at-Largely

Canada, oh Canada...

In the 24 hours since I checked the news, Canada put Israel on the torture watch list (or at least it recently became known to the public that they had) and then removed Israel from the torture watch list:

"Canada's foreign ministry, responding to pressure from close allies, said on Saturday it would remove the United States and Israel from a watch list of countries where prisoners risk being tortured. Both nations expressed unhappiness after it emerged that they had been listed in a document that formed part of a training course manual on torture awareness given to Canadian diplomats.
 
Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier said he regretted the embarrassment caused by the public disclosure of the manual, which also classified some U.S. interrogation techniques as torture. "

Water-boarding is torture (as defined by international treaties) and the US uses the water-boarding "technique."  As I am an American citizen, I am more interested in why the US has been listed. Remember, as defined by the law, including US law, water-boarding is torture. M'kay? So let's see what the US says:

"We find it to be offensive for us to be on the same list with countries like Iran and China. Quite frankly it's absurd," U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins told The Associated Press. "For us to be on a list like that is just ridiculous."'

Okay, I saw we see what Amnesty International has to say on the topic:

This represents substantial slippage. Six decades ago, the USA viewed waterboarding as a war crime.(9) Today, not only has it apparently been part of the CIA's toolkit, Congress and the administration have collaborated to facilitate impunity for those who have authorized or employed this or other techniques that violate international law, whether on their own or in combination. Section 1004 of the DTA, for example, provides a type of 'good faith' defence against criminal and civil liability for US personnel who had engaged in torture or other ill-treatment using officially sanctioned interrogation methods or detention conditions.

<snip>

When the USA, with the advice and consent of the Senate, ratified the UN Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention against Torture) in October 1994, and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights two years earlier, it did so on the condition that the prohibition in these treaties on cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment only meant what was already banned under the US Constitution.(13)

So as to Mr. Wilkins' feelings on this, while he may be offended by seeing the US listed on Canada's country's that torture list,  I find it offensive that water-boarding is used by my government. Mr. Wilkins also forgets that the US kidnapped, detained, and tortured a Canadian citizen, who after he was released and won a massive settlement against his own government, is still denied entry into the US. Are we so afraid of letting him into our country because we fear that he will make Mr. Wilkins  - and those like him - look like an apologist or is it because Mr. Wilkins and others like him, cannot stand to look themselves in the mirror and subsequently at the victims the Bush policy of torture has produced?

Both Iran and China use this technique, which might explain why the US is mingled in with these oppressive regimes. See the Bush administration wants it both ways. They want to disregard the Geneva conventions, and the UN Convention against Torture (as well as other treaties and agreements that we are signatories to, not to mention the US Constitution) and they also want to pretend that the US has a stellar human rights record. Sorry folks, but it does not work this way. You cannot violate the law, disregard human rights, and then cry like a little girl when someone calls you out on it. I suggest that Israel remain off the list, unless the Canadians are willing to put both Palestine and Israel on it.

On the other hand, the US should be stapled to that list. Perhaps it should be typed out 95 times and nailed to the door of the White House in a formal break from the appearance of democracy by a country still young enough to value it.

Ils mentent même sans leurs masques

Ah the police of Quebec found three bad apples, as though they don't get the French phrase "agent provocateur."

"Quebec provincial police admitted Thursday that three of their officers disguised themselves as demonstrators during the protest at the North American leaders summit in Montebello, Que.

However, the police force denied allegations its undercover officers were there on Monday to provoke the crowd and instigate violence.

"At no time did the police of the Sûreté du Québec act as instigators or commit criminal acts," the police force said in French in a news release. "It is not in the police force's policies, nor in its strategies, to act in that manner." (CBC News)

Pardon me while I take a moment to laugh very loudly at this hogwash.  The three masked bandits who tried to start a riot by dressing as anarchists and attempting to throw stones at the police were what, exactly then?

"Police said the three undercover officers were only at the protest to locate and identify non-peaceful protesters in order to prevent any incidents."

I see, and this is done by attempting to throw rocks at the official police? Well, obviously nothing screams "non-peaceful protesters over there" like a rock being thrown by an uncover cop against a uniformed police officer. I see the clever logic in this.

"Police said the three were told to monitor protesters who were not peacefully demonstrating to prevent any violent incidents, but they were called out as undercover agents when they refused to throw objects."

Hmmm, but they were the only ones spotted attempting to throw objects. In fact, they were zeroed in on by the protesters precisely because they were the only ones acting so violently toward the uniformed police.

