[« Thought for the Day:] [Probably sexist, but too funny not to post. »]
02/28/2005: Master of Horror
It's called Torture by Bob Herbert (NY Times) is as chilling a tale as anything dreamed up by those Masters of Horror...Philip K. Dick, Stephen King, Clive Barker or Stephen J. Cannell. It's a true tale designed by a real Horror Master: George W. Bush:"...Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen with a wife and two young children, had his life flipped upside down in the fall of 2002 when John Ashcroft's Justice Department, acting at least in part on bad information supplied by the Canadian government, decided it would be a good idea to abduct Mr. Arar and ship him off to Syria, an outlaw nation that the Justice Department honchos well knew was addicted to torture.Mr. Arar was not charged with anything, and yet he was deprived not only of his liberty, but of all legal and human rights. He was handed over in shackles to the Syrian government and, to no one's surprise, promptly brutalized. A year later he emerged, and still no charges were lodged against him. His torturers said they were unable to elicit any link between Mr. Arar and terrorism. He was sent back to Canada to face the torment of a life in ruins.
Mr. Arar's is the case we know about. How many other individuals have disappeared at the hands of the Bush administration? How many have been sent, like the victims of a lynch mob, to overseas torture centers? How many people are being held in the C.I.A.'s highly secret offshore prisons? Who are they and how are they being treated? Have any been wrongly accused? If so, what recourse do they have?
President Bush spent much of last week lecturing other nations about freedom, democracy and the rule of law. It was a breathtaking display of chutzpah. He seemed to me like a judge who starves his children and then sits on the bench to hear child abuse cases. In Brussels Mr. Bush said he planned to remind Russian President Vladimir Putin that democracies are based on, among other things, "the rule of law and the respect for human rights and human dignity."
Someone should tell that to Maher Arar and his family.
Mr. Arar was the victim of an American policy that is known as extraordinary rendition. That's a euphemism. What it means is that the United States seizes individuals, presumably terror suspects, and sends them off without even a nod in the direction of due process to countries known to practice torture...."
So, do I think (in the back of my mind) about where our Government is taking our Country, perverting our most cherished ideals, freedoms and legal rights under the guise of "keeping us safe" ...you betcha' cause these are true stories of horror like no fiction I could dream up. (PS....Len... I'd keep that Law Degree...if I was you...never knowing when one may need things to protect oneself.)
Karen on 02.28.05 @ 06:39 AM CST
