Three cheers for rendition..we know you're innocent but screw you anyway

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071024.warar1024/BNStory/National/home

This is the guy who was handed over to the Americans (based on shitty intelligence from the Mounties) but instead of being deported back to Canada, was sent off by the Yanks to Syria where he was tortured over a period of several months.

After finding that he was totally innocent of being a terrorist, the Canadian government made a formal apology and paid him $10 million in compensation.

Despite that, the guy can't go into the U.S.

Maher Arar remains barred from the United States even after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conceded Wednesday that errors were made in the handling of his case.

“We do not think this case was handled as it should have been,” Ms. Rice said in testimony to the House of Representatives foreign relations committee.

“Our communication with the Canadian government about this was by no means perfect. In fact, it was quite imperfect,” she said.

The U.S is refusing him entry despite the fact that the allegations that he particpated in a terrorist training camp were by Mohamed Kamal Elzahabi, a liar and a fraud.

But thanks anyway, Condi.

Nice to see the War on Terror is going well.

 

Is that $10 million Canadian?

 

Yup. But given the current exchange rate, that's about $9.9 million American.

 

I'd really like to say amazing, but it's status quo for this group

 

And if you want to read some serious journalism about this, here you go:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071019.Arar20/BNStory/International/home

Washington has never claimed that Mr. Arar had any links to a terrorist act or plot. Rather, under the low legal thresholds of terrorist watch lists, he has been branded a persona non grata.

U.S. government lawyers have stated that as a presumed alien enemy, Mr. Arar has no constitutional recourse — adding he is not entitled to have his case reassessed under a standard of “probable cause” nor even “reasonable suspicion.”

 

From the Washington Post:

According to former director of central intelligence George J. Tenet, about 70 renditions were carried out before Sept. 11, 2001, most of them during the Clinton years.

I'll patiently await your analysis of the guilt or innocence of all 70.

 

Of course most were before Fredo came into office, he'd only been in office 7.75 months when 9/11 happened.

 

Doesn't matter who was in office. It was wrong and shameful and makes the U.S. look exactly like the type of country we claim to fight against.

 

Frankly, I believe Jane Mayer more thanI believe George Tenet.

"Rendition was originally carried out on a limited basis, but after September 11th, when President Bush declared a global war on terrorism, the program expanded beyond recognition -- becoming, according to a former C.I.A. official, "an abomination." What began as a program aimed at a small, discrete set of suspects -- people against whom there were outstanding foreign arrest warrants -- came to include a wide and ill-defined population that the Administration terms "illegal enemy combatants."

The New Yorker

 

Evil incompetents in Washington.

 

Rome was supposed to last forever.
Rome fell.

 

The only question left now is when.
I wonder if it happens in my lifetime.