David Mulroney offers to testify

The Press Gallery has just circulated a letter sent by David Mulroney, the current Canadian Ambassador to China and the former deputy minister of the Afghanistan Task Force, to Conservative MP Rick Casson, the Chair of the House of Commons Special Committee on the Canadian Mission in Afghanistan.

You can read it here.

In a nutshell, he says he will be available to appear before the committee next week (presumably meaning this week, as the letter is dated November 20.)

He says he would "welcome the opportunity" to address the allegations made during Richard Colvin's testimony last week and to "set the record straight."

He also says that he "encouraged officials to report freely and honestly."

He concludes by noting that he believes "Canada is at the forefront of detainee monitoring in Afghanistan" and that "we have always recognized that the human rights situation in Afghanistan was cause for concern."

Elsewhere, as noted by Defence Minister Peter MacKay during Question Period, the federal government has issued this statement.