First Reading (11/25/09)

Today's essential political reads:

1)  We'll have the three top generals at the Afghanistan committee this afternoon, and the documents and questions and commentary just keep on coming on the detainee torture allegations. More selections today, to help you warm up for their testimony:

• Turns out Peter MacKay was told, in his former capacity as foreign affairs minister. Colvin's lawyer sent a letter to the committee last night, clarifying this point from his testimony last week.
• Colvin wasn't the only one sounding a warning about the abuse of prisoners in Afghanistan.
• Who is David Mulroney anyway?
• We don't have a current sense of the cost of Canada's mission in Afghanistan.
• Former soldier Lewis MacKenzie thinks an inquiry would be a "colossal waste of money."
• There's an Indian connection to our strategic interest in Afghanistan.
• The Globe's editorial asks four key questions; the Star's editorial slam's the PM's "shabby semantics"

2)  A mystery investigation is underway at Public Works. Inquiring minds want to know...

3)  Turns out we aren't actually tracking the number of jobs created by all that stimulus spending, a committee heard yesterday.

4)  Bob Fife already seems to know what happened with that missing gold from the Royal Canadian Mint -- we'll see if his source is right when the Auditor General signs off on the Mint's internal audit in a couple of weeks.

5)  Canada's provincial environment ministers are in town today, hoping to learn details from Jim Prentice on Canada's plan, heading into the Copenhagen climate change talks next month.

6)  The Conservative Party's key argument yesterday at the 'In and Out' court proceedings: the competition was doing it too.

7)  On Monday, Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon vowed Canada will respond "firmly" when other nations threaten our arctic sovereignty.  Now we learn Canada wrote a diplomatic note last April to complain to the United States about a potential incursion with regards to an upcoming auction of oil and gas exploration rights along the Alaska-Yukon border.