Is it still debatable that we outsource torture? No sarcasm, I just want to know. It doesn't seem like anyone's disputing it anymore, yet I would hope people would be a little more upset about it.

This reminded me of it:

Quote :

" Canada compensates man U.S. deported to Syria POSTED: 3:50 p.m. EST, January 26, 2007 OTTAWA, Canada (AP) -- Canada's prime minister apologized to Maher Arar on Friday and announced the government would compensate him C$10.5 million (US$8.9 million) for its role in his deportation from the U.S. to Syria, where he was tortured while held in prison for nearly a year. Prime Minister Stephen Harper again called on the U.S. government to remove the Ottawa telecoms engineer from any of its no-fly or terrorist watchlists and reiterated that Ottawa would keep pressing Washington to clear Arar's name. "We think the evidence is absolutely clear and that the United States should in good faith remove Mr. Arar from the list," Harper told a news conference in Ottawa. "We don't intend to either change or drop our position." The U.S. government has repeatedly insisted it has reasons to leave the 37-year-old on its watchlists. The issue has grown into an unpleasant diplomatic row between the world's largest trading partners and closest allies. The Syrian-born Arar, who moved to Canada with his family when he was 17, is the best-known case of rendition, a practice in which the U.S. government sends foreign terror suspects to third countries for interrogation. Arar thanked the Canadian government at a news conference Friday. "The struggle to clear my name has been long and hard; my kids have suffered silently and I feel that I owe them a lot," said Arar, who also thanked Canadians for standing by him. "Without the support of the Canadian people, I may never have come home and I would not have been able to stay strong and push for the truth," he said."

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/01/26/canada.apology.ap/index.html

There's more in the article. Apparently Canada's pissed at us for this.

1/26/2007 5:10:40 PM

the ACLU at UNCA is having a forum on this issue

it certainly is frightening to me

1/26/2007 5:12:23 PM

Why would you be frightened? You weren't born in Syria, were you?

1/26/2007 5:19:58 PM

oh I guess I've got nothing to be worried about

good thing we live in a world with no empathy (or sympathy, for that matter)

1/26/2007 5:21:57 PM

Welcome to America. Land of the shut up and eat it.

1/26/2007 6:34:25 PM

it used to be land of the listen to me or I'll raid your ship and fuck up your inventory

don't tread on me

1/26/2007 6:36:21 PM

he is a turrist, because bush said so.

he should be sent to gunatanamo and humanely tortured treated.

i.e., locked up for 3 years without a trial.

1/28/2007 5:04:33 AM

bump by request

5/14/2009 9:18:09 AM

so I am guessing Canadia is going to tax the guy 48% or so, right?

5/14/2009 9:22:58 AM

wat?

5/14/2009 7:24:10 PM

Didn't the recent torture memos confirm that we "outsource" torture?

Part of the legal justification the CIAs lawyers used was the torture was only illegal on US soil. So they just shipped people over to non US soil for anything they thought could be questionable.

5/14/2009 7:52:08 PM

^ there is a special place in hell reserved for people who rationalize like that. i wonder how they sleep at night. and how they can look into their kids' eyes. sick sick fucks. just as sick as the people they are fighting.

5/14/2009 8:39:19 PM

The Trouble With Eric Holder

Quote :

"Quick! Name the veteran Department of Justice insider who, shortly after the USA Patriot Act was signed into law and at a point when the Bush administration was proposing to further erode barriers to governmental abuses, argued that dissenters should not be tolerated? Who invoked September 11, explicitly referencing 'the World Trade Center aflame,' in calling for the firing of any 'petty bureaucrat' who might suggest that proper procedures be followed and that the separation of powers be respected? John Ashcroft? No. Alberto Gonzales? No. It was Eric Holder, the man who has reportedly been selected by President-elect Barack Obama to serve as the next Attorney General of the United States. Appearing on CNN in June, 2002, the former Clinton administration Justice Department aide sounded as if he had just stepped out of the Bush camp: 'We're dealing with a different world now. Everybody should remember those pictures that we saw on September the 11th. The World Trade Centers aflame, the pictures of the Pentagon, and any time some petty bureaucrat decides that his or her little piece of turf is being invaded, get rid of that person. Those are the kinds of things we have to do.' If that's unsettling, consider the fact that Holder was part of the legal team that in 2005 developed strategies for securing re-authorization of the Patriot Act."

