Tuesday, September 23, 2008

Off-topic: Fresh Air on "extraordinary renditions"

Here is a Fresh Air interview of Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, who was picked up by Americans as a suspect and then sent for interrogation to Syria as part of the program of extraordinary rendition. This is a sad and sorry state of affairs. Please check out this interview. Here is a brief intro of Maher Arar:
Maher Arar, a telecommunications engineer with dual Canadian and Syrian citizenship, was detained during a stop-over in JFK Airport in 2002 and deported on suspicion of being a member of Al Qaeda. He wound up in a Syrian prison where he was locked up and beaten for almost a year before protests from his wife led to his release.

Arar is pursuing a federal lawsuit charging that the United States government violated his constitutional right to due process as well as his right to choose a country of removal other than one in which he would be tortured, as guaranteed under the Torture Victim Protection Act.

Here is the full interview.

2 comments:

hedge said...

I'm surprised they eventually listened to his wife. Glad, but surprised.

But mainly, disgusted.

(also off-topic, have you seen this?)

Salman Hameed said...

I'm surprised they eventually listened to his wife. Glad, but surprised.

I think because she was dealing with Canadian authorities...

Interesting link about the Atheon - I will read more about it. I usually recoil when I hear the "Temple of Science" - they should use a different word, otherwise it sounds New-Agey. At the same time, I appreciate the idea of Cosmic background radiation on a stain window. Thanks for the link.

Powered by Blogger.