Progressive Minds

Hmmm.....maybe George Bush is on to something when he says the United States doesn't torture people.  His next line should have been "we just outsource it to countries that DO torture!"

Such is the case of Maher Arar, an Ottawa software engineer.  Canadian police wrongly identified Arar as an Islamic extremist.  He was deported to the United States, and the United States sent him on a rendition flight to Syria, where he was tortured.  While in Syria, he was kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months, and forced to say that he trained with Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.  But Mr. Arar has never been to Afghanistan.

It's clear that Canada and the United States are at fault here.  Canada for identifying an innocent man as an Islamic extremist, and the United States for sending this man to Syria to be tortured.

This is a perfect example of why torture doesn't work.  The proponents of torture like George Bush and Condi Rice want the American public to believe that torture (read: "interrogation") leads to valuable intelligence.  But as John McCain has pointed out, torture doesn't work, because the person being tortured is just going to tell the torturer what they want to hear; anything to make the pain stop.

Innocent Canadian deported, tortured

Mr. President, You Need Clarity? Here's your Clarity: George W. Meet Maher Arar, Please