I have a really great suggestion for the Quebec police who think that the public is far too stupid to understand what is going on. Here are the Church Committee documents on the COINTELPRO operations of the US FBI. See, 9/11 changed nothing. It only made it more palatable.

They hate us for our freedom?

I give you the human rights policy of the United States:

"The previously blacked-out passages in the documents were released after a court order. US security officials arrested Mr Arar at a New York airport in 2002 and deported him to Syria.  In Canada, a government inquiry completely exonerated Mr Arar of any links with terrorist  groups.  The Canadian government had fought to keep the unreleased sections of documents submitted to the Maher Arar inquiry from coming out.

They reveal that in 2002 a Canadian intelligence official in Washington wrote to his superiors about the so-called rendition to third countries by the FBI and the CIA.

In the same year, in October, the deputy director of Canada's intelligence agency wrote: I think that the US would like to get Arar to Jordan, where they can have their way with him. That was just two days after US officials sent Maher Arar to Syria, via Jordan. He had been detained while changing planes at John F Kennedy airport in New York.

He was imprisoned for almost a year and it is widely accepted in Canada that he was tortured, although Syria has denied this."

Your daily terrorism roundup

Once again, the courts prove to be the last wall defending the Constitution and the most sacred of democratic principles: habeas corpus:

"In a stinging rejection of one of the Bush administration’s central assertions about the scope of executive authority to combat terrorism, a federal appeals court ordered the Pentagon to release a man being held as an enemy combatant.

“To sanction such presidential authority to order the military to seize and indefinitely detain civilians," Judge Diana Gribbon Motz wrote, “even if the President calls them ‘enemy combatants,’ would have disastrous consequences for the Constitution — and the country.”"

It has had disastrous consequences already. I might add the Alberto Gonzales helped to "legalize" these activities along with John Yoo, who himself violated his role in the Office of Legal Council at DOJ, bypassed the Attorney General (then Ashcroft) and created legal justification for much of the illegality we now see being exposed. Yet despite his willingness to subvert the Constitution, violate his oath of office, likely violate the law, Yoo was given a Professorship at the prestigious Boalt Hall School of Law at the University of California - Berkley.  Why? Perhaps we should contact the university and ask?

(Oh, on a side note, the GOP delegation in the Senate closed ranks to protect Alberto Gonzales from a no-confidence vote, despite his clear human rights violations, allegations of witness tampering, allegations of obstruction of justice, and any number of other likely criminal activities. Why? Because he is of the same party? Somehow I think the NSA wiretapping program is paying off.)

Moving right along - I did sort of go adrift for a moment...

Your daily terrorism round up

Welcome to Big Brother's no fly list:

A top Constitutional scholar from Princeton who gave a televised speech that slammed President George W. Bush's executive overreach recently learned that he had been added to the Transportation Security Administration's terrorist watch list. He shared his experience this weekend at the law blog Balkinization.

Walter F. Murphy, the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence, Emeritus, at Princeton University, attempted to check his luggage at the curbside in Albuquerque before boarding a plane to Newark, New Jersey. Murphy was told he could not use the service.

"I was denied a boarding pass because I was on the Terrorist Watch list," he said.

When inquiring with a clerk why he was on the list, Murphy was asked if he had participated in any peace marches.

"We ban a lot of people from flying because of that," a clerk said.

Oh really? People who are for peace are terrorists? Nixon could have only dreamed of abusing power to this level.
 

Your daily terrorism round up

The US has gone bananas, literally. Chiquita, the banana company, has finally pled guilty to paying terrorists to police their business interests, and in return, the company gets to pay a fine, while the executives behind the terrorist deals are not even named:

"WASHINGTON - Banana company Chiquita Brands International admitted in federal court Monday that for years it paid Colombian terrorists to protect its most profitable banana-growing operation.

The company pleaded guilty to one count of doing business with a terrorist organization. The plea is part of a deal with prosecutors that calls for a $25 million fine and does not identity the several senior executives who approved the illegal protection payments.

The agreement ends a lengthy Justice Department investigation into the company's financial dealings with right-wing paramilitaries and leftist rebels the U.S. government deems terrorist groups."

Canada: Just say no to US kool-aid

Well at least our northern neighbors still value democracy:

"Two anti-terror measures adopted as part of Canada's response to the Sept. 11 terror attacks will expire Thursday after opposition lawmakers agreed they were an unnecessary infringement on civil liberties.

The measures empower authorities to arrest and detain suspects for three days without charge and to compel individuals with knowledge of terrorist activity to testify before a judge. Neither has ever been applied.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservative Party wanted to extend them three years, but his minority government needed the opposition's support."