Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Maher Arar. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query Maher Arar. Sort by date Show all posts

Friday, January 26, 2007

Blogging Tories Continue To Slander Arar


While the Grande Formage his-self today apologized for the Canadian Government, the RCMP and CSIS treatment of Maher Arar there are those in his peanut gallery over at the Blogging Tories that continue to spread the lie that Arar is Al-Quaeda or a terrorist, or....

Despite their Great Leader saying today that a Canadian Judicial Inquiry found no basis for these accusations.

It would be poetic justice for Arar and his family if after they sue the US Government, successfully, and get a full US Senate Hearing that they put aside some of the $10.5 million to sue the asses off these dweebs.....

Ten Million Dollar Man
Dissonance And Disrespect | 26 Jan 2007 | 9:19am EST
If Maher Arar is truly innocent of having links to Al-Qaeda, $10 million will hardly compensate him for the torture he suffered in Syria.If, however, he is guilty of some other dirty business, then he just hit the jackpot.But lost in all the controversy about Arar's treatment in Syria is that his experience demonstrates the downside of dual citizenship.

Arar’s ten million bucks
deepsouth | 26 Jan 2007 | 11:21am EST
Ten million bucks eh? Well good for him - if in fact he’s the innocent he claims to be. Oh, I know he’s been cleared and the RCMP convicted, but there’s a worm at the heart of the story - a worm that’s bothered me about it since the first Arar headlines hit the news. Syria is a terrorist sponsor state - a state that has good connections to Islamic terrorism worldwide

Hopefully that will be the end of that..
47 minutes ago
by Jordan Alcock
Maher Arar is now officially a multi-millionaire, and the government can finally
move beyond the whole mess. Somehow, I doubt this will be the end of it

Still, if getting sent to Syria and tortured for a year means $10.5 million in the pocket - sign me up!

halls of macadamia
This has been one sensational media ride, but I think I must have missed the coverage of Arar publicly renouncing his Syrian citizenship. It seems obvious, now that he's a wealthy man, he'll need to protect himself against any "misunderstanding" from the Syrian Rubber Hose Brigade when he's travelling anywhere in the future.
And Bourque the Conservative payola headline writer was equally offensive today

Now compare those statements with this one from the Libertarian Reason Blog;

To recap: The Canadians, the original source of the tip that made U.S. officials think Arar was a terrorist, have completely repudiated the allegation, but the Americans are sticking to it, based on secret information the Canadians find unpersuasive. I'd like to believe our government is being extra careful, preferring to err on the side of safety. But I suspect it is actually being extra careless, refusing to admit the possibility of error.

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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

And Ezra Can Apologize Too

And while we are getting apologies by folks who accused Mahar Arar of being a terrorist how about Ezra Le Rant and his Western Standard publishing a front page apology to the Arar family. These are just a few examples I am sure you can find more, and more, and more.....

Layton wants to negotiate with Taliban terrorists (is NDP star candidate, Monia Mazigh -- wife of Maher Arar -- Layton's terrorism advisor?)


Alghabra was stopped at the U.S. border and searched and fingerprinted -- whether that was by reason of demographic profiling, or because he was on a watch list is uncertain. What is certain is that Alghabra turned it into an opportunity to gain media face time, Maher Arar-style, as an anti-American, anti-security mouthpiece.


Looking for a good read? Western Standard publisher Ezra Levant reviews and recommends the latest books. Buy them today!

Confessions of An Innocent Man: Torture and Survival in a Saudi Prison
by William Sampson
McClelland and Stewart, 432 pages

Unlike Maher Arar and the Khadr terrorist family, William Sampson has not received lavish government attention and aid, nor a public inquiry. Sampson suffered torture at the hands of Saudi Arabia, and that is one regime Canada doesn't want to offend. His book is about heroism--and Canada's diplomatic cads.

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Ezra Levant



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Right Whinger Decries Arar Inquiry

Speaking of words coming back to haunt one here is a comment from the Rightwhingnut Front Page magazine round table forum on Terrorism in Canada.
Handwringing rightwhinger Patrick Grady proclaims he is worried that the Arar inquiry will further limit the police state in Canada. How right he was.


