2. For the purpose of determining whether there are such grounds, the competent authorities shall take into account all relevant considerations including, where applicable, the existence in the State concerned of a consistent pattern of gross, flagrant or mass violations of human rights."
Officials in both the US and Canada were fully aware of Syria's reputation for subjecting prisoners to torture. Arar was the victim of the growing paranoia promoted by the secretive and repressive war on terror, but he was also a victim of the long term practice of some governments of turning a blind eye to torture in some states if torture suits their purposes.
When the US began shipping prisoners to Guantanamo Bay to be held indefinitely away from the prying eyes of the world, talk of torture circulated. A December 26, 2002 Washington Post report pointed out that not only prisoners being forced to stand or kneel in uncomfortable positions for hours at the CIA interrogation centre un Bagram, but were being subjected to such interrogation techniques as sleep deprivation and being kept under bright lights for twenty four hour periods. In the same report the Washington Post also said that prisoners who would not cooperate were sometimes "rendered" to other states for further interrogation.
In other words, if the milder forms of torture being used by the US aren't getting results, they send the person to be interrogated by a country that will not hesitate to use much harsher forms of torture. It is kind of like outsourcing jobs, but more extreme. Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan and Morocco are some of the places where the US has sent prisoners for further interrogation. These are all countries known to use torture during interrogation and as punishment.
The US uses other countries so it can maintain the appearance of abiding by international laws and agreements. In reality this no different than performing the torture themselves, but they hide behind the distinction. The US seems much less concerned about even bothering to maintain that illusion under the Bush regime.
What about those prisoners in Bagram that were being subjected to techniques such as sleep deprivation and being forced to maintain uncomfortable positions for hours on end? US authorities maintain that such techniques are not torture. They refer to them as "stress and duress" and insist that no torture is going on.
Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee Against Torture feel differently. According to Amnesty International, "The Committee against Torture, established to oversee implementation of the treaty, has expressly held that restraining detainees in very painful positions, hooding, threats, and prolonged sleep deprivation are methods of interrogation which violate the prohibition on torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment." In other words the US is torturing people by using techniques that they admit to.
Then there are the things the US isn't admitting to. Two prisoners died in Bagram in December of 2002. The autopsy reports listed homicide as the cause of death. Blunt force trauma was noted in both cases. It appears that the men died from being beaten while in custody. That is torture. The men died as a result of it.
The incidents continue. We've all seen the footage of prisoners in Iraq; sacks on their heads, arms tied behind them; being made to stand in the sun for hours. Rumours of torture to prisoners being held by the US military, and sometimes private contractors working for the US military, are persistent. Usually the rumours are of the "stress and duress" variety of torture but not always.
The apologists say that torture is sometimes necessary to obtain information. That fallacy is shown in an episode of the television series Seven. A man is being tortured, he gives some pertinent information. The torturer passes the information on to an American sitting in the next room, apparently to avoid being involved in the actual torture. The bomb is found and everybody lives happily ever after.
Seven is just a television drama, but that scenario is the basic argument for torturing prisoners. It doesn't hold up to scrutiny because a subject of torture will often say almost anything to make the torture stop. The information is unreliable at best, dangerously wrong at worst. What if the subject of torture didn't know where the bomb was? What if he lied? Time and resources would be wasted, nothing having been accomplished except the torture of a prisoner...a crime. The bomb would still go off and there would be no happily ever after. The excuses given to justify torture are as fictional as the television show Seven.
We have real-world examples of the reliability of information obtained from torture victims. Maher Arar signed a confession when he was being tortured in Syria. He admitted to being a terrorist and having spent time at al Qaida training camps. He later recanted, saying the cofession was a result of torture. Even the Syrians didn't believe the confession. They knew it was the result of the torture.
Torture continues though. It does so in spite of international law and signed conventions. It does so in spite of the fact that even the torturers do not trust any information gained.
In July of 2003, CBS News reported the story of Khraisan al-Aballi. al-Aballi's house was raided by US forces one night. His brother was wounded in the attack and Khraisan, his eighty year old father, and his wounded brother were taken into custody. The father and Khraisan were taken to the detention centre at the Bagdad where Khraisan says he was stripped naked and kept awake for over a week. He was made to stand or kneel almost the entire time, with a bag over his head. He was finally released after eight days.
