How did we get such a weird government?

Article for the British Independent, by the stellar Robert Fisk:

But there's a bigger issue. Canada helped the US send an innocent Canadian citizen, Mahar Arar, to "rendition" in Syria, where he was savagely tortured. Only a few days ago, another Canadian Muslim told me how he was whipped with steel cables in Damascus as his torturers read out questions from the Canadian embassy. Yet another Canadian Muslim citizen, Abousfian Abdelrazik, has been living in the reception of the US embassy in Khartoum for 10 months after Canadian agents asked the enormously democratic Sudanese government to imprison him for terrorism. Now the government won't let him come home unless he's taken off not a Canadian, but a UN "terrorist" list. Cromwellian isn't the word for it. But the mystery is this: how did so many millions of decent Canadians come to be ruled by such a weird government?

EDIT: Abousofian Abdelrazik has been sleeping in the Canadian Embassy in Sudan, not the US Embassy. The factual error does not reflect well on Mr. Fisk, but it does underline the absurdity of the situation more thoroughly. He is a security risk when he comes to Canada, but apparently it's just fine to have him wandering hanging around the Canadian Embassy in Khartoum.

Captives

In 2003, Newsweek published this story, full of mistakes and/or lies.

Today, Aafia Siddiqui has been confirmed to be in American custody, and may have spent the last 5 years as the mysterious and mentally disturbed "Grey Lady of Bagram." The whereabouts of her 3 children, who disappeared on the same day as her, are still unknown.

Some actual journalism (consisting of more than taking dictation from government officials) was done by Katherine Osment of Boston Magazine.

What happened to Aafia Siddiqui and her children that day is anyone's guess. Siddiqui's mother, Ismet, claims that a few days after Siddiqui's disappearance, a man on a motorcycle arrived at her house in a leather suit and helmet and told her Aafia was being held and that she should keep quiet if she ever wanted to see her daughter and grandchildren again.

A report in the Pakistani Urdu press said that Siddiqui and her kids had been seen being picked up by Pakistani authorities and taken into custody. Even a spokesman for Pakistan's interior ministry and two unnamed U.S. officials confirmed this in the press. Several days later, however, Pakistani and American officials mysteriously backtracked, saying it was unlikely that Siddiqui was in custody.

Today she stands accused of shooting a US soldier with his own gun, having miraculously reappeared in Afghanistan.

The lies are maddening.

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On another note, I came across this from a friend who is currently attending the 17th International AIDS conference in Mexico City.

http://www.iranfreethedocs.org/

Since I am unfamiliar with the background, I cannot vouch for the content or the claims being made, except to say that I agree with this statement:

"The Iranian government must demonstrate that the current allegations are credible and ensure that the Alei brothers have access to legal counsel,” said Joe Amon, Director of the Health and Human Rights division at Human Rights Watch. “And they must recognize that these charges stifle the country’s efforts to effectively address AIDS and to serve as a model for the region."

. . . and that HRW (who have yet to steer me wrong) have also issued a statement to similar effect. For whatever good it might do, I signed the petition (and encourage you to consider it).

If you are the praying sort, please remember Dr. Siddiqui and the Alei brothers in your heart.

The allegations are NOT serious

There is considerable disagreement in this country between the Harper Konservatives and well, all the decent people, about what to do about Omar Khadr. The decent people find it beyond comprehension that the government would not be lobbying for the release of an abducted Canadian citizen. The Harper Konservatives think that the "established process" (as I heard one spokesman put it on the radio yesterday) should run its course, even if that involved having a fifteen year-old be sleep deprived prior to interrogations, and held at facilities notorious for abuse and murder on the part of the abductors. Incidentally, 2 U.S. Supreme Court rulings an 1 Supreme Court of Canada ruling have all declared the "established process" to be illegal.

Curiously, though, everyone seems to agree that the allegations against Khadr are "serious" - when this is raised, no one seems to quibble with it. "Of course the allegations are serious, but we have to do protect our citizen," say even those who are sympathetic to Khadr.

Are they though? What's he accused of? Throwing a grenade at US forces in Afghanistan, that killed one soldier. Never mind that the claim is itself dubious (which is to say, baseless), we are using standard American combat procedures here:

1) We go to 3rd-World country.
2) We drop bombs all over the place.
3) When we run out of things to bomb, we go in and shoot people.
4) Anybody who shoots back is a terrorist.

But who in Canada can be trust to explain the realities of combat to the bleeding-heart Canadians, clamoring for Khadr's release?

CanWest Global's flagship rag, the National Post, rises to the challenge.

And who do we find "reporting" for that rag? None other than Stewart Bell, author of such scholarly works as Cold Terror: How Canada Nutures and Exports Terrorism Around the World and Martyr's Oath: Apprenticeship of a Homegrown Terrorist. Forget "The Mozlems are Coming!" Apparently, Canada's REAL problem is "The Mozlems are Going!"

I have met Mr. Bell. To be charitable, he has spent too much time investigating one issue, and his approach has become rather blinkered. I won't say what I think of him when I'm not being charitable, but for him the word "terrorism" includes only violence committed by dark-skinned evil-doers, acting without the blessing of the US government.

From Bell's interviews with Sgt. Moris, who was blinded by that grenade:

"I haven't had a chance to look at it," Sgt. Morris, who lives in Utah, said of the video, "but I guess my thoughts are that if I'm ever in trouble, that's a bunch of defence attorneys that I'd like.

"They don't seem to be doing a whole lot of lawyering work. It's mostly PR work. And so it's kind of troublesome that the other side of the story has to be continually told in the media just to counter what the lawyers are trying to do in public."

Fortunately, courageous reporters like Stewart Bell are telling that story, giving hope and comfort to all those with paranoid delusions.