US Attorney-General got it wrong (re: Arar case)

[sabra]

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/us-attorneygeneral-got-it-wrong/2006/09/21/1158431842944.html

US Attorney-General got it wrong

WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department has backed away from a denial by the Attorney-General, Alberto Gonzales, of responsibility for the treatment of a Canadian seized by US authorities in 2002. The man, Maher Arar, was deported to Syria, where he was tortured.

Mr Gonzales had said on Tuesday that the US was not responsible for his removal to Syria.

The Attorney-General's comments caused puzzlement because they followed front-page news of a Canadian commission finding that US officials ordered him taken to Syria, an action documented in public records.

A Justice Department spokesman said on Wednesday that Mr Gonzales had intended to make only a narrow point - that deportations are now handled by the Department of Homeland Security, not the Department of Justice.

[babylonsister]

1. So Gonzales lies and then spins, without acknowledging the lie.

Got it.

[Solly Mack]

2. Lies, lies and more lies

and still they are free

[Demeter]

3. Gonzales Now Firmly in the War Criminal Lists!

Way to go, Alberto! You made the team!

[fooj]

6. He has always been on the war criminals list...

this is just another example of WHY.

[underpants]

4. I was going to post about this yesterday-that was hilarious

I saw the report on ABC Tuesday night but the transcript (ABC & LExisNexis) didn't read like it aired. Gonzales looked, surprise!, like a complete idiot and a horrible liar as he should.


I wish I could find the video it was something to see.

[Supersedeas]

5. I'd like to see it too b/c it doesn't match this story from yesterday:

http://www.cfra.com/headlines/index.asp?cat=2&nid=42868

<The US attorney general says Maher Arar was legally deported to Syria under US immigration law. Alberto Gonzalez's comments are the first by a US official since the public inquiry released its report. Gonzalez says the Ottawa man's ordeal was not a case of extraordinary rendition. That program sends terror suspects to foreign countries known to use torture during interrogations. Arar was detained in New York in 2002 on his way home from a vacation in Tunisia. US officials deported him to Syria where he was held in a tiny dungeon for 10 months and beaten. >

[babylonsister]

8. Here's some info for you:

MR. PRESIDENT. YOU NEED CLARITY? HERE'S YOUR CLARITY... Meet Maher Arar. Updated at 6:36 PM

by Steve Young

If President Bush needs clarity to interpret the Geneva Conventions anti-torture provisions - and he really means it - the next visitor to the Oval Office should be Maher Arar, a Canadian computer consultant who was labeled - wrongly - as a dangerous radical and "an Islamic extremist individual."

If Congress needs to hear what being held without due justice under CIA cover as it is now, the next person they need to interview is Maher Arar, who was taken by U.S. authorities and secretly rendered to Syria, where 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," said a report focusing on Canadian intelligence

If John McCain, Lindsay Graham, John Warner and Colin Powell need to confirm what they've believed all along about how wrong-headed and criminal the Bush Administration's desire to continue their definition of legal interrogation, the next persons they need to break bread with is Maher Arar and his wife - a university economist - who were placed on al-Qaeda "watchlist," without any justification.

If Hannity and O'Reilly truly want to inform their listeners and Fox News fans of what the president's "clarification" really asks for, then the next person they need to interview is Maher Arar, who will tell them that "an innocent Canadian was tortured, his life was put upside down, and it set him back years and years." That is if he can get that out before he is interrupted by a litany of talking points by the host.

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_steve_yo_060919...

AND:

Democracy Now! - interview with Maher Arar

This interview exposes Alberto Ganzales for the fascist that he is.

http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=06/09/20/141...

One Day After Complete Exoneration, Maher Arar Yet to Receive Apology
Canada and the US are refusing to apologize to Maher Arar despite his exoneration by a Canadian government inquiry. The Syrian-born Canadian was detained nearly four years ago by U.S. authorities at JFK airport and was sent to Syria where he was jailed for a year and repeatedly tortured. Maher Arar joins us with his reaction.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to apologize to Maher Arar despite Arar’s exoneration by a federal inquiry. Four years ago, Maher Arar was on his way back to Canada from a family vacation in Tunisia. The Syrian-born Canadian citizen had a stopover at JFK airport in New York. After being questioned at the airport, U.S. officials took him to a New York immigration facility. Two weeks later he was secretly flown to Jordan aboard a Gulfstream Jet. Maher Arar ended up in Syria where he was held in a cell, the size of a grave. He was physically and psychologically tortured. He was forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he has never been. He was released after a year and never charged with a crime.
On Monday, the Canadian government admitted for the first time that Arar was a completely innocent man. Justice Dennis O’Connor, who led the inquiry, said the U.S. government’s decision to send Arar to Syria was likely based on inaccurate and misleading information provided by Canadian authorities.

On Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper acknowledged that a tremendous injustice had taken place but he declined to apologize to Arar. Maher Arar joins us now on the phone from Canada.

