Canada Offered to Aid Iraq Invasion: WikiLeaks

[Hissyspit]

Source: CBC News

Canada offered to aid Iraq invasion: WikiLeaks

By Greg Weston, CBC News Posted: May 15, 2011 9:24 PM ET Last Updated: May 15, 2011 11:39 PM ET Read 162 comments162

The same day Canada publicly refused to join the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, a high-ranking Canadian official was secretly promising the Americans clandestine military support for the fiercely controversial operation.

The revelation that Canadian forces may have secretly participated in the invasion of Iraq is contained in a classified U.S. diplomatic memo obtained exclusively by CBC News from the whistleblower website WikiLeaks: 'While for domestic political reasons… (Canada) has decided not to join in a U.S. coalition,… they are also prepared to be as helpful as possible in the military margins' — Secret U.S. diplomatic cable

- snip -

Chrétien's apparent refusal to back the Bush administration's invasion, purportedly launched to seize weapons of mass destruction possessed by Iraqi ruler Saddam Hussein (which were never found), was hugely popular in Canada, widely hailed as nothing less than a defining moment of national sovereignty.

But even as Chrétien told the Commons that Canada wouldn't participate in Operation Iraqi Freedom, Canadian diplomats were secretly telling their U.S. counterparts something entirely different.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2011/05/15/weston-iraq-invasion-wikileaks.html

[xchrom]

1. Recommend

[AtheistCrusader]

2. Reasonably certain there have been Canadian assets in Iraq at times.

In fact, Wikipedia lists some military aid that was sent.

[Canuckistanian]

3. That's true

There were reports that JTF2 (our equivalent of SEALs) were caught aiding a hostage rescue in Iraq.

It caused quite a stir here at the time.

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2006/03/23/ot-jtf2-rescue20060323.html

[bobthedrummer]

4. ^

[BlueIris]

5. Gross.

But maybe not shocking.

[daleo]

6. Bush mostly wanted Canada's political support for the invasion

Which the Liberal Prime Minister never gave. That's the important thing to remember.