In February of 2004 Electronic Iraq released a story written by Jim Loney, a member of the Christian Peacemaker Teams. Loney interviewed two Iraqi men who had been taken captive by US forces after an explosion near their house. Both men reported being hooded, beaten, refused food, having their hands tied behind them, being kept awake, and being forced to maintain uncomfortable physical positions for extended periods. This treatment lasted for days while the men were interrogated. They knew no details of the explosion, both are farmers and drivers for government departments. Their detention and torture was arbitrary, a fishing trip based on nothing more than where they lived and attended Mosque.
Such stories are becoming more and more common as the occupation of Iraq drags on and alleged war on terror expands. US military and intelligence agencies are becoming increasingly bold in their defiance of international and domestic laws. They pay no heed to conventions they have signed and refuse to answer for their crimes.
The US, while claiming to be fighting injustice and repression, is committing acts of injustice and repression on a daily basis. They are also, undoubtedly, creating new terrorists on a daily basis by doing so. In the end they will learn the hard lesson learned by all nations who seek to dominate others, that you cannot rule by force. In the meantime they are making the world less safe for all of us.
And Canada should have no part in it.
Related links:
CBC backgrounder
http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/h_cat39.htm
http://www.hrw.org/press/2002/12/us1227.htm
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/07/20/iraq/main564095.shtml
http://electroniciraq.net/news/1367.shtml
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Reverend Blair was raised in Saskatchewan and currently lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba. He comes from a long line of social activists and cried on Tommy Douglas before his first birthday. His column appears biweekly on Vive le Canada.
Note: CBC backgrounder
http://www.unhchr.ch/ht...
http://www.hrw.org/pres...
http://www.cbsnews.com/...
http://electroniciraq.n...
Stumble It!
"The greatest price of not participating in politics is being governed by your inferiors." Plato
I don't understand how anyone can do business as usual with a government that's creating endless war, and completley disregards human rights and international law. That's one thing, but another is what does it say about our government doing the business as usual and contributing to this disgusting behaviour? I heard CSIS is going to use US style defense in the Arar case. "We can't answer that question or give you those documents for fear of disclosing intellegence and revealing security secrets." Blah, blah, blah.
I find that wrong in a democratic country. No one should be above the law, especially not the police force. The minute they are given "above the law" status, we're living in a policed state.
Look at Paul Martin in Washington right now. He's looking to sell what isn't his and you can bet that his corporate buddies and his boys will look after him for doing it. Martin doesn't care if the US tortures people.
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Dave Ruston
Sadly, I know that. Today, seeing Martin with Bush, I had to just keep asking myself what exactly is he trying to accomplish there? To just look and listen to what we see and hear there is no point to him being there. None. They don't take good pictures together, you know that whatever borders Bush is going to open will never open or however many mad cows are going to be on the move will not be moving. They're both such swaggerts. (If that isn't a word, it should be.) It's pitiful what lengths they'll go to to try and make it look like they're making some relevant point. Torture the political way.
But Canada DOES have a part in it.
The government of Canada conspired with the government of the United States to kidnap a foreign national on their soil and deport him to Canada so that he could then be deported to a third country.
The man's name is Ernst Zundel. The man's crime? He thinks that a significant number less than six million 'jews' died at the hands of the Nazi's during the Second World War. Why was he deported to Canada? Because Canada has 'hate' crimes laws that will allow Mr. Zundel to be deported to Germany where it is a crime to question the 'jewish' version of history.
It's obvious Canada fought on the wrong side of the Second World War. If Canada wanted to behave like the Nazi's they should have supported the read thing.
Canada is, or at least some authorities in Canada are, very likely complicit in the kidnapping and exportation of Maher Arar though. I worry that our troops in Afghanistan may become involved in torture there, but there have been no reports of it that I'm aware of.
As for commiting hate crimes, Mr. Zundel has never been convicted of any crime in Canada, including "hate crimes," that have not been overturned by a higher court, even as high as the Supreme Court of Canada. In fact he has been instrumental in expanding our right to free expression until the odious "hate crimes" law was passed that effectively eliminated freedom of thought and expression in Canada in the name of "tolerance" and "democracy."
As for his being tortued, what do you call being kidnapped from your home and deported to a foreign country? What do you call being locked up in solitary confinement without charge for almost two years? What do you call being denied needed medication? What do you call sleep deprivation? I call all of these things acts of torture.
Mr. Zundel is not a criminal. He is merely a crackpot, but if we have fear, persecute and jail crackpots our society is on very shakely legs. Either that, or what he's saying is true (that the "holocaust" was mostly anti-German propaganda and a hoax), in which case our society is in even greater danger.