FrontPage magazine.com :: Symposium: Terror From the North July 2006

Patrick Grady, an economic consultant from Ottawa and the author of Royal Canadian Jihad, a novel about Islamic terrorists in Canada, which prefigured the recent Toronto bomb plot.

The only person who has actually been prosecuted under the Anti-Terrorism Act was Momin Khawaja and he was apprehended thanks to British police and U.S. intelligence, and not Canadian police work. Instead of vigorously pursuing radical Islamists, the former Liberal Government was more concerned with avoiding any perceptions that the rights of ultra-sensitive Muslim Canadians might possibly be violated. It also gave the Muslim community exactly the wrong signal by allowing the notorious Khadrs back into the country to sponge off Canada’s generous welfare and health systems when they should have had their Canadian citizenship revoked.

Following the return to Canada of Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar who was rendered to Syria by the United States for interrogation, the old Liberal Government set up the Arar Inquiry to look into RCMP and CSIS wrongdoing in providing information on Arar to the Americans. Against this backdrop, it also issued some ministerial directives that clamped down on RCMP national security probes. One required the RCMP to obtain prior ministerial approval before cooperating with or entering into a working arrangement with a foreign security or intelligence service and then only allowed this through CSIS. Another directive provided guidance on investigating "sensitive sectors" of society like religion. This was done to restrict the ability of the RCMP and CSIS to carry out U.S.-style investigations of mosques and Islamic centers, which have resulted in so many successful prosecutions south of the border. As far as I know, these three directives are still in effect, although when I asked the RCMP Commissioner about them in a public forum, he denied that they existed.

My greatest fear is that when the Arar Commission issues its long-awaited report this summer it will recommend additional constraints on law enforcement and intelligence, which the new Conservative Government will feel forced to go along with in response to the political pressure likely to be exerted by the many soft-hearted, and soft-headed, Canadians concerned to do penance for the way the big, bad American Government treated poor, little Maher Arar. If so, it will play right into the hands of the terrorists and make it much more difficult for the RCMP to continue to do the job they did so admirably last month in Toronto.

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CIA



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Sunday, December 17, 2006

Tories Fail Arar


Arar still a threat, US envoy says

Globe and Mail, Canada - 16 Dec 2006
The US ambassador to Canada yesterday dismissed the $16-million Canadian judicial probe into the Maher Arar torture case, saying Mr. Arar remains listed as a possible terrorist threat.
Americans take a turn smearing Arar Toronto Star
Arar remains on US security list National Post
Arar considered threat to US, Wilkins says CTV.ca

So much for Conservative White House buddy buddy diplomacy. Neither formal letters from Public Security Minister Stockwell Day to the US government, nor tuff talk, in the house, from PM Stephen Harper have availed Marher Arar of his right to enter the United States. He remains a security threat despite the Harpocrites claims to have done all they can to rectify this injustice.

There has been no formal apology to arar from the Conservatives, whom as a party and as the official opposition chose to call Arar a terroist and impugn his reputation. No apology from the Harper government, to date hiding behind legal refuge, the last bastion of a scoundrel. And a limp attempt by the government to ask the Americans to remove Arar from their security lists.

You don't ask YOU TELL 'em, tough guy.

But the apologetic approach of the Harpercrites on this issue once again exoses our New Government of Canada as made up of compradors and quislings.


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CIA

Torture

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Monday, September 18, 2006

RCMP Lies Lead To Torture

The first and most important thing we learned from the O'Connor report on the Maher Arar case was..

No evidence Mr. Arar has committed any offence or is a threat to Canadian security.

So this brings into disbute all those currently being held in Canada's secret prison, who have also been identified as potential security threats.

He also found "troubling questions" about the role played by Canadian officials in the cases of three other Arab-Canadians, Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and Muayyed Nureddin. All were tortured in Syria after traveling there on personal business, and all suspect that the RCMP and/or Canada's spy agency collaborated with their captors.

