-----Original Message----- From: Richard Perlman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Sun, 04 Jan 2004 20:14:47 To:Dave Farber <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc:Ip Ip <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: FW: SF Gate: Torture by proxy/How immigration threw a traveler to the wolves
Dave: If people aren't worried about the loss of liberties, this might change their minds. Then again, it only happened to a "foreigner..." Richard ------ Forwarded Message > From: "Richard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Organization: SF Gate, San Francisco, CA > Date: Sun, 4 Jan 2004 20:12 -0800 > To: "Richard" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: SF Gate: Torture by proxy/How immigration threw a traveler to the > wolves > > > Sunday, January 4, 2004 (SF Chronicle) > Torture by proxy/How immigration threw a traveler to the wolves > Christopher H. Pyle > > > On Sept. 26, 2002, U.S. immigration officials seized a Syrian-born > Canadian at Kennedy International Airport, because his name had come up on > an international watch list for possible terrorists. What happened next is > chilling. > Maher Arar was about to change planes on his way home to Canada after > visiting his wife's family in Tunisia when he was pulled aside for > questioning. He was not a terrorist. He had no terrorist connections, but > his name was on the list, so he was detained for questioning. Not > ordinary, polite questioning, but abusive, insulting, degrading > questioning by the immigration service, the FBI and the New York City > Police Department. > He asked for a lawyer and was told he could not have one. He asked to call > his family, but phone calls were not permitted. Instead, he was clapped > into shackles and, for several days, made to "disappear." His family was > frantic. > Finally, he was allowed to make a call. His government expected that > Arar's right of safe passage under its passport would be respected. But it > wasn't. Arar denied any connection to terrorists. He was not accused of > any crimes, but U.S. agents wanted him questioned further by someone whose > methods might be more persuasive than theirs. > So, they put Arar on a private plane and flew him to Washington, D.C. > There, a new team, presumably from the CIA, took over and delivered him, > by way of Jordan, to Syrian interrogators. This covert operation was > legal, our Justice Department later claimed, because Arar is also a > citizen of Syria by birth. The fact that he was a Canadian traveling on a > Canadian passport, with a wife, two children and job in Canada, and had > not lived in Syria for 16 years, was ignored. The Justice Department > wanted him to be questioned by Syrian military intelligence, whose > interrogation methods our government has repeatedly condemned. > The Syrians locked Arar in an underground cell the size of a grave: 3 feet > wide, 6 feet long, 7 feet high. Then they questioned him, under torture, > repeatedly, for 10 months. Finally, when it was obvious that their > prisoner had no terrorist ties, they let him go, 40 pounds lighter, with a > pronounced limp and chronic nightmares. > Why was Arar on our government's watch list? Because "multiple > international intelligence agencies" had linked him to terrorist groups. > How many agencies? Two. What had they reported? Not much. > The Syrians believed that Arar might be a member of the Muslim > Brotherhood. Why? Because a cousin of his mother's had been, nine years > earlier, long after Arar moved to Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted > Police reported that the lease on Arar's apartment had been witnessed by a > Syrian- born Canadian who was believed to know an Egyptian Canadian whose > brother was allegedly mentioned in an al Qaeda document. > That's it. That's all they had: guilt by the most remote of computer- > generated associations. But, according to Attorney General John Ashcroft, > that was more than enough to justify Arar's delivery to Syria's torturers. > Besides, Ashcroft added, the torturers had expressly promised that they > would not torture him. > Our intelligence agencies have a name for this torture-by-proxy. They call > it "extraordinary rendition." As one intelligence official explained: "We > don't kick the s -- out of them. We send them to other countries so they > can kick the s -- out of them." > This secret program for torturing suspects has been authorized, if that is > the right word for it, by a secret presidential finding. Where the > president gets the authority to have anyone tortured has never been > explained. > It is time someone asked. What our government did to Maher Arar is worse > than anything the British did to our Colonial forefathers. It was worse > than anything J. Edgar Hoover did to alleged Communists, civil rights > workers and anti-war activists during his long program of dirty tricks. > According to the Bush administration, we are at "war" with al Qaeda. If > so, then delivering a suspect to torturers is a war crime and should be > prosecuted as such. But first, we need to know who was responsible, and > that will not be easy -- unless there is a firestorm of protest. > Isn't it time to condemn torture by proxy and demand prosecution of the > persons responsible? Isn't it time to question how these watch lists are > assembled and used, before more of us fall victim to secret detentions and > brutal interrogations based on guilt by computerized associations? > Christopher Pyle teaches constitutional law and civil liberties at Mount > Holyoke College. > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > Copyright 2004 SF Chronicle > > ------ End of Forwarded Message ------------------------------------- You are subscribed as [EMAIL PROTECTED] To manage your subscription, go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/?listname=ip Archives at: http://www.interesting-people.org/archives/interesting-people/
