Maher Arar: Some justice at last
By Vivek Krishnamurthy
One aspect of this afternoon's Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that have received very little attention in the American media is Sen. Patrick Leahy's questioning of the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on the case of Maher Arar.
Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was detained at Kennedy Airport in 2002 and "rendered" to Syria, where he was detained in a coffin-sized cell for a year and subjected to brutal torture. The U.S. government alleged that Mr. Arar has connections to Al Qaeda, but a recent judicial inquiry in Canada concluded that there is not a scintilla of evidence to support this assertion.
At today's Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Leahy tore into Mr. Gonzales and the Bush Administration's depraved policy of extraordinary rendition with an intensity rarely seen in sedate Senate proceedings. For your listening pleasure, I have uploaded audio of the hearing from CBC Radio. You can hear it by clicking here.
Your faith in Congress, and in America, will be restored.
One aspect of this afternoon's Senate Judiciary Committee hearings that have received very little attention in the American media is Sen. Patrick Leahy's questioning of the Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, on the case of Maher Arar.
Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was detained at Kennedy Airport in 2002 and "rendered" to Syria, where he was detained in a coffin-sized cell for a year and subjected to brutal torture. The U.S. government alleged that Mr. Arar has connections to Al Qaeda, but a recent judicial inquiry in Canada concluded that there is not a scintilla of evidence to support this assertion.
At today's Judiciary Committee hearing, Sen. Leahy tore into Mr. Gonzales and the Bush Administration's depraved policy of extraordinary rendition with an intensity rarely seen in sedate Senate proceedings. For your listening pleasure, I have uploaded audio of the hearing from CBC Radio. You can hear it by clicking here.
Your faith in Congress, and in America, will be restored.
posted by Vivek Krishnamurthy at
10:36 PM
7 Comments:
I saw that exchange last night when Cspan finally showed the hearing. Nothing like that will ever be shown on the news here. It was a thing of beauty. This American is thrilled to our democracy's still showing signs of life.
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Anonymous, at 3:52 PM
I was a resident of Vermont for 20 years, and I always voted for Senator Leahy. I listened with tears in my eyes to the recording of his questions to Alberto Gonzoles on the Maher Arar matter. He made me proud. He is standing up against those who would distort our country's values. I'll be watching to see who else does the same.
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Anonymous, at 8:02 AM
I suspect Arar was in the wrong place at the wrong time but he had turned down multiple chances to clear up his status with the Canadian authorities (see Canadian Commission report page 75m ff).
And if you don’t believe in coincidences, you have to ask why was he so often in the wrong place at the wrong time (Mango's cafe, hired a "Mafia" attorney, used other suspect as witness on lease, etc.). In addition, Arar gave US agents incorrect information about that other Syrian that the Canadians had identified as a suspected terrorist (said he simply knew him from the mosque) and he even lied about this in his 2004 complaint in U.S. federal court (item 13 in U.S. suit).
It is better that the US authorities were safe rather than sorry. If only the US had done to Atta what they did to Arar.
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Anonymous, at 5:12 PM
I agree with you dhf and theotherwa. This was an impressive showing by Leahy. Hopefully we'll have more of it, much more of it.
No one has ever said that Arar is a saint, Dennis, but that hardly justifies what the U.S. did to him. And the "better safe than sorry" argument is the thin end of the wedge. Where does it stop? Look at how Bush has abused his power. How many innocent people need to be rounded up? How many people need to have their rights taken away?
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Michael J.W. Stickings, at 6:00 PM
Great post! I know it's been up here for a while already, but I came across it in a google blog search. Since writing 'The Murder of Maher Arar' a number of months ago, I've felt compelled to check in on occasion to see whether his name continues to ring out on the blogs.
I'm really an admirer of this kind of work being done...I'm going to link to this site on deadissue and hope that you might do the same.
Peace, Love and Acceleration
Al
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Al Swearengen, at 3:47 PM
Thanks for the nice post!
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