Was it really a case of post 9/11 hysteria that led the RCMP to jump to conclusions in the Arar case. Was it incompetence, a failure to clarify information from dubious sources. Or was it something more sinister, racial profiling of a political nature.

That is what we don't know from today's Arar Report because of State Secrecy.


Among other things, O'Connor's report found:

  • American officials "very likely" relied on the inaccurate information from the RCMP when they decided to send Arar to Syria, a country known to have aggressive techniques for interrogating suspects.
  • There is no evidence that Arar committed any offence, nor is there anything to suggest he is a threat to Canadian security.
  • Canadian agencies wrongly accepted information from Syrian sources about Arar after his detention, without determining whether it might have been extracted using torture.
  • In order to protect themselves and portray Arar in an unflattering light, Canadian officials leaked inaccurate details about Arar to news media.
  • Officials from the RCMP gave a sanitized summary of the Arar case to top government officials in order to cover up RCMP mistake.

What we do know is that after 9/11 the State Security Bills passed by the Liberal government went too far in giving a free hand to the State and its police, the RCMP, and its secret service, CSIS, to spy, harass, arrest and create secret files on Canadian citizens. Reports they shared with the CIA and other American agencies. Reports they lied about and covered up. And their sources of information were tainted since they came from the Secret Police operating in a country that is a dictatroship, Syria.

Meaning that there is NO real oversight of those who have been given the power of life and death over us in the name of security. Heads should role over this, including bueracrats in the government, the Head of CSIS and the RCMP, members of the Department of Foreign Affairs who failed to act on Arar's behalf.

The key players in the Arar affair

There needs to be an emergency debate in the house to get rid of the existing security act that allows for racial profiling.

The Americans refuse to accept any responsibility for their actions in this despicable affair. But in light of the expose of the secret CIA jails and use of torture and rendition, this should add fuel to the debate south of the border.

Never forget it was the Liberal Government with the collusion of the Conservatives who did this. And if Ignatieff gets in as leader of the Liberals this will remain their policy.

See:

Arar


Liberal Leadership Race


CIA



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Wednesday, December 06, 2006

Falling On His Sword


Mounties' top cop resigns Not enough. He has fallen on his sword for his political masters and for his officers.

In Letters: The Zaccardelli resignation

What a difference 24 hours makes in Canadian politics.

Embattled RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli said today that he got his facts wrong about the Maher Arar affair when he testified at a Commons committee in September but he steadfastly refuses to resign over the matter.

Zaccardelli was back before the public safety committee to “set the record straight,” as he put it, about what he knew and when he knew it in Arar’s deportation to Syria as a suspected al-Qaida agent.

But his performance left opposition MPs howling for his resignation, and even some Conservative members expressed disbelief at his new version of events.

OTTAWA - When the Prime Minister unleashes his lapdogs to join a parliamentary pack attack, someone is about to die.

Conservative MPs treated RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli with kid gloves when he appeared before a parliamentary committee two months ago to explain his involvement in the Maher Arar affair.

They dropped the gloves and savaged him yesterday during his second appearance, when he admitted to misleading MPs due to a severely flawed memory.

It was an all-party Zach attack, and when Stephen Harper stood in the Commons a few hours later, urging patience for "due process" before anyone gets fired, well, all that's left to discuss are the terms of severance.


Notice that this has relieved the Tories of demanding he discipline and reprimand the officers who violated the law, those who subesquently he rewarded with promotions rather than sackings. And incompetence is no excuse.

Former RCMP complaints commissioner calls Zaccardelli "incompetent"

There are heads to roll but they won't since the New Law and Order Government loves its Secret Police State. No matter it is illegal and incompetent.

Canadian police said Tuesday they had told U.S. authorities they had no evidence an Ottawa software engineer was an Al Qaeda agent before Washington deported him to Syria , where he was tortured.

Yesterday, Zaccardelli, 58, said he didn't know the RCMP had given false information to U.S. authorities until the report came out in September. He had said in earlier testimony that he learned about the errors in 2002 and had briefed the appropriate ministers.

