Senators doubt official excuses for Maher Arar kidnapping

After a top-secret briefing Senators Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) still aren't convinced that the United States was entitled to kidnap the innocent Maher Arar and deport him to Syria for torture in the name of the Global War on Violent Extremism.

Arar is a Canadian citizen who was snatched by American officials at JFK Airport in 2002 and "extraordinarily rendered" to Syria where he was tortured for over a year.

The senators were granted the secret briefing after Mr. Leahy publicly rebuked Attorney General Alberto Alberto Gonzalez about Arar's rendition.

The official Maher Arar website (http://www.maherarar.ca/) is an extremely well-designed and informative resource about this case.

Comments

[Cass]

Thanks for calling attention to this website, Lindsay. I must point out however that the current official designation of the excitement in Iraq and Afghanistan is the "Global War Aganist Terrorism" (trademark pending). Seeing the awkwardness of the "GWOT" acronym in media stories, the administration test-marketed the "Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism" a few years ago, only to discard it in favor of the original title. (You may remember those prime-time slots with the dancing Marines singing: "Say hello to G-SAVE!!") In fairness, Stalin went through several titles for his own struggle before finding "The Great Patriotic War" scored highest amongst the all-important 18-35 demographic.

[deadissue]

Great post! I know it's been up here for a while already, but I came across it in a google blog search. Since writing 'The Murder of Maher Arar' a number of months ago, I've felt compelled to check in on occasion to see whether his name continues to ring out on the blogs.

I'm really an admirer of this kind of work being done...I'm going to link to this site on deadissue and hope that you might do the same.

Peace, Love and Acceleration
Al