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Saturday, October 20, 2007
Arar: The Missing Pieces
Once again the odious Maher Arar is in the news, continuing his endless saga of public weeping over his extremely remunerative and allegedly torture-filled stay in a Syrian prison. I would note that I use the word “allegedly” advisedly: so far as has been established, the evidence that Mr. Arar was in fact subjected to “torture” in Syria is entirely circumstantial and based upon the claims of an individual (that is to say, Mr. Arar himself) with an obvious persona and financial interest in exaggerating the hardships that he faced to the greatest possible degree.
As one might expect, Democrats – and Republicans of a certain bent – staged a contest to see who could kow-tow more thoroughly to the alleged victim. To say that the sight filled me with unutterable loathing would be putting it very mildly. My own Grandparents were, despite total innocence, actually deprived of their liberty entirely on account of their race. They had no shady connections or questionable associates. No pattern of suspicious activity. And they were not only imprisoned for substantially longer than Mr. Arar was, but they were also deprived of all of their property. They were unreservedly innocent – but they didn’t get millions of dollars, nor did they spend the rest of their lives attacking the government and undermining its ability to go about its business.
To tell the truth, despite endless news stories – and millions of dollars spent – for some reason we still don’t know the full story about Mr. Arar and why he underwent what he did. The conventional narrative is that, without any basis in fact, the RCMP, CSIS, and American authorities sent an innocent man off to be tortured by the Syrian government – presumably simply on accounts of his religion. The problem I have with this story is that it doesn’t explain why the RCMP, CSIS, and others – who have shown, how shall I say, an unusual solicitude towards those who practice the faith of Mohammed – would single out this particular innocent Moslem for such cruel mistreatment.
(Continued at adamyoshida.com)
Posted by Adam T. Yoshida on October 20, 2007 in Canadian Politics | Permalink
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Comments
It is well said: missing pieces.
No proof of torture and US Security Services still keep an eye.
I wish a complete investigation would be made and if some lies and untruths come on top, that we get the 10 millions back. Because it is our money, right?
Posted by: Rémi Houle | 2007-10-20 7:35:11 AM
The real BS part of this Arar case is that the Cdn govt found it necessary to pay $10 million goddamn taxpayer dollars for his still questionable sob story.
It wasn't us that sent him there and it wasn't us that tortured him.
And by the looks of Mr Arar, he didn't suffer a hell of lot of torture either.
Clearly, somebody paid big money trying to cover up the true/whole story on Arar's misadventure.
Posted by: rockyt | 2007-10-20 8:01:08 AM
Muslims cry "torture" all the time. It is part of their playbook to arouse sympathies from their friends the Leftoids.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-20 8:16:14 AM
Torture can mean anything from being detained/kept in custody to being brutalized.
One person who never got as much as an apology that I'm aware of, let alone millions of dollars, was dual British-Canadian William Sampson. He was tortured, there was evidence.
Is there obvious difference here? He's not Muslim?
He's originally from the homeland of many who built this country?
We have three more freaking opportunists trying the same stunt. Are we paying for their legal fees too? Guess they figure if Arar didn't have to give absolute proof beyond reasonable doubt, they'd give it a try, just might work.
As in the Arar case, it'll be tough to prove and tough to disprove. Common sense would dictate they give absolute proof before money is given out.
Why do they continue to trek back to the places they fled in the first place? Why are we Canadians responsible for their safety when they take risks?
Maybe the answer they are not true Canadians and never will be.
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-20 8:47:23 AM
BRAVO! Well said, LizJ!
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-20 9:29:05 AM
Good post Yo,
I don't believe the Arar story for one minute. This is a gigantic scam and our weak politically correct government used my money to make it go away.
When Arar returned he looked like a man who has had a few late nights, not outright brutal torture as he claimed.
Posted by: John | 2007-10-20 10:37:25 AM
"they are not true Canadians and never will be"
Right on LizJ. Maher Arar is a Syrian-born citizen of Syria, and a radical Islamist to boot. But because this lowlife was allowed into Canada and given citizenship, we true Canadian taxpayers had to fork over $10 million because his own countrymen "tortured" him.
Stop Muslim immigration now and deport radical Islamosavages like Arar and his headscarfed, terror-supporting, NDP-candidate wife.
