U.S. legislators apologize to Arar

Source: The Star

U.S. legislators apologize to Arar
Still on U.S. watch list, Canadian can't appear in person for congressional hearing

WASHINGTON – U.S. congressmen have apologized to Canadian Maher Arar for the actions of U.S. officials in his rendition and torture case.

... snip ...

The Bush administration has not apologized.

"Let me personally give you what our government has not: an apology," said Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., as he opened the hearing. "Let me apologize to you and the Canadian people for our government's role in a mistake."


Read more: http://www.thestar.com/News/World/article/268252

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This looks like a small thing but it isn't.

The ramifications for others who are fighting illegal detainment and rendition at the hands of your government (and effectively tossed into an oubliette by our own) will be felt across the world.

Nice to see an apology, but what they did to him was no more mistaken than what they did to Padilla.

... are all at fault.

The RCMP carry a lot of the blame but, geez, Dana Rohrabacher sounded all whiney. The rendition programme is a good one if it kidnaps honest-to-god badguys. And 9/11 9/11 9/11!
THREE THOUSAND of our citizens SLAUGHTERED. Oooga booga! Throw away everybody's rights! Quick, while nobody's watching!

and more, these "programs" work best when random. The fear of being picked up by the thought police and sent away for YEARS usually works wonders on keeping people silent.

I even thought Rohrabacher, who I have seen spouting his right wing propoganda before, was pretty good. I have started another thread about this in G.D. saying that I was impressed.

He said in an interview a while back that it means a lot to him, when people listen to him seriously. His family had some difficult experiences with being shunned and ostracized, thanks to "guilt by association". He was particularly worried about the impacts on his children. When they see him being treated with dignity by American legislators, it will reassure them.

The reason I'm not impressed has to do with defense of the indefensible.

A reasonable person has to come to the conclusion that not only is the United States torturing people, but that torture doesn't work as a bona fide intelligence tool. It does, however, work to get false confessions to prop up the régime in power and to provide an excuse for further atrocities.

Moreover, considering the people on the "watch list" and the peace activists who have been harassed by our officers at the border, that particular tactic is being gleefully adopted here.

It's time to realize terrorism as the crime that it is, no matter who does it. But it's also time to realize that it is not a crisis. The crisis is the overreaction to the crime.

The Bush cabal needs to be prosecuted. It's long past time.

it's called kidnapping and torture and illegal detention... but let's just pretend otherwise and tell ourselves that an apology means something

an apology isn't justice and it never will be