(transcript of interview at link)

[underpants]

10. Video War on Terror Nets Innocent Canadian

2:43-no commercial preceding it
Under Spet.19
http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/

Here is the transcript-see how Gonzo says they "seek" to "Satisfy" themselves--lots of outs in this statement.


We seek to satisfy ourselves that they will not be - that they will not be tortured. And we do that in every case.

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100007216&docId=l:508905586&start=19

Oh well if it happens hey they tried and all :shrug:

[Supersedeas]

11. If they really wanted to satisfy themselves - then why not deport him to

CANADA...what a lame excuse for 'legal' reasoning.

Why was this a IMMIGRATION CASE in the first place?
They guy was just passing through on this way home to Canada...he wasn't seeking employment or citizenship in the U.S.

Al Gonzo's excuses stink to high heaven!

[underpants]

15. They are hardly even trying anymore

I guess at this point they don't have to.

I am researching something that, once again, I had foolishly taken for granted or just ASSumed that they were lying about THAT because I ASSumed someone would have said something about it

All this time that they have claimed executive privilege about meetings with Enron or whomever the private individual is in question I just figured that this must be a gray area...well apparently not. From what I can tell "executive privilege" and "deliberative process privilege" apply only to INTERNAL government advise not that from the private sector. There was some question about Hillary getting advice and if that was covered because she wasn't an elected official-it was decided that it was covered but there has never been a precedent for Government-private consultation of any kind anywhere.

Amazing.

[Jacobin]

7. I didn't steal that cookie. My left hand did!!!

neener neener neener.

Gonzales is such a transparent douche.

He is simply disgusting

[ThomCat]

9. HE WAS NOT DEPORTED.

If he was DEPORTED to his home country it would have been Canada!

He was SENT to two countries other than his home country for the sole purpose of being tortured.

It really pisses me off the way the media is downplaying this whole thing.

:grr:

[Supersedeas]

13. I heard little to nothing from Television Media about Gonzo's response

[lovuian]

12. Gonzales is a War Criminal advocating and supporting

Wiretapping Torture and Secret Prisons

and we still have no convictions on the Plame Case
we have traitors in the Whitehouse and they get away with it

Chalabi is a double agent and walks...

[dkofos]

14. He needs to be in prison

[ShortnFiery]

16. Those damn Activist Judges ...

What frightens me is that the next time, Alito and Roberts may tip the scales toward "The Unitary Executive." If so, that is truly UNCONSTITUTIONAL! :scared:

[gratuitous]

17. {Yawn} Another administration lie, another "clarification"

Isn't it odd that Mr. Gonzales, a well-trained lawyer by all accounts and a former judge, would be so imprecise in his speech? He needs a spokesman to come out the next day to say what he really "meant" to say in the first place.

And his comments didn't cause "puzzlement"; they caused people to call him a fucking liar and a criminal. I wasn't puzzled at all.

[Kagemusha]

18. Well said - I agree completely

The only confusion in my mind was how he could come off sounding like such a dumbass. "Oh it's not extraordinary rendition - we just made a normal deportation to his REAL country, not the one he said he was from on TV, and told them we thought he was a Jihadist suspect. If they wanted to find out more, they'd have to find out directly from him themselves, with their own methods." And of course, we have NO IDEA WHATSOEVER what those methods might be...

[gratuitous]

20. All with that little smile on his face

This administration really attracts people who dig on violence done to others.

I had an acquaintance once, a deputy sheriff who worked in a county lock-up. He was the first person a prisoner with a complaint went to. There was a definite procedure for making a complaint, whether it was about conditions, the food, another inmate, whatever. You had to fill out a form, "fly a kite" in the lingo. But a lot of prisoners didn't want to go to all the trouble, and going to talk to the deputy about something was a good way to get out of the cell for a little while. Besides, what else do you want to do, sitting around all day serving your time? Might as well bother the deputy.

This guy didn't mind working with prisoners, and treated most of them with at least some respect. But some guys were troublemakers; no surprise they'd landed in jail. So one day, a guy came in for the fourth or fifth time with the same beef about some picayune matter. My friend had told him several times to fly a kite -- fill out the form -- but this guy just wanted to get out of the common area for a while. The deputy had reached the end of his patience. So he walked the prisoner back to the common area personally, held the door for him, and just before shutting it behind him, said, "Thanks for the information!"

When he told me the story, I was puzzled. "But he didn't tell you anything; he was complaining about something that you couldn't do anything about." The deputy nodded and said, "Yep, but now there's 80 guys in that prison quad who think he's an informant."

[Supersedeas]

21. You would think that upon realizing the gross injustice done by this Admin

to this innocent man, that he personally would express some remorse.

Hell, I would think that someone, with a conscience, would resign upon discovering that their actions led to the torture of an innocent man.

Instead, smiles and denials.

[cascadiance]

19. If there was no responsibility why did they use State Secrets Privilege?!!

If there was nothing LEGITIMATE or otherwise to hide, then why did they play the State Secrets privilege card to keep this case out of the courts earlier? Gonzales is just a War criminal bastard! We really will need to have him on the list of the folks sent to the Hague once we take this regime out later!