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Ref. : Local Newsbriefs
Ref. : Letters to the editor
03.05 Open Letter to Congressman Bart Stupak
Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries
03.12 Slick Barry and the $100-Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim
03.09 Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare!
03.09 Obama’s Rhetoric May Be “Fiery,” But His Health Care Reform Is Still Lukewarm
02.24 Obama’s New Plan
02.21 Time to Pass the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009
03.12 Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion
03.11 NYT and the ACORN Hoax
03.05 Sorry, Rove, Bush Did Lie About Iraq
03.03 It's Snow News
03.03 The Woeful Washington Post
02.28 The NYT Veers Neocon
02.18 US Media Replays Iraq Fiasco on Iran
Ref. : The Daily Howler
02.26 America's Supremes: Court Over Constitution
03.11 Power Rangers: Policing the System With the "Fightin' Progressives"
03.09 Thinking About Countings
03.07 Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism
02.25 Future Shock: A Better World Beyond the Imperium
02.24 The Last Flight of Joe Stack
02.22 Thinking About Sadie
02.18 All Systems Go: No Dysfunction in Profitable Afghan Enterprise
03.13 Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem
03.12 Israeli Settlement Expansions Continue
03.11 Brutalizing Palestinian Children
03.08 The Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Barcelona Session
03.05 Targeting Israeli Apartheid
03.01 America's Permanent War Agenda
02.25 Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery
02.23 Israeli Unaccountability and Denial: Suppressing the Practice of Torture
02.22 American Genocides: is Haiti Next?
02.18 Israeli Abusive Administrative Detentions
02.16 MK-ULTRA: The CIA's Mind Control Program
03.14 The Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network
03.09 The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource
03.05 Is the Recovery Real?
03.04 IMF-Style Austerity Measures come to America: What “Fiscal Responsibility” Means To You
03.04 Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and Economics of Destruction"
03.01 Thinking About Fees
02.22 Campaigning for State-Owned Banks
02.22 Social Security Will Fall To Obama Before The Taliban Do
02.19 Obama’s Stealth Entitlement Commission
02.19 Selling Out America to Wall Street
03.03 Muslim Disunity
03.02 Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation
02.26 Iran Captures a 'Good' Terrorist
02.24 The Dubai Hit
02.22 Holland Has Had Enough: Killing of Innocent Civilians Goes On Apace in Afghanistan
02.19 The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime
OPINION:
Outsourcing Torture
Can anyone with a sense of justice or humane bone in his body defend such a shameful policy?
Take the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen. Details of his case, compiled in a 1,200-page report by a Canadian commission that looked into the matter, were reported recently by the New York Times.
In 2002 the U.S. government detained Arar after receiving information from Canadian law enforcement that he had links to terrorists. But almost immediately afterward the Canadians told their American counterparts the information was wrong: no evidence tied Arar to al-Qaeda. The Canadian authorities offered to keep an eye on him when he returned to Canada, but the American officials were already arranging to send Arar to Syria, a country known to torture prisoners, on grounds that "Mr. Arar is a member of a foreign terrorist organization, to wit, Al Qaeda." Arar is a Syrian as well as a Canadian citizen. The Canadians did not learn that Arar had been sent to a Syrian prison until two weeks later.
"Mr. Arar spent 10 months in the custody of Syrian interrogators who beat him repeatedly with a heavy metal cable and held him in a dank cell scarcely larger than a coffin, according to the commission report. In October 2003, he was released and returned to his wife and children in Canada," the Times reported.
The Bush administration refused to cooperate with the Canadian commission. According to the Times, "A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, Tasia Scolinos, said that she could not respond in detail to the commission's findings but that the United States government 'removed Mr. Arar in full compliance with the law and all applicable international treaties and conventions.' She also said the government 'sought assurances with respect to Mr. Arar's treatment' in Syria."
Arar, 37, is suing the U.S. government and demanding an account of it actions.
Let's step back. On the basis of no evidence whatsoever, the U.S. government secretly sent a young man to a country known for torturing prisoners. But have no fear: the government "sought assurances" about his treatment in Syria--what kind of assurances? This is the same Syria with whom the U.S. government refused to speak during the recent Israel-Lebanon war. Bush will outsource torture to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but that is the extent of the diplomatic relationship. This is all said to have been done according to law.
This is America under George W. Bush. It's not the America we learned about growing up. Something has gone badly wrong. When will we do something about it?
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This story was published on September 29, 2006.
