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02.13 Congress nearly eliminates funds for lead poisoning
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02.08 The seed emergency: The threat to food and democracy
02.07 Bill Gates backs climate scientists lobbying for large-scale geoengineering
02.04 Your Day at the Beach Could Soon Lead to a Night at the Hospital
02.03 Obama Won't Touch Climate With a 10-Foot Pole
02.03 Komen reverses decision to cut Planned Parenthood funding
02.03 Reforming EU Deep-Sea Fisheries Management
02.02 By defunding Planned Parenthood, the Susan G Komen Foundation betrays women
02.02 Ohio Tries to Escape Fate as a Dumping Ground for Fracking Fluid
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02.07 Did Obama make the economy worse? Not according to most statistics
02.02 ABC's Iran Propaganda
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02.13 News Corp may face US inquiry after Sun arrests at News International
02.13 Why Was No One Punished for America's "My Lai" in Iraq?
02.05 Why the AGs Must Not Settle: Robo-signing Is Just the Tip of the Iceberg
02.04 THE CAGING OF AMERICA
02.03 Senate Votes To Ban Its Members From Insider Trading... Kind Of
02.13 Bill Maher: Republicans Divide America - video
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02.12 Even Critics of Safety Net Increasingly Depend on It - Interactive Map: Where Americans Most Depend on Government Benefits
02.12 CPAC attendees more focused on the economy than their right-wing leaders - video
02.10 The Cancer in Occupy
02.10 How Opus Dei Influenced Rick Santorum
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02.09 EDITORIAL: A Terrible Transportation Bill
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02.06 Are Conservatives More Fearful Than Liberals?
02.04 Soaking the Poor, State by State
02.04 Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian's Rosy Outlook On The Future of Politics
02.03 SUPERBOWL XLVI: Are You Ready for Some Football???
02.03 Buffett rules: Sheldon Whitehouse introduces the Paying a Fair Share Act - video
02.02 Secrecy Shrouds ‘Super PAC’ Funds in Latest Filings
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02.10 This is no bailout for Main Street America
02.10 Why the Foreclosure Deal May Not Be So Hot After All
02.10 Matt Taibbi assesses the $26 billion settlement designed to aid victims of foreclosure fraud - video
02.10 Foreclosure Deal to Spur U.S. Home Seizures
02.09 S.E.C. Is Avoiding Tough Sanctions for Large Banks
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02.07 App Stores Create 500,000 U.S. Jobs
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02.07 Obama super PAC decision: President blesses fundraising for Priorities USA Action
02.06 How Privatizing Government Shovels Cash to Parasitic Corporations and Undermines Democracy
02.05 We’re More Unequal Than You Think – Graphic: Unequal rise in income
02.03 PRIVATE INEQUITY
02.02 The New American Divide
02.02 American Airlines proposes to end all four pension plans
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02.03 What the Occupy movement must learn from Sundance
02.02 US plans to halt Afghan combat role early surprise Kabul
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OPINION:
Outsourcing Torture
Can anyone with a sense of justice or humane bone in his body defend such a shameful policy?
Take the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen. Details of his case, compiled in a 1,200-page report by a Canadian commission that looked into the matter, were reported recently by the New York Times.
In 2002 the U.S. government detained Arar after receiving information from Canadian law enforcement that he had links to terrorists. But almost immediately afterward the Canadians told their American counterparts the information was wrong: no evidence tied Arar to al-Qaeda. The Canadian authorities offered to keep an eye on him when he returned to Canada, but the American officials were already arranging to send Arar to Syria, a country known to torture prisoners, on grounds that "Mr. Arar is a member of a foreign terrorist organization, to wit, Al Qaeda." Arar is a Syrian as well as a Canadian citizen. The Canadians did not learn that Arar had been sent to a Syrian prison until two weeks later.
"Mr. Arar spent 10 months in the custody of Syrian interrogators who beat him repeatedly with a heavy metal cable and held him in a dank cell scarcely larger than a coffin, according to the commission report. In October 2003, he was released and returned to his wife and children in Canada," the Times reported.
The Bush administration refused to cooperate with the Canadian commission. According to the Times, "A spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, Tasia Scolinos, said that she could not respond in detail to the commission's findings but that the United States government 'removed Mr. Arar in full compliance with the law and all applicable international treaties and conventions.' She also said the government 'sought assurances with respect to Mr. Arar's treatment' in Syria."
Arar, 37, is suing the U.S. government and demanding an account of it actions.
Let's step back. On the basis of no evidence whatsoever, the U.S. government secretly sent a young man to a country known for torturing prisoners. But have no fear: the government "sought assurances" about his treatment in Syria--what kind of assurances? This is the same Syria with whom the U.S. government refused to speak during the recent Israel-Lebanon war. Bush will outsource torture to Syrian President Bashar Assad, but that is the extent of the diplomatic relationship. This is all said to have been done according to law.
This is America under George W. Bush. It's not the America we learned about growing up. Something has gone badly wrong. When will we do something about it?
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This story was published on September 29, 2006.
