MONTREAL - Canada's former top soldier has blasted claims by diplomat Richard Colvin that the military handed over Afghan prisoners to face torture despite warnings, calling the allegation "ludicrous."

A bristling Rick Hillier, mixing indignance with folksy charm, told a special Commons committee Wednesday that reports from Afghanistan in 2006 never mentioned that prisoners were at risk of torture.

But the dust from his testimony hadn't even settled before contradictions began to emerge.

Uncensored versions of Colvin's reports began circulating Wednesday night that said the International Committee of the Red Cross, the agency trusted by nations to observe prisoners of war, was named in emails to Ottawa as expressing "alarm" about conditions within Afghan prisons.

The references were particularly stark in one memo written by the diplomat on June 2, 2006.

An official who's seen Colvin's emailed reports conceded that the Red Cross was "really pissed off" for procedural reasons about Canada's tardy reporting whenever a prisoner was captured, but it was "more concerned about what was done to detainees after they were handed over."

The reports were widely distributed in both the defence and foreign affairs departments, and even apparently copied to Peter MacKay, who was minister of foreign affairs in 2006.

Hillier denied seeing Colvin's reports at the time, but assured MPs that had they warned of torture, he would have been briefed. He said he recently reread the reports to reassure himself that he didn't blunder three years ago.

"We didn't base our work on things like reports written in May or June 2006, which said nothing about abuse, nothing about torture or anything else that would have caught my attention or indeed the attention of others," Hillier testified.

The testimony was backed up by retired general Michel Gauthier, former head of Canada's expeditionary forces, and Maj.-Gen. David Fraser, the Canadian commander on the ground in 2006.

Gauthier testified that reports in 2006 and early 2007 never even used the word torture, except in one isolated incidence.

And Fraser said he was never told about the alleged torture of prisoners: "If I had. I would have done something about it," he said.

It was precisely the kind of first-hand, blistering defence that the Conservative government has been aching to unleash since Colvin's bombshell allegations were levelled before the same committee last week.

But a number of troubling questions remain.

Gauthier, who was responsible for the overall conduct of the war, said he was briefed on detainees every day, but also painted Canada's policy toward prisoners as a work-in-progress.

He said he first heard of torture allegations in April 2007 from a Globe and Mail reporter, and the first field report citing credible evidence of torture was received on June 4, 2007.

Yet, before that story broke, the federal government asked the Afghanistan Independent Human Rights Commission to monitor prisoners on Canada's behalf. None of the generals explained why the unusual step was taken if no one in the federal government had any concerns.

Canada originally agreed to hand over prisoners, but unlike other nations it didn't reserve the right to check on them to make sure they were not abused. Once the torture allegations were published in 2007, Ottawa rewrote the deal, allowing for greater access to the prisons and provided for unannounced inspections to check for abuse.

The generals denied that there was anything alarming in the lead-up to the revised agreement. All of them said no one, civilian or military, ever approached them to whisper allegations of torture in the Afghan prisons.

The testimony appears to flatly contradict Colvin -- the former No. 2 at the Canadian embassy in Kabul -- who told MPs his reports warned that prisoners handed over to Afghan prisons were almost certain to face torture.

Liberal defence critic Ujjal Dosanjh was incredulous.

"I think the government knew. Allegations were widespread," he said after the meeting.

Dosanjh pointed to several international reports, including warnings by the U.S. State Department, about torture in Afghan prisons.

But Hillier dismissed those warnings as unsubstantiated "sky is falling" reports.

Opposition MPs say they can't get to the bottom of the issue without seeing Colvin's reports and other documents the government may have on the topic of abuse.

Both Hillier and Gauthier conceded they had access to the reports in preparing for their testimony. Gauthier went as far as to tell MPs he hoped they would get access to the records.

Opposition MPs wondered aloud how it was retired officers could have unfettered access to documents that the federal government has deemed too sensitive to share with the committee.

But there are doubts the government will agree to release the report, especially uncensored versions.

While Prime Minister Stephen Harper has promised the committee will get "all legally-available" documents, Colvin's lawyer said the Justice Department has clamped down on him.

Lori Bokenfohr said government lawyers have told Colvin they do not accept an opinion that testimony -- both written and oral -- before Parliament is exempt from national security provisions of the Canada Evidence Act.

That comes after the clerk of the special Afghanistan committee advised that parliamentary immunity would apply to almost all testimony.

Opposition MPs say it's another broken promise and they renewed demands for a public inquiry.

MacKay, who is now minister of defence, and other Conservative MPs have attacked Colvin's credibility, suggesting -- as did Hillier -- that his reports were based on hearsay. The attacks came despite the fact that Colvin was promoted to an intelligence job at Canada's embassy in Washington.

However, they acknowledge that the government changed its policy on prisoner transfers in 2007, to include closer monitoring of those handed over, based partly on Colvin's advice.

Harper and his cabinet ministers have also insisted they never knew of the torture reports at the time.

Colvin also alleged that many innocent farmers were arrested by Canadian troops and turned over to the Afghans.

An indignant Hillier fired back: "Nothing could be farther from the truth."

"We detained, under violent actions, people trying to kill our sons and daughters who had, in some cases been successful at it,"he said.

The vast majority of detainees were caught after firefights, he said, and were found to have explosive residue on their hands and gunshot residue on their clothing. If innocent farmers were swept up, he added, they would have been quickly released.