Posted by: JP | 2007-10-20 11:04:19 AM
Something about this msm 'sad saga' has bothered me from the very beginning. If the US congress is willing to take the blame for the Arar incident then I think that they should reemburse Canadian taxpayers for the 10 million dollars.
What type of computer business was this Arar fellow involved in that required him to travel? Anyone know?
Posted by: jema54j | 2007-10-20 11:40:35 AM
Good observation Jema, the whole point of computerization of our society is that we can pretty much do anything that doesn't require physical contact online. That includes software development and sales. Even hardware design and testing can be done over the net.
Arar is either a terrorist, as terrorist fund raiser, or a brilliant scam artist.
The Muzz are only too aware of what a soft touch we are. In Canada Whining works. Complain enough and you get other people's money.
You don't see this in the Muslim world. They don't even get involved in helping with victims of natural disaster such as the bit Tsunami or the Turkey Earthquake that killed 80,000. What altruistic foundation have been set up with the obscene amount of oil wealth these scummmers are extorting from the rest of us?
Where are the Carnegies and Fords in their society? In fact have they ever produced a Mozart or Rembrandts or Newton or Shakespeares or anything? Any big medical or scientific breakthroughs in their world?
Noooooooooooooo
Here is a stat for you on this topic.
The Jews (total world pop 18 million) have amasses over 150 Nobel prizes in all disciplines (not the phony peace price given to that phoniest of phonies Al Gore)
The entire Muslim world (total pop, 1.5 Billion) has amassed a total of 8 and one was to that bastard Arafat. Most of the others were won by Muzzies living in the West.
So much the great Islamic world. They are the worst plague this world has ever seen. Before they are done, they will make guys like Stalin, Mau and Hitler look like pikers.
Posted by: John | 2007-10-20 12:09:22 PM
They are already producing a Hitler in Iran.
The very teaching of the Koran prevents any achievement.
Posted by: Rémi Houle | 2007-10-20 12:23:35 PM
Whether Arar is a terrorist or connected to terrorists we do not know. However the Globe story today, if true, is suggestive:
1. Arar misled the US government when he said he had no reason to imagine why the US authorities would ban his entry. If his story is true, he knew he had admitted (allegedly under coercion) that he had been in an al Qaeda training camp. He also knew the US had independent corroboration. His lawyers knew this too.
2. His lawyers are saying Arar "does not recall" ever meeting the alleged terrorist instructor. This is lawyer-speak; we all know what this means.
Keep in mind that whether Arar was in Afghanistan or attended the training camp was never under the remit of the Canadian inquiry. This alone is bloody incredible (ask 100 Canadians and 99 will say the inquiry cleared him of ever attending a terrorist camp). We already know that Arar's allegations of being physically terrorized are full of holes. Any half-baked lawyer could cross-examine Arar to shreds and destroy his credibility in Court (but of course Arar never had to withstand this indignity during the inquiry). This man and his sycophantic self-interested lawyers (sucking at the teat of the Canadian taxpayer) paint him as a lamb. He may well be innocent, but he is, let's give him credit, casual with the truth. I wonder if there will be just as much media interest and government-funded lawyerly resources invested into the source of this leak to the Globe as was invested in the alleged RCMP leaks to Canwest about Arar's guilt...any lawyer who may have been complicit in this Globe leak has violated US penal law and should easily lose their licence. Stay tuned.)
Posted by: curious | 2007-10-20 12:26:54 PM
I suggest we should find a willing reporter who could do a proper investigation in this stinky adventure that is very costly for us. Good luck for investigating in Syria. They already killed many lebanese politicians.
Something is being hidden from us. It just does not make sense giving away 10 million dollars of our own money.
Posted by: Rémi Houle | 2007-10-20 12:54:26 PM
I am not prepared to whitewash this guy. There are too many unanswered question (and there is no proof he was ever tortured). In the Western Standard earlier this year, there was also the question about him owning a gun and his frequent hopping across the Canadian-US border.
Too many unanswered questions. I, for one, do not believe he was ever tortured. That's baloney, and I want my $10 million back. That money belongs to Canadian taxpayers.
Posted by: Werner Patels (THE SPADE) | 2007-10-20 1:49:26 PM
I was tortured, along with hundreds of others, as a child, in school, and I want 10 Million dollars.
