\jeff{krimmel}

When Freedom Dies

Here is a story showing what America looks like with George W. Bush as president. A Canadian computer consultant, Maher Arar, was falsely accused of being an accomplice of Al Qaeda. Canadian officials, feeling pressure to find presumed terrorists after September 11, tipped off U.S. officials:

Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan — where he never has been — and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.

O’Connor concluded that “categorically there is no evidence” that Arar did anything wrong or was a security threat.

This isn’t fiction. This isn’t partisan bickering. This is what the United States of America looks like with George W. Bush as president. Our government flies innocent people half way across the globe to get tortured into confessing to crimes they did not commit, all in the interest of keeping America “safe”.

Amnesty International is having to petition the American people through major newspapers to help stop their government from torturing people. Can you ever recall a time in United States history when international human rights bodies had to petition the country to stop torturing people?

Where have our values gone?