there as the deputy chief of staff during the same period in 2004.
In 2001, Brig.-Gen. Labbé was also credited with helping in the release of six Serb hostages held by an Albanian rebel commander in a buffer zone between Kosovo and Serbia.
But the former colonel's appointment as a key NATO negotiator in the Kosovo region drew criticism at the time. Then-Canadian Alliance MP Art Hanger said Brig.-Gen. Labbé should not be representing Canada overseas because of the findings of the Somalia inquiry.
Mr. Hanger, then the Alliance's defence critic, said the case of Brig.-Gen. Labbé, more than anything else, was a reflection of the then-Liberal government and a defence minister "unwilling to make hard decisions.'"
"I'd like to ask the Liberal government when it's going to make some hard decisions on leadership,'' Mr. Hanger said.
Details of serious disciplinary problems in the Canadian Airborne Regiment before and during its mission to Somalia, allegations of racism within the ranks and the release of disturbing video footage showing airborne soldiers undergoing a drunken initiation would eventually prompt the Chrétien government to disband the unit. The years after the Somalia mission are seen by many in the Canadian Forces as a low point for the military.
But contrary to those who have claimed the Somalia mission was a failure, Brig.-Gen. Labbé said the operation was "highly satisfactory" and said the actual deployment to the African country was a textbook operation.
Peter Desbarats, one of the Somalia inquiry commissioners, questions the mission's success, noting the African country continues to slide into chaos.
"I don't know which textbook they're referring to," Mr. Desbarats said yesterday. "They accomplished over the long term absolutely nothing."
The e-mail from the Defence Department said Brig.-Gen. Labbé's promotion will be noted in an upcoming release outlining new appointments.
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008

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