Maher Arar: "The Horrors of 'Extraordinary Rendition'"

[Starfury]

Maher Arar (the Canadian sent to Syria for "renditioning") describes his experiences. Fair warning - it's a brutal read, starting with his detention at JFK.

(...)

Eventually on October 8th, against my will, they took me out of my cell. They basically read the pieces of document to me saying, that we will be sending you Syria. And when I complained, I said to them, I did explain to you if I'm sent back I will be tortured and they, I remember, the INS person flipped a couple of pages in this document, to the end of this document and read to me a paragraph that I still remember until today, an extremely shocking statement she made to me.

She said something like: The INS is not the body or the agency that signed the Geneva Convention, convention against torture. For me what that really meant is we will send you to torture and we don't care.

(...)

The cell was about three feet wide, six feet deep and about seven feet high. It was dark. There was no source of light in it. It was filthy. There were only two thin covers on the floor. I was naïve; I thought they would keep me in this place for one, two, maybe three days to put pressure on me. But this same place, the same cell that I later called the grave was my home 10 months and 10 days. The only light that came into the cell was from the ceiling, from the opening in the ceiling. There was a small spotlight and that's it.

Life in the cell was impossible. At the beginning--even though it was a filthy place, it was like a grave--I preferred to stay in that cell rather than being beaten. Whenever I heard the guards coming to open my door I would just think, you know, this is it for me that would be my last day.

The beating started the following day.

(...)

http://www.smirkingchimp.com/thread/2297

This is the reality behind the semantic games and bureaucratic language used by Cheney & Co.

[democrank]

1. Been following this story on Amy Goodman`s

Democracy Now. It makes me sick.

[bloom]

2. I don't know how many people are aware

that the Canadian Time magazine made Maher Arar the person of the year for Canada - the same year Bush got it for the US. And most people in the US did not know anything about this at the time. The US owes him and everyone else that we have tortured - big time.

[OneBlueSky]

3. God Bless American, huh? . . . what a disgrace . . .

not only to our nation, but to humanity itself . . .

and it's all the doings of George Bush and Dick Cheney . . .

our "leaders" . . . the "men" who represent us in the world community . . .

and when you think about how many of these "renditions" have taken place in the past six years, the only reaction is to become sick to your stomach . . .

and a determination to beat the bastards, no matter what it takes, or how long . . .

[Lisa]

4. I feel sick that the Canadian government didn't get him out of there

Same for William Sampson and the other Canadians being tortured in Middle Eastern jails. I know there are many Canadians who say that what Bush is doing is "none of our business", but if it's leading in any way to Canadians suffering like this, I feel we have a right to speak out. Arar is a good man, and this experience has really messed up his life -- lost his job, has ongoing medical problems, etc. -- I've heard from people who've met him that he's a shy person who only brings himself to speak out because he is so concerned about others suffering like he did.

His wife got a teaching job out here in BC, and the family has moved from Ottawa -- I hope that he is recovering and at peace.

[enough]

5. My heart is pounding and my head is ringing, just from reading this.

And how many times over is this terrible story being repeated ....