Yesterday in New York a lawsuit was rejected by an appeals court in which a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, sought damages from the US government for he was arrested at the airport and deported to Syria for harsh interrogation in 2002.
It was based on the Canadian police's information who accused him of terrorism. Arar was held in Syria for a year and tortured, he alleges. But the Canadian government cleared all charges against him and he was compensated.
Now he wants the same from the US government through suing, which was rejected by the court, saying they are not authorised to make decisions in such a case.
If the U.S. government is gonna ship people off to foreign prisons for the purposes of "enhanced interrogation" then they need to own that and admit they can make a mistake. Obviously I don´t agree with the practice to begin with but if you´re gonna use it you´d better make damn certain that you got the right guy. And when you don´t you need to make restitution.
... at least to the extent that Canada falsely accused the man, and you generally don´t expect one nation to fact-check its allies´ reports.
At the same time, Canada should have felt free to share suspicions without worrying whether horrific human rights violations would be the result.
@Viz -- if you´d like me to write a version of your summary with more natural-sounding English, to help in your studies, I´d be happy to. I would just write it here in the comments.
Oh, I did too. Viz, you´ve gotten to the point that you´re going to sound like a native speaker with just a bit more work. You´ve made amazing progress these past few years.
Our executive branch is now untouchable. We have a king. He can torture people and imprison them without charges indefinitely. He is above the law and the courts have confirmed this. You have all witnessed it, “The land of the Free” is over, we are now nothing but serfs, slaves, indentured servants, property of our king to be used and abused as he sees fit.
Is this what the founding fathers fought and died for, is this what our grandfathers, fathers, spouses and children fought and died for? Thomas Jefferson just vomited in his grave. This country has no honor left, it deserves to perish, we have failed all of those that came before us and died for our sins. This is utterly shameful. America has been disgraced.
You did great and I know I had a reply here, maybe I didn´t hit submit. I think you did a fantastic job with this article.
Valk- I applaud you. I would like to ask permission to copy what you have posted on my personal forum on here if that is ok with you?
@all-I wonder how in the hell did we get to this point and why the hell didn´t Canada come take this guy once we arrested him since they are the ones that had all this evidence?
I don´t know if he was truly tortured or not, but with the way Bush ran things I could see it happening sad to say. Not only will we never know, people will automatically believe it because of what Cheney and Bush allowed to start and continue and so far Obama doesn´t have a set to not only let the extent of this be transparent, he is still holding people that are/were evil and not allowing them a trial to prove guilt or innocence. How many other Maher Arar´s are there? How many suspected terrorists are we holding for others instead of the country that has the ´evidence´?
Hell yes Canada cleared him and gave a´substantial settlement´ since they are the ones that caused all of what happened to him. Not saying the gov´t here was any better.
"Since taking office in January, President Barack Obama has pledged to end the use of extraordinary rendition for interrogation purposes, a practice developed by former president George W. Bush´s administration after the September 11, 2001 attacks."
Is it still beng used? Why hasn´t it stopped yet if it is? Why in the FK wasn´t it ended within days or weeks?
I think the NY Appeals Court well I think Valk explained it better than I could.
I believe they ( arabs) should be sent there if the US has to shut down our interrogations,let the Syrians do it for us.When all the terrorists are done under the ground then we can worry about the few who were wronged.Make the Homeland secure,first AND foremost.
Well put. The understatement of the century. You are much too kind, but stronger words wouldn´t make it any more clear.
It´s funny how every time I invoke such an obvious truth, I get hosed down by flame throwers.
The scum of today´s government are basking in the glory of an old dead America. An America they did not do one thing to benefit and so should receive no credit for that greatness. It´s over.
