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Politics : PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 1:38:11 PM
From: AuBug	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 769667

USA: Deporting for torture? AI Index: AMR 51/139/2003 (Public) News Service No: 259 14 November 2003 Amnesty International has today written to the US Attorney General urging a full investigation into the treatment of Maher Arar. The Canadian citizen was deported last year from the USA to Syria where he was allegedly tortured and held for months in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. "Not only did the US government fail to seek assurances that Maher Arar would not be tortured in Syria, but, more worryingly, it appears that they may have actively engineered his transfer to Syria. In doing so, they bypassed certain legal guarantees, including his right to effective consular assistance and to representation in a fair proceeding," Amnesty International said. The letter also refers to the persistent reports and rumours of detainees being secretly "rendered" to countries with a record of abusing suspects in order to extract information. Such countries are alleged to include Jordan, Morocco and Egypt. A senior intelligence official, was quoted in the Washington Post on 5 November as stating that there have been "a lot of rendition activities" since the attacks of 11 September 2001. Officials have been reported in earlier press articles to have openly stated that the USA may deliberately send some detainees to countries where they are abused during interrogation. Maher Arar was detained at JFK airport, New York, on 26 September 2002 while in transit to Canada and travelling on a Canadian passport. He was held in US custody for 13 days during which time he was reportedly questioned about alleged links with al-Qa'ida. He effectively "disappeared" from US custody and it later transpired that he was deported to Syria, without being represented at any hearing and without his family, lawyer or the Canadian consulate being informed. Mr Arar was recently released after being detained in Syria for a year without charge. Maher Arar returned to Canada last month where he has given detailed testimony to Amnesty International. Maher Arar said he was woken up by US officials in the early hours of 8 October and told that he was being deported to Syria. His protests that he would be tortured were, he said, ignored. While on the plane, he overheard members of the team accompanying him say that Syria did not want to take him directly, but that Jordan had agreed to take him. After a brief stop-over in Jordan, where he says he was shackled and beaten, he was driven to Syria and taken to the "Far Falestin", the Palestine Branch of Syrian military intelligence, known for the routine torture of political prisoners. While there he says, he was severely beaten with electrical cable during six days of interrogation, and threatened with electric shocks and the "metal chair" - a torture device that stretches the spine. Eventually, he says, he broke down and signed a document falsely confessing to having been in Afghanistan. He reports he was held alone in a tiny, basement cell without light ,which he called "the grave", for more than 10 months. A small grate in the ceiling opened up into a hallway above, through which cats and rats urinated into his cell. There was no furniture in the cell, only two blankets on the floor. He had no exposure to natural light at all for the first six months. "The USA appears to have been in gross violation of its obligations under international law in deporting him to Syria, whether directly or indirectly" Amnesty International said. The organization added that he was also denied basic rights while in US custody, including being held incommunicado for the first seven days and denied prompt access to the Canadian consulate. Background The US government appears to have breached its own policies as well as international law in deporting Maher Arar. Article 3 of the Convention against Torture prohibits the transfer of anyone to another state where there are "substantial grounds" for believing that person would risk being tortured. In a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy last June, Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes wrote that government policy was to "comply with all of its legal obligations in its treatment of detainees" and would not transfer anyone to a country where they may face torture and, if necessary, would seek assurances from the receiving country that torture would not be used against the transferred individual. The entry on Syria in the US State Department's latest human rights report cites "credible evidence that security forces continue to use torture". Syria was cited by President Bush in a major address on the Middle East on 6 November 2003 as a country with a "legacy of torture". web.amnesty.org

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 1:49:14 PM
From: JBTFD	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

As JLA would say: What crapola.....you really haven't got a clue.......

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 2:01:37 PM
From: Orcastraiter	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Look at yourselves, all you anti-American lefties here. I'm a Pro-American Lefty, and proud of it! Orca

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 2:55:39 PM
From: Krowbar	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

So, what do you have to say about the film of Rummy and Saddam kissing each other up? Don't believe it or what? I'm not interested in what you think liberals. Del

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 2:58:13 PM
From: ChinuSFO	Read Replies (5) \| Respond to of 769667

Hey PROLIFE, go and first get a life OK. You fight for the unborn fetus, but once the child is born what about their education, their health care. Where does it come from. Don't screw around and tell us what life is. And along with the Bible, learn to hold up other holy books also. Just like Osama and his men who only brandish the Koran, you folks must quit brandishing only the Bible. For if you continue to do so then you and Osama types have no difference. For once change from being the Christian Right to being a Right Christian.

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 4:29:24 PM
From: Red Heeler	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

Why PROLIFE? I've asked myself that question often of late. Why would someone choose such a name? One would think, "A person choosing the name PROLIFE must be a person who believes in the sanctity of life and the right of every living thing to share in the wonder of life here on earth." Of course, in American society the word PROLIFE takes a different meaning. It is defined as a person who is anti-abortion, but, negative connotations of the term "anti-abortion" being what they are, the rules of good public relations demand a more genteel and life-affirming name, even if the intent is not to affirm life. How may one assume that a person self-named PROLIFE may not be pro-life? Look at the evidence. A man, in the name of saving lives, bombs a building in which innocent lives are taken. Another man, in the name of saving life, takes a rifle and murders a doctor who performs abortions, thus destroying that doctor's life and ruining the lives of the members of his family. These are just two examples of manifold incidents in which those claiming to be pro-life have taken not only the lives of those they deem to be "out of control," but also the lives of innocent bystanders. What, then, can be the real motive of those who claim to be pro-life but in the act of supporting life, kill? Look at the name as it appears here on SI. PROLIFE - all caps. That's not a statement - it's a shout, it's a scream, it's an ORDER. It's an order. It's an order to bring everyone into agreement with the pro-life faction - or prepare to die. "I'm PROLIFE and I will bring order by force, if necessary, if that's what it takes to CONTROL you." CONTROL. That's what your name should really be, PROLFE, because that's what you desire, CONTROL. That's why you so fervently support GW Bush. He's your great hope for CONTROL of those whom you deem to be out of control. And the thing you admire about Bush is his fervency that outstrips even yours in its ruthlessness and savagery. "You will do as I say; I will control you even if I have to kill every last one of you." Killing someone to control them is, I think we would both agree, an extreme control method, but a control method nevertheless which both your ilk and GW Bush uses with great enthusiasm. PROLIFE? Not anyone who wishes to wrongly and illegally control others at gunpoint. PROLIFE? Not Bush. PROLIFE? Not you. CC

To: PROLIFE who wrote (500960)	11/30/2003 6:49:04 PM
From: Thomas A Watson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 769667

LOL Well the troop of toads all replied. samo samo lamo. They sound like their hero looks. us.news2.yimg.com