Muslim Man deported by U.S. was tortured in Syria

[RedSox02]

I wonder if Ashcroft is happy to see a man get his life ruined like this for BAMIA (being a Muslim in America). He came to Canada at age 17, and was a Canadian citizen when he was detained in New York City on travel and deported back to Syria, a country where he really had no connections.

So what did Syria do to him? A snippet.

Arar said Tuesday he was beaten with shredded cables and kept in a tiny, dark cell he called "a grave."

"At the end of each day, they would always say, 'Tomorrow will be harder for you,"' said the bearded Arar, 33, at an Ottawa news conference with his wife, lawyer and a human rights activist at his side.

He said he falsely confessed to going to Afghanistan because of the torture, and described the agony of listening to torture administered to other prisoners. "That was one of the worst parts of my imprisonment was just to hear all the people screaming," he said. "I remember my heart while I was hearing this just wanted to go out of my chest."



Again, this is a guy with no apparent links to terroists. He just happened to be a traveling muslim in a US airport. Just sick. Way to go Ashcroft.

http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2003/11/04/torture/index.html

[loudnclear]

1. Now you know where all those "confessions" are coming from

If we threaten your family we know we can get you to confess and make us look like were are really finding the terrorists responsible for 9/11.

[jackcgt]

2. You left out the part about how...

Canada is the one who provided the information AND placed him under surveillance. They believed he was a terrorist, told the US, and the US nabbed him at the airport. Sounds like this is more of a case between Canada and Syria, not the US and Syria. The US was a bit-player in this episode.

[Spazito]

3. Wrong!

Canada was not informed of the US's intent to send Arar to Syria.

"Canadian officials have said that before Arar was deported, Americans had consulted with the RCMP. But the Mounties have insisted they were not told U.S. plans involved sending Arar to a Syrian jail."

http://www.ctv.ca/servlet/ArticleNews/story/CTVNews/1067948182033_43///?hub=TopStories

[iverglas]

6. more bits

If you watched Arar's press conference, you heard his description of the other Canadian he encountered after he'd been in Syrian prisons for some time.

http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/almalki031105

Abdullah Almalki was arrested in May 2002 when he went to Damascus for a family visit. He has been held without charge in Syria. Almalki's family in Ottawa said they didn't know what happened to him until Maher Arar, describing his own year-long imprisonment in Syria on Tuesday, said he saw Almalki in jail.

Arar said Almalki described being beaten, stuffed into a rubber tire, and hung upside down – torture more severe than Arar suffered.

The Americans deported Arar to Syria, the country where he was born, saying there was evidence he had terrorist connections. U.S. officials detained Arar when he was changing planes in New York on his way back to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia.

Arar said U.S. officials apparently based the terrorism accusation on his connection to Almalki.

I guess I gotta go home and watch some teevee, 'cause I'm having a bit of a hard time sorting this out.

Of course, I'm still having a hard time getting my head around the idea of the US deporting a suspected terrorist ... to Syria. From the US pov, isn't that a bit of a case of coals to Newcastle ... or fuel for the fire? -- like, isn't that exactly what the US is not doing with the suspects it's holding in Guantanamo Bay??

More on Arar: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/arar031104

While we're on the Canadians-being-tortured in the Middle East news, there's still always Sampson, recently released from that Saudi prison:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/sampson031105

Following Maher Arar's disclosure that he was tortured in a Syrian prison, William Sampson is expected to tell a Commons hearing Thursday about his own beatings in a Saudi jail and Canada's lack of effort to protect him.

I do wonder how Middle Eastern "allies" get chosen; one potato two potato?

In terrorism news *in* Canada, the Air India trial goes on:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/malik_trial031104
(in depth story available there)

Accused bomber Ripudaman Singh Malik said more people would have died if there hadn't been numerous glitches in the plot to destroy two Air India planes. That's according to Malik's former confidante, who testified Tuesday at his trial.

Malik has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 329 people on board an Air India flight in 1985.

He has also been charged with conspiracy to murder and attempted murder of people on board another Air India flight at Japan's Narita Airport. Finally, he has been charged with the murders of two baggage handlers at that airport.

Hmm.

329 people are to Canada pretty much as ~3000 people are to the United States. (Canada has about 1/9 the population of the US, and the Air India bombing claimed about about 1/9 the number of victims killed in the WTC.) About the same percentage of the population killed in a single act of terrorism. ... Anybody remember it?


And what the heck -- any bets on the Saskatchewan election today?
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/sask031105

New Democratic Party Premier Lorne Calvert is battling it out with Saskatchewan Party Leader Elwin Hermanson. The NDP is trying to extend its 12-year reign.

"Reign"?

The Saskatchewan Party, we will recall, is a particularly virulent strain of Alliance/Reform fundamentalism/right-wingism.

Oh look: http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/bono_liberal031104

Paul Martin campaign organizers are hoping to elevate the upcoming leadership conference with a special guest – U2 superstar Bono.

Martin aides wouldn't comment on the mysterious ways they're using to lure Bono to the Toronto conference, which starts Nov. 12.

Maybe Bono could hold out for a resounding defeat of Paul Martin and election of Anybody But as Liberal leader while he's here ... oops, guess not. Bono apparently called Martin "cool" last year. I'm not familiar; is Bono known to have problems with substances that alter perceptions of reality?

.

[RedSox02]

4. I'd hate to be a Muslim now

I have heard a surge lately in the calls from some Conservatives to deport anyone in the US who is a Muslim non-citizen. This Black&White paint with a broad brush philosophy just sickens me. I just cannot udnerstand why it is so hard to believe that 99.99% of muslims in this country have no interest in blowing themselves up to kill people. My major in college was full of Muslim and Middle Eastern students. These were people looking to get a job and live the American dream. They weren't flight students with no itnerest in elarning how to take off or land a plane.

[DUreader]

5. You got a link to back that up?