Lifetime Top Ten album. I’ve bought and given away more than 20 copies of that album; plus distributed more than 50 copies given to me by her record company.
Then why the hell are U.S officials condoning the actions of Syrian torturers by sending them more victims?
If I think Sam down the street is a scumbag who beats up little kids, I don’t kidnap neighbourhood children and forcibly send them to Sam’s house for play dates.
Don’t get me wrong. I blame Syria for torturing him. But I sure as hell blame the U.S. too, for sending him to Syria.
No, it’s not really that tough. Here, I’ll help: if you suspect he’s a member of al Qaeda and have evidence, then you arrest him and charge him. If you suspect he’s a member of al Qaeda but don’t have any evidence of this, then you let him go. Because that’s what civilized countries do when there’s no evidence of wrongdoing.
What the fuck is tough about that?
Here is a great link with all the CBC stories since he first disappeared.
Yah, us too. There are rumours that the RCMP tipped off US border guards and no one who may know more about it is interested in clarifying matters.
One factor in why he was “arrested” in the first place: there’s a guy called Abdullah Al Malki, who they suspect of being Al Quada. Arar knew Malki’s cousin, and the guy himself signed Arar’s rental lease as a witness. When they asked him if he knew Malki he said no, because they had met only briefly, many years ago.
Now that he’s back, he reports having seen Malki, being tortured by the Syrians. A number of people have speculated that they got Arar’s name out of Malki’s torture.
One more thing: Arar has said, and a number of journalists echoed, that he’d still be rotting there if not for his wife Monia Mazigh. Kudos for her, shame on just about everyone else involved in this case.
Those who are willing to trade security for freedom are deserving of neither.
Dex
The joke goes like this,
If he was innocent, he wouldn’t have been a suspect.
Why would he have to fear the beatings, unless he really had something to hide?
why would he hide unless he feared beatings?
Sure, let him go: with a tail 24-7. It’s dangerous to let someone go and wander off into obscurity because you don’t have the evidence to “charge them with a crime.” Even a hint of al Qaeda membership has to raise red flags everywhere. How many embassys, ships, commercial neighborhoods, etc. have to go before we can justify intense scrutiny of anyone who knows anyone in al Qaeda?
He was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Syria. Did the US officials even know that before they deported him to Syria? Did this mean that US officials knew he would be tortured? Does Syria torture all the dual citizens charged with political membership crimes sent there? Why are US officials supposed to know that anyone sent to Syria is going to be abused? Where was all this supposed knowledge of Syrian atrocities before this one dual citizen was sent back?
I don’t recall outrage at Syria until, well, right now. Only because it can be quickly displaced on the United States, I’m sure. There is no collaboration between Syria and the United States on much of anything. I think that the US government is trying to improve things in that area diplomatically. I would not call the relationship friendly.
So if the US just assumes the role of “mad dog” nation, then we are not held accountable for our actions? Instead, civilized nations that interact with us get the blame? I like it. I like it a lot.
Syria is on the UN Security Council.
I’m guessing that Canada did not raise a stink because their security people didn’t want him either.
Look it’s simple. Let’s say we have evidence that somebody might have had some connection with somebody who knew a guy we didn’t like. Maybe they were photographed shaking hands with Sadam Husein, like Donald Rumsfeld, or they had done business with Ossama bin Laden’s family, like Dubya, something like that.
OF COURSE we’d want to ship them off to Syria to be tortured!
Wouldn’t it be more ‘civilised’ to stick them in Guantanamo Bay without trial? :rolleyes:
Thank God at least Al Gore is calling to repeal the Patriot Act. Hopefully the canidates will follow suit.
Still waiting for one shred of evidence that anyone – other than the WaPo writer – knew this guy was going to be tortured in Syria. Why have we been allowing this rogue regime to terrorize everyone that goes there for so long? Oh yeah, now we can use them to criticize the US.
Why bring Syria into this?? He’s a Canadian citizen. When you deport somebody, you deport them to their country. You can’t ship them off to a hostile nation and dump them.
Deport him, yes, but to Canada. Unless Canada refuses him.
He’s a Syrian citizen also.
