JTF2: Antisocial Operations

January 30, 2007

JTF2: Antisocial Operations

Today's Ottawa Citizen cover story about JTF2 contains a few nuggets of information:

The government wants the country's special forces units to be able to work more closely with similar units in the United States when reacting to incidents that potentially threaten North America. Canada's special forces will also play more of a role in training foreign militaries.

Emphasis added. JTF2's operations are completely secret, however, so there's no way of knowing who they're training, unless the government deigns to reveal it. And:

"They're very highly trained people who are trained in anti-social skills, I would call it -- they're trained to kill people in various ways," Mr. O'Connor told the Citizen's editorial board in December 2005, before he was in cabinet. "I would prefer them to be under iron-tight discipline inside a military base."

If O'Connor the (ahem, former) arms industry lobbyist is worried, then I'm worried.