Rice Admits U.S. Erred in Deportation

[mcpeepants]

Rice Admits U.S. Erred in Deportation

By REUTERS
Published: October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Reuters) — Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted Wednesday that the United States had mishandled the case of a Canadian who was deported to Syria and who has said he was tortured there, but she stopped short of an apology.
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François Lenoir/Reuters

Maher Arar was arrested in New York in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured and imprisoned.

Ms. Rice spoke in response to a lawmaker’s question about the man, Maher Arar, who was arrested during a stopover in New York in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he has said he was tortured and imprisoned for a year.

“We do not think that this case was handled as it should have been,” Ms. Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We do absolutely not wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured.”

The Canadian government has cleared Mr. Arar of any links to terrorist groups. It has apologized and paid him $10.9 million in compensation and legal fees.

“I am pleased that the U.S. administration has taken the encouraging step of acknowledging that my case was mishandled,” Mr. Arar said in a statement from Canada. The case has become a sore spot in relations between Canada and the United States, and Canada has asked the United States to remove Mr. Arar from its security watch list.

Mr. Arar, a software engineer who was born in Syria, is still prohibited from entering the United States, although a Canadian inquiry found that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had wrongly told United States border agents that he was suspected of being an extremist.

Last week Democratic and Republican lawmakers urged the Bush administration to apologize to Mr. Arar, who is married and has two children. Ms. Rice did not apologize in her comments on Wednesday.

[Tock]

I'll bet his opinion of the US gov't has been colored by his little adventure . . .

[Logan13]

Rice Admits U.S. Erred in Deportation

By REUTERS
Published: October 25, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 24 (Reuters) —
Maher Arar was arrested in New York in 2002 and deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured and imprisoned.

I thought that Syria was a bastion of human rights.......

[wantmoremass]

this is the subject of the movie 'rendition' that just came out a couple weeks ago. apparently it's largely based on arar's story. if he was shipped out based on incorrect rcmp intel, i'm not sure he should be completely pissed with the us government (although they did export him for torture and allegedly to extract information). whoever's fault it is, i'm gonna have to pay more taxes for his settlement :-(

[Prada]

I thought that Syria was a bastion of human rights.......

Where did you inform yourself?

[sphincter]

Where did you inform yourself?

I htink he got it from the school of sarcasm.. notice his smiley?

[***xxx***]

I thought that Syria was a bastion of human rights.......

yeah, and the cia torture prisons on syrian soil are the real bastion of human rights

[Logan13]

yeah, and the cia torture prisons on syrian soil are the real bastion of human rights

have you ever been in one?

[Prada]

I htink he got it from the school of sarcasm.. notice his smiley?

I understand that. Im not sure what is his point in regards to the mishandling. Perhaps trying to justify the mishandling by pointing out Syria's poor human rights record?

[mcpeepants]

I thought that Syria was a bastion of human rights.......

Bush and co are always criticizing Syria about human rights violations but will gladly use countries like Syria to torture people. Do you support this practice Logan

[Logan13]

Bush and co are always criticizing Syria about human rights violations but will gladly use countries like Syria to torture people. Do you support this practice Logan

sight specific evidence of this(not from some paranoid website), then define torture. Remember this, the US has not been hit with another terror attack since 9/11. Why do you think that is........?

[mcpeepants]

sight specific evidence of this(not from some paranoid website), then define torture. Remember this, the US has not been hit with another terror attack since 9/11. Why do you think that is........?

Your why do you think we haven't been attacked reminds me of the following Simpson's scene.

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a
charm.
Lisa: That's spacious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
[Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
[Lisa refuses at first, then takes the exchange]

[mcpeepants]

sight specific evidence of this(not from some paranoid website), then define torture. Remember this, the US has not been hit with another terror attack since 9/11. Why do you think that is........?

CIA director defends rendition program as "lawful"

by Mira Oberman Wed Oct 31, 4:07 AM ET

CHICAGO (AFP) - The director of the US Central Intelligence Agency on Tuesday defended the administration's rendition program, in which terrorism suspects are transported to secret prisons in countries with less stringent interrogation rules.

"Our programs are as lawful as they are valuable," said General Michael Hayden, as President George W. Bush's nominee for attorney general came under fire for his position on interrogation techniques.

"The irreplaceable nature of that intelligence is the sole reason why we have what I admit freely is a very controversial program," Hayden said in a speech to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs.

The CIA has generated thousands of intelligence reports from the "fewer than 100 hardened terrorists" detained since 2002, he said.

"These rendition, detention, and interrogation programs are small, carefully run operations," he said, adding that less than a third of the detainees "have required any special methods of questioning."

The administration has come under intense scrutiny for its interrogation program and Bush's refusal to rule out the use of "enhanced interrogation techniques" even as he insists that the US does not torture.

Attorney General nominee Michael Mukasey on Tuesday condemned one such technique, waterboarding, as "repugnant" and possibly "over the line," but declined to explicitly rule it out as torture, saying he could not speculate on classified procedures.

He did, however, pledge to investigate interrogation techniques in a letter responding to growing criticism from leading Democrats who have threatened to block his confirmation.

Hayden said clarifying interrogation methods was a top priority when he took the helm of the CIA in May 2006.

"It was my belief -- and the agency has acted going forward -- that what it was we would do to protect the Republic had to have sustainability," he said in response to questions from the audience.

"It had to be consistent with our broad values as a nation. And so it could not stand on a single pillar of a definition of lawfulness. It had to have both policy and political legs."

The agency had intense discussions with both Congress and the Justice Department to determine exactly where the legal lines were drawn, and there is an officer present at all times to make sure the interrogation does not cross the line, he said.

"When we conduct interrogations there are officers who are responsible solely for the physical and well being of the detainee and have the authority to stop what is going on."

But when asked directly whether or not waterboarding constituted torture, Hayden gave a muddled and confusing response in which he cited domestic and international law.

"Judge Mukasey cannot nor can I answer your question in the abstract," he said. "I need to understand the totality of the circumstances in which this question is being posed before I can even answer that."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071031...risonrendition

[thegodfather]

In the 1500s and 1600s, barbaric, uncivilized, inhumane methods were justified for various reasons. I dont care what reason you give me, the person is a witch, they are traitors, they are conspiring against the state, they are "terrorists."

I had really hoped that in 5,500 years of human history, the most powerful and alledgedly civilized nation in the world would be beyond doing such things. ANYONE, who advocates such methods should fly over to the Middle East and join their crew, they often like to justify doing inhumane things with the guise of "religion" or other twisted idealogies. The justification the US government is no different than committing acts of atrosity in the name of 'Allah'.

[BgMc31]

Your why do you think we haven't been attacked reminds me of the following Simpson's scene.

Homer: Not a bear in sight. The Bear Patrol must be working like a
charm.
Lisa: That's spacious reasoning, Dad.
Homer: Thank you, dear.
Lisa: By your logic I could claim that this rock keeps tigers away.
Homer: Oh, how does it work?
Lisa: It doesn't work.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: It's just a stupid rock.
Homer: Uh-huh.
Lisa: But I don't see any tigers around, do you?
[Homer thinks of this, then pulls out some money]
Homer: Lisa, I want to buy your rock.
[Lisa refuses at first, then takes the exchange]

That's hilarous! I luv it!!!