danarhea

I have a problem with Congress making this apology - Shouldn't President Bush be the one apologizing? But, on the other hand, since Congress DID roll over and play dead, thus allowing the administration to be put in a position where they could arrest anyone they felt like arresting, then I think the apology by Congress is appropriate.

Article is here.

__________________
Jack Kevorkian for President's Physician: 2012

http://danarhea.blogspot.com

GottaHurt

Hmmm, Syria tortured him, not us, and why is he still on our terrorist watchlist
and not allowed back into the US?

__________________
Pain can be such a beautiful thing

Trajan Octavian Titus

Maybe now he'll know not to associate with members of AQ.

Adrian

Okay, I thought somebody else would have picked up on this by now, but where in the article does it say that Arar associated with members of Al Qaeda?

Simon W. Moon

Well, obviously he did other wise we wouldn't have sent off to the out-sourced tortured chambers now would we?

__________________
"The barbarous custom of having men beaten who are suspected of having important secrets to reveal must be abolished. It has always been recognized that this way of interrogating men, by putting them to torture, produces nothing worthwhile."
- Napoleon Bonaparte to Berthier 11 Nov 1798 Napoleon on the Art of War

1069

The statement in bold text is telling:

"Members of a Congressional committee have issued an apology to Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen who was wrongly detained at JFK Airport in 2002 as a suspected terrorist and subjected to extraordinary rendition to Syria, where he was tortured into making a false confession."

Does infliction of bodily harm or the threat thereof make people truthful, or merely compliant?
Will they tell the truth, or merely say whatever they believe their assailants want to hear?

All studies on the efficacy of torture point to the latter.

I do recall hearing an interview with this gentleman awhile back; he mentioned that his assailants also threatened to bring his wife and children (a ten-year-old and an infant, I believe) over from Canada and torture or possibly kill them, as well, if Mr. Arar did not "confess" to what they wanted to hear.

Under the circumstances, there is not a one of us here who would not cheerfully confess to being al qaeda operatives, singlehandedly plotting the world trade center attack, and dropping by Bin Laden's cave for a friendly game of Tiddlywinks on a regular basis.

26 X World Champs

Not surprised in the least that you're making up bull**** to defend torture. IT fits who I think you are.

Syria tortured him at our request. He's still on the watchlist because the as$holes known as Bushies never take anyone off that list once their added even if they're found to be totally innocent.

I love it when people prove how much they really hate America like you do Gottahurt by supporting torture which, IMHO is as un-American as Communism. It's as bad as Communism. It's equal to Saddam Hussein's thinking. In my mind anyone that is OK with America torturing anyone for any reason is a supporter of Saddam, Stalin, Amin, etc. and are most definitely America haters.

Trajan Octavian Titus

It doesn't because Raw Story is a ****ing joke of a source, but here in the reality based community facts matter, and the facts of this matter is that Maher Arar met with Abdullah Almalki, who in turn was an associate of Ahmed Said Khadr who was running a charitable front for AQ and both Almalki and Khadr were under investigation for these AQ connections, sorry but if you're Arab in a post-9-11 world I suggest that you keep better company, I have no empathy for this man what so ever, this is how AQ operates it is nothing more than loosely connected individuals who share radical ideologies, if Arar is associating with Almalki who is associating with Khadr you can better your bottom ****ing dollar that he's a member of the death cult of Wahhab and a piece of Qutbist scum!

independent_thinker2002

Good one! Since we outsourced the torture, it's not our fault. Maybe he is still on the list and not allowed back in the country so he can't sue our government.

__________________
☠☠☠☠☠

I am a Tiki Bar Tarte, you wanna mount Le Penseur Bronze

1069

In this interview I heard with Mr Arar, he was also demanding that the United States conduct a full investigation of him, his background, and how this mistake occurred, because he wanted the opportunity to clear his name and his family's name. His wife and children are apparently being mistreated by others in the community who still do not believe he was innocent and that it was a mistake.
He did not ask for an apology.
He asked for an investigation.