The U.S. accused Arar of links to the al-Qaeda terrorist network when authorities detained him at John F. Kennedy International Airport during a stopover on his way back to Canada from Tunisia. The investigation was ordered by former Justice Minister Anne McLellan in January 2004.


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Wednesday, September 20, 2006

Graham Should Step Down

He should be forced to apologize in the house and Parliament should censor him demanding he step down as leader of the opposition for his role in the Arar Affair. Parliamentary condemnation should be applied to all sitting Liberals involved in this sorid affair. Wayne Easterly is another MP that should be forced to apologize. And their parliamentary privileges should be revoked so the Arar family can sue them.

Remember this....

Documents released by the Arar Commission suggest former foreign affairs minister Bill Graham asked for Washington's help in staving off a public inquiry into the case.

In a memo marked 'secret' the director of Canada's Foreign Affairs Intelligence Division writes that Graham spoke directly with former U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell about negotiating a protocol for handling future problematic security cases.

The memo says Graham pointed out to Powell that "agreeing to negotiate such a protocol would [provide] a way to deal with the pressure for a public inquiry in Canada and to turn the page of this issue."

The government did call an inquiry shortly after, but only after a politically embarrassing raid by the RCMP on the home and office of a journalist who had been investigating Arar's case.


Remember the raid... Court orders sealing the detailed reasons for national security raids against the Ottawa Citizen and reporter Juliet O'Neill violated the constitutional guarantees of a free press, freedom of expression and the public's right to an open court system, a judge ruled yesterday.

Ontario Superior Court Judge Lynn Ratushny said an Ottawa justice of the peace was wrong when he hastily agreed to an RCMP request to keep secret the reasons for Jan. 21, 2004, police raids on Ms. O'Neill's Ottawa home and the Citizen's downtown office to execute search warrants under the Security of Information Act.

March 9:2004

Ottawa police chief Vince Bevan admits involvement in investigating Maher Arar before he was deported to Syria.


And he is another guy that should be fired along with the Commisioner of the RCMP, the RCMP involved in the above raid and the Arar case, as well as CSIS Director General and agents involved as well as those from Foreign Affairs under Graham.

While the RCMP is likely to suffer the most devastating criticism, the report is expected to highlight the conduct of Foreign Affairs officials who testified they were unaware Arar was being tortured while in Syrian custody. Among those who addressed the inquiry was Canada's former ambassador to Syria, Franco Pillarella.

And lets not forget that none of the current Conservative Government members have clean hands in this affair. As Opposition members they pressed the government to treat Arar as a criminal terrorist.

However, Mr. Harper, who has been in office since January, previously led a party known as the Canadian Alliance, which had called Mr. Arar a dangerous terrorist and attacked efforts by the earlier Liberal government to secure his release.



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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.


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Saturday, February 10, 2007

More Foreign Affairs Incompetency


We need a serious shake up in the Foreign Affairs department. This is not the first time this has happened.

"
Canadian diplomats failed to contact the Chinese family of Huseyin Celil for more than 10 months after the Canadian citizen was arrested,"

So while the Harpocrites saber rattle and endanger our trading relationship with China they should get their ducks in a row before beaking off.

Foreign Affairs failed to protect Maher Arar, instead acting as a conduit for CSIS.


They failed Canadian businessman William Sampson when he was arrested and tried in secret in Saudi Arabia.

The BC Civil Liberties Association has proposed a bill that would force Foreign Affairs and other Canadian government agencies to protect Canadians abroad from torture.

It is not just a case of sloppiness or bureaucratic failure it is explicit policy, based on Canada's Security Laws. All of these cases, except Sampson (but he was judged guilty of a crime, by the Suadi's, thus reluctance on the part of FA to do anything) were because the Canadians were considered terrorists by Canada's allies.

Iacobucci's remit is to examine the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nurredin. All are Canadian citizens born abroad. All have been under investigation by the RCMP, the Canadian Security Intelligence Service or both. All ended up being jailed and tortured in Syria and (in the case of El Maati) Egypt.



As such it fits in with a longstanding cold war security regime that exists in Ottawa amongst Foreign Affairs and Intelligence services.

