Like most of you, I've been listening to the "debate" about what interrogation techniques should be used on Al Queda and/or Taliban prisoners and the relation to the Geneva Conventions....I've even taken the time to read Common Article III which our pResident claims is "vague". (Hint: it isn't "vague" it's BROAD) I'll admit I almost jumped into that debate with both feet, that is, until the "bs buzzer" went off and I noticed that we're engaged in another classic bait-and-switch debate.
I think this article via MSNBC newsblog was what set the "buzzer" off . See if it doesn't do the same for you. (a link and a snip)http://msnbc.msn.com/id/14897315/page/2/
Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.
But it was the case of Arar, a reserved, soft-spoken father of two, that created an outrage in Canada after he returned in 2003 and said he wanted the public to know what had happened to him.
The report said agents of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police "overstated" Arar's importance in the broad investigation they began of potential Canadian suspects after Sept. 11.
Cavalluzzo said the Canadian agents apparently operated without proper training. "The best one can say is that it was sheer incompetence. They did not appreciate the fact that the branding of someone as a 'target'or 'suspect' or 'Islamic extremist' to Americans in 2002 could lead to disastrous consequences."
buzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.................
Yep, he was tortured alright....
Yep, he was subject to "extraordinary rendition" (can you say "kidnapping"?)
But the point is that there was NO DUE PROCESS....Incompetence and error were allowed to go unchecked. We didn't get the right guy in the first place.
An innocent man was imprisoned, tortured and forced to confess to crimes he didn't commit because the right we Americans hold to be one of our basic freedoms was taken away...DUE PROCESS...THE RIGHT TO CONFRONT YOUR ACCUSERS...THE RIGHT TO SEE THE EVIDENCE PRESENT AGAINST YOU...
In all the arguments from the Kingdom of Right Blogastan, there is the charge that we, liberals, are coddling the terrorists...the the RightBlogistanians haven't answered the basic question: " How the F$$$ do you KNOW they're terrorists?" They just blindly assume that if the pResident(the same guy who said Saddam was supporting AlQueda, Saddam had vast stockpiles of WMDs, Nobody could have anticipated the levees in New Orleans would fail, "You're doing a heckuva job Brownie"...yeah THAT GUY) SAYS that they are terrorist, then they must be................bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz............WRONG!
We can argue about what IS or IS NOT torture all we want but it won't take away the fact that the administration is taking away one of the very basic TRUTHS WE HOLD SELF-EVIDENT" and that, my friends is what we should be outraged over.
RANT OFF..............
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