Proof of torture is that many lefthanded people will veryify that they were forced to use their right hands to write.
We suffered discrimination and abuse. That yardstick across the fingers hurt.
We need to get together and file a lawsuit against every teacher, school official and govts that allowed this. Sarc off.
But, it is true.
Posted by: MaryT | 2007-10-20 1:53:35 PM
"Near the end of his first term, Mulroney closed a dark chapter in Canadian history with a formal apology and $300 million compensation package for the families of the 22,000 Japanese Canadians who had been stripped of their property and interned during the Second World War."
In contrast, there never has been an apology or compensation for the Canucks massacred and raped after Hong Kong fell at Christmas 1941. Nor has there ever been an apology or compensation for Canuck POWs brutalised in Japanese camps. Their sacrifice was even further demeaned by the Mulroney government. John Crosby, attending the funeral of the Japanese Emperor, deemed it politically incorrect to visit the graves of Canada's forgetten heroes while in Japan.
More recently, Steven Fletcher's abasement, for commenting about the horrors his grandfather faced during the war in the Pacific, was ensured.
"A Conservative MP in Canada, Steven Fletcher, has just been forced into the grovel ritual for saying of Japan�s WWII soldiers;
"The Japs were Bastards"
He was in a particularly good position to assert this because
His grandfather was a prisoner of war held by the Japanese, captured during the fall of Singapore� Fletcher told The Canadian Press: �They used my grandfather�s friend for bayonet practice. They put my grandfather on a raft when he was ill to die. They shot people indiscriminately. In the context of the time, in World War II, they treated people in ways that were barbaric and disgusting, and it should never be forgotten�
The culprit, of course, is the principle that states that people of color are to be privileged in public debate and public life."
Posted by: DJ | 2007-10-20 4:31:52 PM
Mary T,
The equivalent in the case of Arar would be that he was sent by another country--back to his homeland--and in that country, they forced him to write with his right hand--when he was left handed. Then, as a adult, he gets the media all whipped up into a frenzie, that Canada did nothing to stop another country from forcing him to write with his right hand.
Interesting you should mention this, because the islamofacists eat with their right hand only, and wipe their rear ends, with their left. So, left handedness is a matter of fact--discriminated against in islam. I wonder--does this mean that left handedness means their...never mind.
We have come to a point in Canada, where people expect to have been treated with perfection. Under such a circumstance--we can never meet the expectation, so people will always exploit us. In Syria and places like that, they place themselves--the government that is--into the position of the almighty handing out punnishment to the wicked--so of course that means that no one can sue them, because you cannot sue what is deemed to be a godly act in teh first place. Who would sue what they call their gd? This would then be blasphemy which would require more punnishment to beat the so called devil out of the person who does not believe what they believe, in the political manner in which they do.
I have often wondered whether it is because they are infected with a fungus--that causes them to have these delussions of grandeur--or whether it is something in their water--or in their genes?
Saracasm off!
Posted by: Lady | 2007-10-20 5:21:35 PM
Geez Lady, Islamos wipe their asses with the left hand and eat with the right? No s**t! Is that straight orders from Allah or just to save hand washing?
Lets say it's no wonder they're all wacko with all the rules that must be followed to adhere to that "religion".
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-20 6:22:30 PM
These ignorant comments about the DOCUMENTED torture of Maher Arar just prove why the Western Standard ceased publication. Matt Good was right after all... you are a bunch of reactionary dittoheads.
Posted by: Dave | 2007-10-20 7:01:24 PM
Get a life (and brain), Dave: there is absolutely NO PROOF OF TORTURE. We only have Arar's word .......
Posted by: Werner Patels | 2007-10-20 7:08:38 PM
Nice rhetoric and supposed insult. How about testimony from four Syrian officials? Oh, wait, that hasn't hit the conservative press yet.
Posted by: Dave | 2007-10-20 8:05:08 PM
Give it up, Dave. Arar should be sent back to where he came from and the $10 million should be returned to the decent Canadian taxpayers. There was no torture (they all claim torture when they are captured -- it's part of their playbook). All Canadian officials who were there at the time never saw any indication of torture (not even the tiniest).
You lefties really need to grow a brain and fast, Dave Cardill.
