Torture Fails Again ("black eye for U.S." -- tortured detainee cleared)

[ProSense]

David Wallechinsky
09.19.2006

Torture Fails Again

Snip...

Yesterday a Canadian commission of inquiry released a 1,204-page report relating to the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian wireless technology consultant, who was snatched by U.S. agents at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York City and transported to Syria, where, for ten months, he was kept in a six-foot by three-foot cell, before being transferred to a collective cell. Under torture, he confessed to being an Islamist extremist who attended a terrorist training camp in Afghanistan. In reality, not only was Arar not an Islamist terrorist, but he had never even been to Afghanistan. He was ultimately released without charge and the Canadian commission affirmed that he was completely innocent.

more...

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-wallechinsky/torture-fails-again_b_29757.html

Markey: Torture of terror suspect ‘black eye’ for U.S.

By Tyler B. Reed/ MetroWest Daily News
Wednesday, September 20, 2006 - Updated: 01:00 AM EST

U.S. Rep. Edward Markey yesterday called a Canadian report clearing a former Framingham man of being a terrorist “a black eye for the United States.”

A Canadian judge on Monday ruled Maher Arar, 36, did not have any ties to the terrorist group al-Qaeda, and said Canadian authorities misled American officials into believing Arar was a security threat.

Arar was detained at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2002, deported to Syria under the federal government’s “extraordinary rendition” policy and tortured during interrogation at a Damascus prison.

Arar worked as a telecommunications engineer for MathWorks in Natick while he lived in Framingham. He has so far been unable to find a job in Canada, where he is a citizen.

“Extraordinary rendition is just the outsourcing of torture and this repugnant practice must be stopped,” Markey said.

Reached in Canada, Arar said he was too tired to talk yesterday.

http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=158355

[Wilber_Stool]

1. If this keeps up, we're going to need

more eyes.

[PaddyMac]

2. but torture may be legalized ...

if the Bush administration succeeds in convincing Congress to give it immunity from prosecution for abusive acts like sexual humiliation and induced hypothermia.

Here is an alert (from JustForeignPolicy.org) making it easy to write your senators to stop this legislation: http://www.justforeignpolicy.org/involved/warcrimes091906.html

[newyawker99]

7. Hi PaddyMac!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Jack Rabbit]

3. Will lurking Freepers please take note of the first paragraph in the OP

Now, lurking Freepers, repeat after me:

Torture is an effective interrogation technique. It is good for getting a subject to say what the interrogator wants to hear, but not necessarily what he needs to know.

Such was the case with Mr. Arar.

We should note that during the middle ages, a form of waterboarding was a good way to get suspected witches to confess. It shouldn't be too surprising that the Bush junta uses it as a way to get suspected terrorists to make false confessions.

[Jai4WKC08]

5. Many freepers believe

The people water-boarded during the middle ages really were witches.

I wish I were joking about that....

[QShok]

6. Just wondering.

This is a horrible thing that has happened and there should be justice for this wrong doing. However, the word "torture" has been thrown around alot lately.

Not counting death because that is murder, I'm just wondering what exactly is torture? Obviously injury or permanent physical damage by one's captors is torture (electrical shock, beatings, dismemberment, etc). I would hope that the threat or perception of being killed or seriously injured is torture (water boarding, etc).

Is making them uncomfortable like playing heavy metal music torture? Reward/punishment like providing or denying Happy Meals, is that torture? Is asking for name, rank, and number the limit on what we can ask of terrorists? Just wondering who defines tortre and what is that definition.

Shok

[newyawker99]

8. Hi QShok!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Jack Rabbit]

9. Hello QShok and welcome to DU

From the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1984), to which the US is a party:

For the purposes of this Convention, the term "torture" means any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. It does not include pain or suffering arising only from, inherent in or incidental to lawful sanctions.

[annabanana]

10. It is torture if you would not want it done to you.

The term is not "vague". It is deliberately fluid.

The human imagination is limitless. The human capacity to inflict outrage is infinite. To define the terms would be to erase the limits.

"It says here that we can't sew Cheerios under this guy's eyelids... It would be illegal and we could get in trouble"

"Yeah?... hmmm...Ok then, use Cocoa Puffs... Problem solved.

How can we consider ourselves a just and good nation if we allow torture?

[annabanana]

4. This will NOT be the lead item in tonights newscasts...

(to our eternal shame)

WE must make the noise. WE must make it impossible to ignore.

K&RRRRR