Britain, the US and Canada had begun talking about psychological warfare together at least as early as June 1951, when Sir Henry Tizard, the Ministry of Defence's senior scientist, met Canadian scientists and Cyril Haskins, the senior CIA researcher, in Montreal. Among the Canadians was Donald Hebb of McGill University, who was looking for funds to research "sensory deprivation" - blocking out sight, sound and touch to affect people's personality and sense of identity. Early photographs show volunteers, goggled and muffled, looking eerily similar to prisoners arriving at Guantánamo.


And while there are commentators asking why Arar did not sue his captors it is important to remember that Sampson was unable to sue Saudi Arabia as Arar was denied the right to sue Syria.

In the area of justice and oversight Canada is also failing to meet recommendations set out by the UN human rights committees. Canada must change the State Immunity Act to allow individuals to seek redress in Canadian Courts for torture and other serious human rights violations suffered abroad, says Amnesty International Canada.

Canadians cannot seek redress for torture in other countries and rejected refugees who may face the danger of torture, as the Committee against Torture has noted, are being denied a judicial review on the merits of their cases. The Committee has called for this type of review. Canada must meet this recommendation, says Amnesty International Canada, and live up to the requirement of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act and establish the refugee appeal process.

After all like it or not Huseyin Celil is considered a 'terrorist' by the Chinese. And the Harper government has been quick off the mark to use that label in questionable circumstances too, like they did when in opposition alluding to Maher Arar, being a terrorist.

The Harpocrites are very selective in whom they label terrorists, for instance Jason Kenney spoke on behalf of the PM at an event held by an Iranian terrorist organization.

And let's not forget that the Harpocrites major reason for challenging China over 'human rights' is their close relationship with and support for the fascist cult the Falun Gong.

And when they banned the Tamil Tigers as a terrorist organization it had less to do with Sri Lanka and more to do with cutting off Liberal Party support in the Tamil community in Canada.


And recent actions by the Sri Lanken government of breaking the peace agreement and using child soldiers means that instead of being an honest broker the Canadian government choose sides like they did with Israel. And the side they choose is guilty of state terrorism.

The fact that the Karuna faction has abducted so many children in Government-controlled areas in the eastern districts of Sri Lanka raises the question why the Government has not more effectively protected those children, investigated the complaints made by the children’s families, and secured the release and return of the children from the Karuna faction camps that are located in areas under Government control.

Based on the facts and circumstances set out in this report, I have concluded that certain elements of the Sri Lankan security forces are complicit in the abduction of children by the Karuna faction, and that at least some elements of the security forces have facilitated and sometimes participated in those abductions.

Ambassador Allan Rock, Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict,
Terrorism is a broad brush pejorative for labeling the supposed 'enemies of the state', whereas others would call most of these organizations National Liberation Movements and the difference is crucial.

Whether the Tamils in Sri Lanka, the Kurds, or the Palestinians in the territories occupied by Israel, the Canadian government is targeting as terrorists people who are, in fact "victimized refugee groups involved in an armed conflict in terms of their self-determination rights", she asserts.


But it has been deliberately obscured by the American Empire and quickly adopted by other states to justify their repression of National Liberation Movements and oppositional groups, including those engaged in armed struggle.

Once you use the ideology of the War on Terror, you throw out your right to defend your citizens accused of being terrorists. This is the catch 22 Harper finds himself in over the Celil case.

Foreign Affairs deals with state to state relations, and the Chinese State has declared Celil a terrorist. Thus Foreign Affairs deems him a security threat, just as they did with Arar.

And they do so because of what Harper prides himself on most, being the Law and Order PM. Foreign Affairs is just carrying out their operations under the existing security laws. Laws which must be changed in the interests of all Canadians, here or abroad.



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CIA

RCMP

Arar

Foreign Affairs


Terrorism

China


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Friday, January 26, 2007

Harper Cops Out

Despite the cash settlement and the official apology from the New Government of Canada, it wasn't our fault it was that other government, what Harper would not do is clean house in the RCMP and CSIS of those who are directly responsible for what happened to Arar.

