A member of Afghanistan's notorious intelligence service boasted to Canadian military officers in the spring of last year that his organization was able to "torture" or "beat" prisoners during the course of its investigations, say federal documents.

The startling declaration, believed to be the first to come directly from a serving National Directorate of Security officer, sent federal officials in Ottawa reeling and left Canadian diplomats and correctional officers in Kandahar scrambling to verify the statement, according to briefing notes obtained by The Canadian Press.

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