If you watched Arar's press conference, you heard his description of the other Canadian he encountered after he'd been in Syrian prisons for some time.
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/almalki031105Abdullah Almalki was arrested in May 2002 when he went to Damascus for a family visit. He has been held without charge in Syria. Almalki's family in Ottawa said they didn't know what happened to him until Maher Arar, describing his own year-long imprisonment in Syria on Tuesday, said he saw Almalki in jail.
Arar said Almalki described being beaten, stuffed into a rubber tire, and hung upside down – torture more severe than Arar suffered.
The Americans deported Arar to Syria, the country where he was born, saying there was evidence he had terrorist connections. U.S. officials detained Arar when he was changing planes in New York on his way back to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia.
Arar said U.S. officials apparently based the terrorism accusation on his connection to Almalki.
I guess I gotta go home and watch some teevee, 'cause I'm having a bit of a hard time sorting this out.
Of course, I'm still having a hard time getting my head around the idea of the US
deporting a suspected terrorist ... to
Syria. From the US pov, isn't that a bit of a case of coals to Newcastle ... or fuel for the fire? -- like, isn't that exactly what the US is
not doing with the suspects it's holding in Guantanamo Bay??
More on Arar:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/arar031104While we're on the Canadians-being-tortured in the Middle East news, there's still always Sampson, recently released from that Saudi prison:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/sampson031105Following Maher Arar's disclosure that he was tortured in a Syrian prison, William Sampson is expected to tell a Commons hearing Thursday about his own beatings in a Saudi jail and Canada's lack of effort to protect him.
I do wonder how Middle Eastern "allies" get chosen; one potato two potato?
In terrorism news *in* Canada, the Air India trial goes on:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/malik_trial031104(in depth story available there)
Accused bomber Ripudaman Singh Malik said more people would have died if there hadn't been numerous glitches in the plot to destroy two Air India planes. That's according to Malik's former confidante, who testified Tuesday at his trial.
Malik has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of 329 people on board an Air India flight in 1985.
He has also been charged with conspiracy to murder and attempted murder of people on board another Air India flight at Japan's Narita Airport. Finally, he has been charged with the murders of two baggage handlers at that airport.
Hmm.
329 people are to Canada pretty much as ~3000 people are to the United States. (Canada has about 1/9 the population of the US, and the Air India bombing claimed about about 1/9 the number of victims killed in the WTC.) About the same percentage of the population killed in a single act of terrorism. ... Anybody remember it?
And what the heck -- any bets on the Saskatchewan election today?
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/05/sask031105New Democratic Party Premier Lorne Calvert is battling it out with Saskatchewan Party Leader Elwin Hermanson. The NDP is trying to extend its 12-year reign.
"Reign"?
The Saskatchewan Party, we will recall, is a particularly virulent strain of Alliance/Reform fundamentalism/right-wingism.
Oh look:
http://www.cbc.ca/stories/2003/11/04/bono_liberal031104Paul Martin campaign organizers are hoping to elevate the upcoming leadership conference with a special guest – U2 superstar Bono.
Martin aides wouldn't comment on the mysterious ways they're using to lure Bono to the Toronto conference, which starts Nov. 12.
Maybe Bono could hold out for a resounding defeat of Paul Martin and election of Anybody But as Liberal leader while he's here ... oops, guess not. Bono apparently called Martin "cool" last year. I'm not familiar; is Bono known to have problems with substances that alter perceptions of reality?
.