And to those who leaked information slandering him to the press. Or to those who have been found guilty of illegal actions in their arrest and detention of Ottawa Citizen Journalist
Juliet O'Neille under the Official Secrets Act.

Nope Harper will have none of it. That's all water under the bridge he told reporters. I think not.

"New Democrats take comfort in today's settlement announcement. We hope that, at least in Canada, Maher Arar and his family may be able to move on with their lives," said Comartin. "However, we will remain vigilant to ensure that the federal government implements all the recommendations contained in Justice Dennis O'Connor's report."

"Canadians know that the true test of whether this government has learned anything from Mr. Arar's ordeal is how the Harper government handles the cases of Canadian citizens Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who suffered in a way similar to Mr. Arar," stated Comartin.



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Paranoia and the Security State

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Monday, December 18, 2006

Paranoia and the Security State


So why did the Arar affair happen?

Because the State is paranoid, and the most paranoid of the State's apparatchicks are the police, especially the 'secret police', or official 'state police'. Those who protect secrets and weed out secret conspiracies opposed to the the state.

IDENTIFYING THE TRAITOR AMONG US: THE RHETORIC OF ESPIONAGE


The Paranoid Style, indeed, lends itself to a worldview that has more in common with tragedy than comedy. Belief in conspiracy requires an interpretation of events as sinister and significant, and the vigilance needed to avoid being manipulated demands a constant looking beneath the surface and assumption of dishonesty on the part of others. As with Classical tragedy, in which the will of the gods was the unpredictable and inevitable mover of events, in the modern Paranoid Style the machinations of government (or the secret powers behind the state bureaucracy) are unpredictable (because individuals cannot understand that which is carefully hidden) and inevitable, with layers upon layers of secrecy and manipulation entrapping the individual (even the individual spy working in service of the government). This layering makes possible the twists and turns of plot line in a typical spy novel. This layering also creates a relationship between man and state that is alienating and disempowering. Man’s quests for freedom, rationality, and justice are hubris, doomed to disappointment and a tragic ending, according to the shared logic of the Paranoid Style and the generic spy novel.

In point of fact, however, the post-Cold War spy story seems to be more an example of comedy than of tragedy. This was perhaps predictable. Writing in 1988, Ed Black noted that “The disclosure of secret agents and agencies is not terminal; it concludes nothing beyond itself. It is ad hoc, a transient skirmish in a prolonged conflict; it functions merely to confirm the ideological position that generated it. Such a disclosure is, in sum, not purgative. It leaves the fundamental affliction in place and extirpates only one of its local manifestations.” (p. 60 in Rhetorical Questions) The crucial key to understanding tragedy is the moment of catharsis, which alone can signify the necessary closure. In espionage, there is no moment at which everything becomes clear and all the secrets are revealed. For the paranoid, there is always the suspicion that where there was one double-agent, there might be more who are better hidden.

For the individual onlookers, there is always the suspicion that what the state bureaucracy (CIA, FBI, or KGB, it doesn’t matter) is not revealing is greater than what is revealed by the limited disclosure of the spy case, and that context might very well alter our understanding of the case at hand.

Such was the case with the Liberals who after 9/11 joined other States around the world implementing anti-democratic, authoritarian, Bonapartist security legislation that stripped 'some' Canadians of their rights.

Yep we have heard this before its called the War Measures Act used to intern foreign aliens like Ukrainians in WWI and then 'foreign nationals' the Japanese Canadians in WWII. Of course then there was the 'apprehended insurrection' declared by PET over the FLQ Crisis in Quebec and that was the last time the WMA was used. However it resulted in the RCMP become an internal spy and agent provcatour against the percieved Enemies of the State; the left, unions, the anti-war movement, the PQ etc.


RCMP Spied on Tommy Douglas For Three Decades

It is the criminalization of dissent, of democracy. And the Canadian state and its private army of the right, the RCMP have along history of anti-democratic paranoid politics.


