What is a p.r. flack doing in the middle of the detainee issue anyway?

Well, it's clear that they're rattled in the PMO. Sandra Buckler's retracted her statement yesterday to the Globe to the effect that the military didn't tell the government about the halt in transfers of detainees. After she's been thoroughly discredited on her compartmentalization of the matter as "operational" military procedure, it's not surprising. It's also been reported that the decision made on the ground in Afghanistan was approved of by Defence headquarters in Ottawa, furthering the chances that her statement was suspect. And so, the great unravelling today:

The Prime Minister's communications director is retracting her statement that the military did not inform the government that it had suspended the transfer of prisoners to Afghan custody in November.

In an e-mail to The Globe and Mail on Thursday, Prime Minister Stephen Harper's communications director, Sandra Buckler, said the military did not tell the government about the suspension.

Ms. Buckler called Friday to say she “misspoke” but would not say whether the military had or had not informed the government.

“I should not have said what I said to you, I misspoke, and I wanted to make sure you were aware of that,” she said. “I made a mistake…what I said was wrong.”

When asked whether that meant that the military had informed the government that the transfer of prisoners to Afghan jails had been suspended in November, Ms. Buckler would not comment.

“I shouldn't have said it and I'm not going to comment on operational decisions made by the military,” Ms. Buckler said.

So we still have no sense of what's going on with detainees. Or why she was wrong. It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Can anyone in this government give a straight answer? Where's Junior? This is his ministry. Where's Bernier? Where's Harper? Huh?