Friday, January 19, 2007

Leahy Damns US Government Over Arar

U.S. 'knew damn well' Arar would be tortured: senator

Which is a stronger statement than the Harpocrite government has ever made about Arar. Oh yeah he is still waiting for that Official apology from the New Government of Canada.

Senator Patrick Leahy criticized the handling of the Maher Arar case: 'It's beneath the dignity of this country — a country that has always been a beacon of human rights — to send somebody to another country to be tortured.'
Gonzales was grilled relentlessly on Thursday by Senate judiciary committee chairman Patrick Leahy. Leahy said that when Arar — a citizen of both Canada and Syria travelling on a Canadian passport — was detained in 2002, American authorities knew he would be tortured if they deported him to Syria.

"We knew damn well if he went to Canada he wouldn't be tortured," said Leahy, a Democrat from Vermont. "He'd be held and he'd be investigated.

"We also knew damn well if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country — a country that has always been a beacon of human rights — to send somebody to another country to be tortured.

"You know and I know that has happened a number of times in the past five years by this country. It is a black mark on us."


And Arar still cannot get into the United States despite the weak tea protest by Harper, Day and MacKay. In fact he is still on the No Fly List, which the Government continues to collaborate on. Canada mum on giving US no-fly names


Mr. Chertoff refused to comment on why Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, still cannot enter the United States or fly over its territory.


See

Arar


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1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Atually Leahy was wrong in saying that Arar would be apprehended and investigated if he had come to Canada. The US authorities knew that he would not be apprehended because they had asked Canadian intelligence if he would be and they said no, that they did not have sufficient evidence to do so. That no doubt was a factor in deciding to send him to SYria to be questioned.
Arar is still pursuing a suit against the US even though US authorities keep deciding not to hear it because of security concerns. The synopsis is available at my blog kenthink7.blogspot.com among other places. Keep up the good work..