Scandal ensued which exposed the RCMP as engaging in illegal activities, burning barns, illegal wiretapping, agent provacatuers planted in movements, etc.
The result was the Macdonald Commission identified the problem with Canada's Military State Police when they were exposed for spying and dirty tricks on Canadians back through the sixties and seventies. Its recommendation was to sever espionage/spying/intelligence from the RCMP. Thus was CSIS created.
But the RCMP remained the same para-military secret police force it always had been.

Quote: The need for this civilian review is beyond debate. Endquote.

It would seem so. In 1981, the MacDonald Commission, echoing the conclusions of the earlier Marin Commission, concluded that an independent civilian review mechanism for the RCMP was necessary to ensure proper accountability.

It took a while - five separate bills were tabled in the House of Commons - but in 1986 Parliament confirmed the need for civilian review of RCMP conduct was beyond debate.

It's now 17 years later and, quite frankly, I shouldn't have to be addressing the need for effective civilian review of RCMP conduct and, more particularly, civilian review of the national security activities of the RCMP.



However come 9/11 and the Democratic Governments of the World use it as an excuse to bring in draconian anti-libertarian laws against their citizens. All were potential enemies of the State but none more so than those who are Muslim or from the Middle East, who have swarthy looks, funny last names. It's called profiling and it was done on Arar and others by the RCMP.

The Liberals again unleashed their personal police force, to do their dirty work. Given carte blanche the RCMP did the internal spy search while CSIS coordinated international connections. And in between these two came a dangerous disconnect, one that ended up with Maher Arar being sent to Syria to be torutured by the Syrians on behalf of Homeland Security and CSIS.

Given their past practice I believeCSIS was looking for usable double agents, agent provacatuers, its usual modus operandi. When embarassed through internal misinformation and not being able to turn Arar or use him they abandoned him to be dealt with by the US Homeland Security and the CIA.

Once again the RCMP have engaged in domestic spying and espionage in the name of the Liberal Government of the day.








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Wednesday, January 24, 2007

STFU

I guess the Harpocrite honeymoon with the White House is officially over.

American Ambassador David Wilkins is slamming Canada's efforts to have Maher Arar removed from a U.S. security watch list.

Mr. Wilkins says it's “a little presumptuous” for Mr. Day to say “who the United States can and cannot allow into” their country.


Memo to US Amabasador David Wilkins;

When a suit is before the courts and it involves the government which you represent one normally says;

" I am sorry I cannot comment, this matter is before the courts."

Please take note and STFU.



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Sunday, October 29, 2006

Zaccardelli Gets The Boot?

Will the Conservatives turf RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardali, looks like they are planning to. Not over his mishandling of the Arar Affair, oh no the Harpocrites love the idea of the Security State. Nope they are dragging up an old sexual abuse case to use as an excuse to turf him. That of course is far more heinious a crime for the Tories than rendition, torture and falsifying information about Maher Arar.

RCMP whistleblowers get Day's protection

Goldring said the officers have information on a case dating back to the 1990s that the RCMP did not adequately investigate alleged sexual abuse by an ex-Mountie at a school in New Brunswick. RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli was in charge of that criminal division at the time.

MP flags concerns over Zaccardelli

See:

RCMP

Arar



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Friday, October 20, 2006

RCMP Terror

State terrorism by the State Police; RCMP, was justified under the Canadian Security Act and under the Official Secrets Act. Both of which have now been challenged as unconsitutional.

Secrecy law quashed, RCMP admonished
An Ontario judge struck down a federal official secrets law yesterday, saying that the RCMP tried to use it to intimidate an Ottawa journalist into revealing who had leaked her material in the Maher Arar affair.

All these violations occured under the Liberals but the opposition Conservatives under Harper, Kenney, Day etc. demanded even more draconian actions at the time.

Now they are the government they have white washed the criticisms of the RCMP and CSIS and have done nothing about the reccomendations of the O'Conner report on the Arar case. Now this. Will they appeal, probably they are the government now.

No wonder they hate the courts, judges and our civil rights. They are after all the self described party of Law and Order, which means they are anti-libertarian statists.


See:

Arar

RCMP


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