What can be done to ensure that the victims of torture will not include any North Americans?

[Boojatta]

This thread was provoked by this:

Harper apologizes, offers $12.5M to Maher Arar..

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. Too late

I believe Jose Pedilla's lawyers are claiming that what was done during his confinement was torture and has led to his mental breakdown.

And I'm sure any American citizen or legal resident who was rounded up and held incommunicado would call that psychological abuse at the very least.

[Boojatta]

2. Okay, it's too late. I should have asked about future victims of torture.

I suppose there's nothing wrong with wanting none of them to be North American, but I was actually trying to be ironic and insinuate "who cares if people from outside North America are tortured."

Seriously, there does seem to be some kind of selective outrage if torture continues in Syria.

[Bluerthanblue]

3. Padilla IS a victim of torture- even the federal government

cannot deny this.
I hope to post a thread on this- It is something that needs to be heard and condemned LOUDLY by all of us.

What I have learned makes me so sick and ashamed.

Sadly I do not believe he is the first, or the last.

[ContraBass Black]

4. I don't think it matters.

Other humans shouldn't be tortured either.

[Bluerthanblue]

5. excellent point- and I completely agree- ! eom

[Cleita]

6. My thoughts too. What makes N. Americans so special unless

you fear it might be you who is tortured? All the more reason to condemn torture across the board for everyone.

[flordehinojos]

7. right on!

i stand with you.

[Boojatta]

10. Is condemning torture actually going to put an end to it?

[hashibabba]

8. Nobody should be tortured. Period. I can't believe the things

the Bush administration gets away with. This is just outrageous and I wish we could forcibly remove them all from office for good.

[WHAT]

9. First they came for the people who...

were not North American; Then...

I agree with your position.

"Nobody should be tortured. Period."

because of the sponge effect of crappy policy...

[Boojatta]

11. Maher Arar and his experiences

Maher Arar is a 34-year-old wireless technology consultant. He was born in Syria and came to Canada with his family at the age of 17. He became a Canadian citizen in 1991.

October 8, 2002

Arar is woken at 3:00 a.m. and is told he is leaving. He is given food, and then taken from his cell. A woman reads to him from a document, saying (...) the INS Director has decided to deport him to Syria.

Arar protests, saying he will be tortured there.

From:
http://www.maherarar.ca/

How did Arar predict that he would be tortured in Syria? Is it just a coincidence that Arar was born in Syria and maybe knew something about Syria? Did Arar actually rely on his knowledge of the Bush Administration rather than his knowledge of Syria to arrive at the conclusion that he would be tortured in Syria? If so, why did Arar choose a route for his travels that required him to enter US territory?

October 11 to 16, 2002
Early the next morning Arar is taken upstairs for intense interrogation. (...)

Throughout this period of intense interrogation Arar was not taken back to his cell, but to a waiting room where he could hear other prisoners being tortured and screaming.

Is there some reason to believe that those other prisoners were all sent to Syria by the Bush Administration?