Not Every Suspect is a Terrorist--Just Ask Him
"As Congress weighs how to treat and try suspected terrorists, it should consider the story of Maher Arar, a Canadian Muslim.
"His case is a textbook example of what can go wrong, and why Americans should be leery of embracing the harsh tactics President Bush wants applied to terror suspects."
Arar was arrested, sent to another country where he was confined for about a year, beaten, and made a confession to something he couldn't possibly have done. Torture is not only cruel and inhumane, it's ineffective. The Spanish Inquisition used those methods, and terrified many into making false confessions. Will it help our "war against terror" to use cruel methods that are likely to get us completely inaccurate information?
Read Maher Arar's story at http://news.yahoo.com/s/usatoday/20060920/cm_usatoday/everysuspectisnotaterroristjustaskhim
Comments
Torture is wrong and it doesn't work. It's like hitting a kid until he says "uncle." He may not even have an uncle, but he'll say anything you want so you'll stop hitting him.
Posted by: Binky The WonderSkull | September 21, 2006 06:44 PM
Hey, I got an idea. Why don't we torture George W. Bush and Carl Rove and Donald Rumsveld and the rest. That way we can find out what they're really up to. They attacked innocent people with no good reason. Doesn't that make them terrorists?
Posted by: Rev. Bootie | September 22, 2006 08:34 PM
"All Americans want to hold terrorists accountable, but if we try to redefine the nature of torture, whisk people into secret detention facilities and use secret evidence to convict them in special courts, our actions do in fact embolden our enemies," said Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va.
Posted by: Reverend Loveshade | September 28, 2006 04:35 AM
When your government starts convicting people with secret evidence in secret courts, that's worse than terrorism. Thats a police state.
Posted by: John BassMaster | October 1, 2006 04:05 AM
But don't we want a police state? You can always trust the police, right? And if you believe that, I got a bridge in Brooklyn I'll sell you cheap.
Posted by: Rev. Bootie | October 7, 2006 05:44 PM
What is America coming to anyway? Why don't we just lock up everybody!
Posted by: Cheaper by the Dozen | October 23, 2006 08:56 PM
"For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences"
Quick quiz: in what document does the above quote appear, and who wrote it? Hint: he was complaining about a tyrant named George.
Posted by: Mal Y. Pense | November 23, 2006 05:54 AM
Mal Y. Pense, the document is the Declaration of Independence, and the authors are generally said to be Thomas Jefferson with a little help from friends John Adams and Benjamin Franklin. Or so they tell me.
Glad you posted this--on a quick overview of my copy of the DoI, I noticed 5 violations of the Declaration being made by America's current administration, including the one you listed.
Question to whoever: How many violations do you see?
Posted by: Reverend Loveshade | November 25, 2006 05:40 AM