Ashcroft Deserves To Be Sued (my article about the Maher Arar case)

[SeveneightyWhoa]

Ashcroft Deserves To Be Sued
by SeveneightyWhoa (a Canadian, remember)

I’m sure we were all touched and mired in deep gratitude when the US government promised to let our government know before sending our non-terrorist citizens off to be tortured in a nation known for torturing people.

Somehow, this unbelievably weak agreement had been painted as one of the biggest achievements between President Bush and Prime Minister Martin on their first meeting.

You can just imagine how incredibly important and successful an epiphany this agreement was to US-Canada relations, and fundamental human rights in general.

“Hello Prime Minister Crouton…er, Chretien…Martin. We’re sending one of your folks off to Syria because his skin is brown and he looks kinda terroristical. We don’t want the situation getting nu-ku-lar here.. Okay now, thanks Paulie, just letting you know, gotta go fight evil now, bye-bye!”, George W. Bush would say, on the phone with Paul Martin.

“Okay, thanks for the heads up, Georgiekins!”, Martin would reply.

Quite the diplomatic achievement!

Fortunately, Maher Arar, the Canadian citizen sent off to Syria for no good reason and then tortured for no good reason (no, American government incompetence and arrogance are not “good reasons”), is taking the matter into his own scarred hands.

Arar is suing US Attorney General John Ashcroft, the czar of the rights-assailing campaign to apprehend terrorists in the US. The man is loved by few, and hated by many Americans worried about the infringements on civil rights by Ashcroft’s actions, especially the Orwellian-named “Patriot” Act (since when was it patriotic to beat up on rights in the “land of the free”, and when was it ever patriotic for Americans to send harmless Canadians off to be tortured?).

The US State Department has, for years, listed Syria as a nation practicing systematic torture. George W. Bush, in a recent speech, referred to Syria as having “a legacy of torture and oppression”. Yet, oddly enough, the Department recently attempted to defend themselves against their Arar action by claiming that Syria had told them that he’d be treated “humanely”.

Yes, it’s always safe to trust the claims of a nation that you yourself denounce for a “legacy of torture and oppression”. I’m absolutely convinced that the US government was completely, just totally unaware that this Canadian citizen would be tortured when sent off to a nation full of “torture and oppression”. What an utter surprise that must’ve been!

According to the Jan. 21st broadcast of 60 Minutes II, “Torture in Syrian prisons is well-documented. The state department’s own report cites an array of gruesome tortures routinely used in Syrian jails”. When Arar was told where he was being deported, “the first thing I did was I started crying, because everyone knows that Syria practices torture”. In the 60 Minutes II interview, he continued, “When I arrived there, I saw the photos of the Syrian president, and that’s why I realized I was indeed in Syria…I wished I had a knife in my hand to kill myself”.

The actions of the US government in this affair, as well as the marginally weak Canadian response, are unacceptable. Clearly, more must be done, and Arar’s decision to sue John Ashcroft (and seventeen other American officials, including Tom Ridge and FBI Director Robert Mueller) is certainly an appropriate one.

John Ashcroft, who by many accounts is somewhat of an extremist, is the main man responsible for apprehending terrorists. Is America’s top job in the “war on terror”, the task of finding and apprehending extremists, capable of being performed optimally by a man who himself is often considered an “extremist”? Ashcroft and the Patriot Act are not staying true to American ideals in their fight against terrorists—American rights and liberties, as well as Canadian ones, are being diluted. Hopefully a dose of that other form of American justice, the lawsuit, will show the negligent American authorities, including John Ashcroft, that arrogance and negligence doesn’t pay when dealing with our own Canadian citizens.

[Sugarbleus]

1. I saw the interview with that Canadian/Syrian man...

It was appalling!! I am in total disbelief that our country can GET AWAY WITH SOME SHIT LIKE THAT!

You are dang right.................Sue Ashcroft!! Maybe some prison time for him in a Syrian prison would go nicely with that lawsuit! I'm so angry at this administration, I can hardly sleep. They need to be exhiled if not imprisoned. I wouldn't trust this bunch even when they are out of the White House.
I'm fuming.