Like I said think “Snake Pliskin” (Escape from New York)
This article has quotes from Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International, a named former CIA operative (as well as the Washington Post article cited by Larry Mudd. I believe the preponderance of the evidence shows that “extraordinary renditions” for the purposes of torture are in fact taking place.
There are the beginnings of a huge political stink about this particular occurence in Canada.
This is one of the troubling aspects of holding dual citizenships, especially when one of the countries you’ve split your loyalties between is known for forced military service, support to terrorists and torture of prisoners, political and otherwise.
I’m not blaming Mr. Arar. Heaven knows he’s been through more than enough, and a couple of good phone calls and some people checking the legitimacy of their information before they use it against someone would’ve gone a long way to keeping him from being tortured and locked up in a crypt.
But the question is raised – he lives in Canada, works in Canada, has no interest in living in Syria again, so why in hell maintain dual citizenship? This should serve as a lesson to everyone in the west to strongly reconsider the need for that secondary citizenship in the POS renegade country you have no love for. Yes, origins and roots and the old country and all that – sentimentality is fine and good so long as it can’t get your ass sent to a torture pit.
It’s a real pity the US Immigration authorities at JFK didn’t do that.
How many people have to be interrogated, denied access to counsel or even a telephone for a week, browbeaten into signing forms without reading them, strip searched, and then whisked off the continent at three in the morning without the knowledge of their loved ones before we realize that the rule of law is there for a reason?
And that’s just the stuff that U.S. officials did to him.
And by the way: there is still no available evidence to suggest that Maher Arar even knows anyone who knows anyone in al Qaeda. Unless of course you have evidence that we don’t to suggest that Abdullah Almalki (the guy who witnessed Arar’s lease) is connected to al Qaeda.
First of all, Syria only accused him of being in the Muslim Brotherhood. (Syria never actually charged him with anything.)
Secondly, by his own account Maher Arar told U.S. officials what he expected to happen to him:
Lastly,
For the last fucking time: I blame Syria for torturing him. I blame the United States for sending him to a country where he would be tortured. Whether you like it or not, the United States put him in harms way for no good reason and they are therefore in part responsible for what happened to him.
And I blame the Washington Post for being such dipshits that they think the answer is just to erode due process in a different way.
Crap. Stupid link.
This, “no deportation to Syria” thing is new to me. They are on the UNSC. They are not a “mad dog” nation, IMO. In fact, I was unaware of any serious allegations of systematic political torture in Syria, until now.
[changing gears faced with more information]
Farming out torture, OTOH, “renditions,” sounds like the wave of the future. Well, I’d like to thank our staunch allies, Syria, for helping us in the war on terror. WTF?! :dubious: See, once again, don’t let the CIA run anything. Fucking A. The only thing less reliable than a present agent is a former agent. I give up. This has far less to do with deportation than another FUBAR CIA operation. Just roll them into the Defense Department.
This is strange logic. “How many attacks have to happen before we start working with al Qaeda to destroy our free country?” This attitude gives a single al Qaeda member the ability to send countless innocent Americans into harrassment, prison and possible deportion/torture, just by simple, everyday interactions. What power – chat with your unsuspecting neighbor and before you know it he’s been indefinitely detained by the government. Now the U.S. is your ally in making its citizens afraid. Great.
**
I saw a quote today, regarding Veteran’s Day: “Freedom is not free”. This is often only considered in the context of military action, but I think it applies far more often to vigilance of the people to keep the government from reducing our power by curtailing the freedoms we are guaranteed under the law. Our founding fathers put the rule of law in place for a very good reason: because the only alternative is a rule of men, and men are far less capable of using power wisely and evenly, especially in times of stress or danger. If we allow the rule of law to be selectively applied, we are basically allowing a rule of men, where those with power can arbitrarily harm those without.
As citizens of a democratic nation, it is our right and duty to protest the actions of our government that we feel are harmful to ability to have a free country, even if those actions are well-intentioned. By protesting these actions, we have a chance to affect change and continue to assert our control over our own representative government. Idiots like you only hear criticism of our country and assume that we must love it less than countries like Syria, because we haven’t taken the time to pointlessly lambast a government we have no influence over. Personally, I wonder how someone can claim to love our country in the same breath that they argue that we should limit or remove all the freedoms that make it what it is. Love it or leave it, pal.