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/state_of_change/384564/the_trouble_with_eric_holder

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGVEEpd-mLM

Renditions May Expand Under Obama's Watch

http://news.antiwar.com/2009/02/01/renditions-may-expand-under-obamas-watch/

Obama Administration Maintains Bush Position on 'Extraordinary Rendition' Lawsuit

Quote :

"UPDATE #2: The ACLU says the Obama administration reneged on civil liberties, offers 'more of the same.' Anthony D. Romero, Executive Director of the ACLU said of the decision: 'Eric Holder's Justice Department stood up in court today and said that it would continue the Bush policy of invoking state secrets to hide the reprehensible history of torture, rendition and the most grievous human rights violations committed by the American government. This is not change. This is definitely more of the same. Candidate Obama ran on a platform that would reform the abuse of state secrets, but President Obama's Justice Department has disappointingly reneged on that important civil liberties issue. If this is a harbinger of things to come, it will be a long and arduous road to give us back an America we can be proud of again.' Ben Wizner, a staff attorney with the ACLU, who argued the case for the plaintiffs said, 'We are shocked and deeply disappointed that the Justice Department has chosen to continue the Bush administration's practice of dodging judicial scrutiny of extraordinary rendition and torture. This was an opportunity for the new administration to act on its condemnation of torture and rendition, but instead it has chosen to stay the course. Now we must hope that the court will assert its independence by rejecting the government's false claims of state secrets and allowing the victims of torture and rendition their day in court.'"

http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/02/obama-administr.html

5/15/2009 8:11:33 PM

hey look hooksaw now cares about things he didn't care about six months ago. what a surprise.

5/15/2009 8:56:51 PM

clearly hooksaw is a more relevant topic to discuss than the fact that obama is continuing more of bush's policies

sarijoul, where is the outrage that you had for this topic 6 months ago?

and not literally this message topic, but when the former administration was up to the same hijinks?

[Edited on May 15, 2009 at 9:30 PM. Reason : ,]

5/15/2009 9:28:27 PM

^ LOL!

5/15/2009 10:24:29 PM

oh you got me good. since i don't express outrage on tww about something every day i must feel a certain way. i must be an apologist for obama on all topics. ugh. this is why i try to not talk about specific posters. i apologize i'll try to talk about the issues at hand instead: i didn't like rendition then and i don't like it now. this practice certainly didn't start with bush and it probably won't end with obama.

one reasonable and fairly big step forward would be to stop the torture on our own bases around the world. many experts in the intelligence community have claimed that it doesn't work. but even beyond that, when these facts of our torturing get out as they always do, it harms our reputation around the world and spreads a sense around our own country that the rule of law doesn't apply to the government. this is not to mention just the simple human decency of not having government sponsored torture. we as a country should be long past that.

[Edited on May 16, 2009 at 10:45 AM. Reason : .]

5/16/2009 10:42:48 AM

Quote :

"hey look hooksawrepublicans now cares about things hethey didn't care about six months ago. what a surprise. "

it's also funny how it's bad to lie about torture when you're Nancy Pelosi, but not the president or the VP.

5/16/2009 10:58:42 AM

do yall blame the mailman when you get some bad news in the mail

5/16/2009 11:58:15 AM

So Obama is just another Bush, as far as such issues go, huh? That's just sick.

5/16/2009 8:09:03 PM

bump by request

9/9/2010 8:35:30 AM

Court Dismisses a Case Asserting Torture by C.I.A.
September 8, 2010

Quote :

"WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Wednesday ruled that former prisoners of the C.I.A. could not sue over their alleged torture in overseas prisons because such a lawsuit might expose secret government information."

Quote :

"While the alleged abuses occurred during the Bush administration, the ruling added a chapter to the Obama administration's aggressive national security policies. Its counterterrorism programs have in some ways departed from the expectations of change fostered by President Obama's campaign rhetoric, which was often sharply critical of former President George W. Bush's approach. Among other policies, the Obama national security team has also authorized the C.I.A. to try to kill a United States citizen suspected of terrorism ties, blocked efforts by detainees in Afghanistan to bring habeas corpus lawsuits challenging the basis for their imprisonment without trial, and continued the C.I.A.'s so-called extraordinary rendition program of prisoner transfers — though the administration has forbidden torture and says it seeks assurances [LOL!] from other countries that detainees will not be mistreated."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/us/09secrets.html

High-five for the. . .

Quote :

"RULE OF LAW"

. . .right? NO?!

9/9/2010 5:58:02 PM

Quote :

"So Obama is just another Bush, as far as such issues go, huh? That's just sick. 5/16/2009 8:09:03 PM"

9/9/2010 8:09:11 PM

Quote :

"RULE OF LAW"

9/9/2010 8:17:55 PM

Anybody seen the movie 'Rendition'?

Just saw it yesterday... stars Reese Witherspoon as the pregnant wife of the Arab who is renditioned to Egypt and is being tortured there while she has no clue where he is. Meryl Streep is the woman who authorizes the renditions. And Jake Gylenhaal is the CIA agent sent to Egypt to oversee the torture of the Reese's husband... it is his first torture overseeing and he is disturbed by it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rendition_(film)

Quote :

"It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri who was mistaken for Khalid al-Masri."

God damn the people who authorized his rendition and torture, and those who actually carried out the rendition and torture.

9/25/2010 10:34:48 AM