Canadians' Friendly Neighbor to the South

Ramo · November 8, 2003, 02:06

So, a Canadian from Syria was vacationing in Tunis a little over a year ago, and when the flight stopped over in the US while returning to Canada, the gov't used to opportunity to pick this guy up. They accused him of being an al-Qaeda agent, and decided to deport him. Instead of deporting him to Canada where he's a citizen or Switzerland where his flight came from, he was deported to Syria. Good ol' Ba'athist Syria, where he has a relative in prison for being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and where al-Qaeda suspects aren't treated all that well. So when the Americans handed him over to the authorities in Damascus, the Syrians tortured the **** out of him for nearly a year. The Syrians only recently released him back to Canada thanks to the outcry this event generated.

http://www.counterpunch.org/arar11062003.html

Every new action I hear of taken by our so-called "justice" system manages to be even more surreal than the last.

Jules · November 8, 2003, 02:14

techumseh · November 8, 2003, 03:01

Canadian media has unattributed comments from US officials that the US has a policy of deporting suspected AQ people to certain Arab countries where torture is routinely practiced. This apparently is what happened to Arrar, a Canadian citizen and engineer. His misfortune is that his landlord was possibly a real operative - Arrar is most likely not. The landlord is still in Syria being tortured.

Arrar's wife launched a months long campaign to free her husband, and eventually caught the attention of the media, which embarrassed the Canadian government into pressing Syria for his release. Syria, for it's part, seemingly has a quid pro quo with the Bush regime: We'll torture Al Queda suspects for you, and you don't attack us.

Uncle Sparky · November 8, 2003, 06:22

Old news to me, but still makes me

Nubclear · November 8, 2003, 06:29

This thread has an anti-american sentiment and no pro-American sentiment, so....

DaShi · November 8, 2003, 06:45

Yeah! Burn those "Down with the USA" flags. Never did like them.

Nubclear · November 8, 2003, 07:10

Space05us · November 8, 2003, 07:22

maybe some day we will teach them to count to 50.

The Mad Monk · November 8, 2003, 07:59

...or even to thirteen...

Oerdin · November 8, 2003, 08:39

It is interesting to note that the Canadian government was the one who gave this man's name to the American government. The Canadians told us he was an AQ suspect. The US arrested him based upon that information.

techumseh · November 8, 2003, 11:00

That has yet to be proven, but I suspect it is true. The Canadian government is resisting oppositon calls for an independent inquiry.

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:06

Quote:

Originally posted by The Mad Monk
...or even to thirteen...

We already have 13. You don't really keep up with the news, do you...

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:06

Quote:

Originally posted by Oerdin
It is interesting to note that the Canadian government was the one who gave this man's name to the American government. The Canadians told us he was an AQ suspect. The US arrested him based upon that information.

0

And then shipped him off to Syria? Thanks...

DinoDoc · November 11, 2003, 03:09

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
And then shipped him off to Syria? Thanks...

Maybe next time you'll arrest your own people instead of making us deal with it.

MrFun · November 11, 2003, 03:10

United States has a skewed concept of justice sometimes . . . . .

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:13

Quote:

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Maybe next time you'll arrest your own people instead of making us deal with it.

Maybe next time we won't tell you about it at all.

DinoDoc · November 11, 2003, 03:15

Fine with me as long as it spares us needless whining about wild goose chases our our idiot neighbor to the north sends us on.

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:15

AFAIK one of our agencies told one of your agencies that he was a guy to keep an eye on. So, the next time he's in New York switching flights, you arrested him and shipped him to Syria before anybody could say anything.

I have not been given the impression that we ever requested his arrest. He would have been in Canadian territory in a couple of hours, so what would have been the point?

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:17

Snooze. "Wild goose chases" coming from the country that arrested a few thousand people for nothing, held them without charges for 6 months or a year and then let them go?

Good job...

MrFun · November 11, 2003, 03:20

I would like to see how the United States government would react if Canada shipped an American citizen in Canada, who is suspected of terrorism.

Ramo · November 11, 2003, 03:21

Considerably more came out of it than that - we were able to deport a lot of those ragheads on immigration violations. Protecting American jobs from terrorists ya know.

The Mad Monk · November 11, 2003, 03:22

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse

We already have 13. You don't really keep up with the news, do you...

Own Goal, Kitty.

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:25

I call foul. Not one of the 'Mercans I've met in real life could guess the number of provs+terrs

techumseh · November 11, 2003, 03:27

Quote:

Originally posted by DinoDoc
Maybe next time you'll arrest your own people instead of making us deal with it.

Nobody "made" you arrest some innocent guy and send him off to some half baked dictatorship that's "helping you out" by torturing AQ semi-suspects because it's afraid that it might be next on your hit list.

The authorities of Canada and many other countries cooperate with the US in the "War on Terror" (R) by suppling information. What your government does with this information, it, and only it, is accountable for. As for us, many Canadians would like our government to be accountable for it's part in this travesty. Holding your government accountable - now there's a concept. You should try it sometime.

DinoDoc · November 11, 2003, 03:27

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
Snooze.

This whole thread is a snooze since it was the Canadians that brought the man to our attention and considering how cagey your government is being about the affair likely requested the man's arrest. We went foward based on the information Canada gave us. It's begining to look like you should look in the mirror to address this problem.

Nubclear · November 11, 2003, 03:30

Quote:

Originally posted by techumseh
Holding your government accountable - now there's a concept. You should try it sometime.

Nazi communist!!!!

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:32

a) Why would we request the arrest of a citizen that was going to be in Canada in 2 hours anyways?

b) If you were doing it on our request, then why would send him to Syria instead of to Canada?

c) Our government is likely being cagey because they provided some information to you, and given what you did with it, are going to be called irresponsible (and rightly so, given the US' behaviour of late).

KrazyHorse · November 11, 2003, 03:33

Dino, your "you asked us to arrest him and ship him to Syria for you" hypothesis is laughable on its face. Try again...

The Mad Monk · November 11, 2003, 03:35

Quote:

Originally posted by KrazyHorse
I call foul. Not one of the 'Mercans I've met in real life could guess the number of provs+terrs

Disallowed -- we were discussing the flag.

Ramo · November 11, 2003, 03:37

Quote:

This whole thread is a snooze since it was the Canadians that brought the man to our attention and considering how cagey your government is being about the affair likely requested the man's arrest. We went foward based on the information Canada gave us. It's begining to look like you should look in the mirror to address this problem.

Translating Dino's post to logically correct-speak:

You see Canadians, the US gov't is idiotic. 'Specially when it's run by fascists like Ashcroft. If good intel contradicts the political establishment, it's spun or ignored by the powers that be. Or better yet, they don't actually bother to do the intel, to maximize corporate subsidies so they ship terror suspects off to be tortured, innocent or guilty. So your gov't is by proxy idiotic because it may have given just a little bit of discretion to the US, whose gov't like I said is totally retarded. And it's evil (thus, Chretien et al. are by proxy evil).