Posted by: Werner Patels | 2007-10-20 8:07:23 PM
4 Syrian officials? Are these the same officials that denied that Israel bombed their nuclear facility last month?
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-20 8:08:41 PM
dave speaks the truth. you have no idea of the storm coming. petey, like gordo is not well liked here. stay tuned...
Posted by: excse | 2007-10-20 8:21:32 PM
MaryT, my wife is right with you on the lefthanded lawsuit. Heh.
LizJ, a friend of my wife spent time in Libya before the wacko Muammar came along, and she pointed out that grass doesn't grow in the desert sand, so they usually use their bare hand.
A side note.
She also visited Beirut when it was still a vibrant jewel of the Mediterranean.
Amazing how fast the world can change when you have doughheads running it, eh.
Posted by: rockyt | 2007-10-20 9:08:27 PM
Hey Dave, could please give me an estimate on far, say $400000 Cdn taxpayer dollars would go if you dividied it by, say 4 offic..., I mean, people living in Syria?
Na, don't bother it was extremely stupid of me to think that Syrians could be bribed with money.
The stupidty of paying Arar $10 million for his alleged torture is that every Tom, Dick and Harry that returns from the Middle East will be claiming some kind of maltreatement to capitalize on the apparent softheadedness of the Foreign Affairs department or whoever.
Posted by: rockyt | 2007-10-20 9:22:18 PM
Rockyt, we already have three Amigos,er..Moes, trying to scam us for alleged torture fighting in the courts for the big payout. We're likely paying for the legal fees as well.
Some of them are scam artists of the worst order. They come here to live in comfort and safety and continue to traipse off the the lands they "escaped", boggles the mind. Where the hell do they find the money to travel back and forth?
Are we supporting them and their families on welfare as well?
Posted by: LizJ | 2007-10-21 6:42:03 AM
I think the point most people are missing, is that human beings are unfortunately still stuck in biological weaknesses when it comes to overcoming our fears. Let me elaborate. Half of the world, it seems are inherently tribal, falling on their own race or creed that was nurtured from childhood. This breeds what is currently seen as racism. The other half are blind optimists that think they can change the racists with social engineering or faith-based principles.
Fortunately for all of us, since our bodies are still hard-wired into ten million years of evolution, there have been the visionaries to light our paths. And they range from the laureates to the girl-next-door.
So let's remember not to get too passionate about the issue of the day and try to be of the visionary -leaning instead. We are weak and the world is frightening at times, but it is these struggles that make life worth living. Find a calm centre.
Posted by: kris | 2007-10-21 9:30:29 AM
"since our bodies are still hard-wired into ten million years of evolution"
False premise - false conclusion - imho.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 9:34:19 AM
WOW! We were spared this embarrassment:
"UN turned down Montreal move?"
The United Nations recently turned down an invitation from the Canadian government to move its headquarters from New York to Montreal.
Montreal's La Presse reports a $2.2-billion proposal to bring the world body north was drawn up by public and private investors.
The UN plans to undertake an estimated $1.9 billion in renovations to its existing buildings in Manhattan.
The newspaper says government sources confirmed an "informal" project was presented to UN officials.
THAT'S ALL WE NEEDED! And who was the knucklehead behind this "invitation" anyway? Hmmmmmmmm?
Hey - if Quebec would then have separated, we could have been rid of both these problems simultaneously!
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 11:39:03 AM
"Half of the world, it seems are inherently tribal, falling on their own race or creed that was nurtured from childhood. This breeds what is currently seen as racism. The other half are blind optimists that think they can change the racists with social engineering or faith-based principles."
It's only whites, hardly half the world, that bare the brunt of the social engineering. And the only principle used is race-replacement. Mass immigration into Euro countries and predominantly the Anglosphere, will mean the extinction of the founding people of those countries. China, Japan, Korea, India, Africa or Israel are not subjected to these pressures. It is the alleged "optimists" who are the racists. For it is clear that they hate whites.
Posted by: DJ | 2007-10-21 5:35:42 PM
Blah, blah, blah says the racist among us.
Posted by: obc | 2007-10-21 5:47:37 PM
I'm familiar with the comment 20 million jews vs. 1.5 billion muslims. Another sick outrageous civil rights settlement. Those should be banned to small claims court.
Posted by: ar | 2007-11-02 11:22:31 PM
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