[Vision2020] Innocent Man Sent to Syria and Tortured

[Ted Moffett]

Dick wrote:



>   The problem lies in the way some are trying to make
> it appear as though it wasn't a mistake at all, but deliberate.


You mean to imply that Canadian and/ or US authorities accidentally
sent this man to Syria, ignoring habeus corpus protections, rather than
holding him under court supervision in the US or Canada?  Are you saying the
violation of habeas corpus in this case was "accidental?"

No one is saying that someone connected to planning terrorists attacks
should not be detained and questioned, etc.  The issue, the major and
overwhelmingly important issue, is secret detainment away from court
oversight in a foreign country with use of torture.
.
Why is this so hard to understand?

Of course mistakes can be made in law enforcement, this is a given.  That is
why there are constitutional protections in place to prevent government
abuses, like courts that review cases of imprisonment.  Why are the
defenders of the Bush administration's undermining of civil rights so
distrustful of courts?  It's as though they have no faith in our system of
government, the equal sharing of power between the judiciary, legislative
and executive branch.  Indeed, a case can be made that supporting the
undermining of the role of courts, as the Bush administration has done with
FISA and elsewhere, is an attack on the fundamental system of justice that
protects all of us from government abuses.

And I thought "conservatives" were in favor or limiting government power
over its citizens?  It seems our new brand of "conservative" is intent on
expanding federal power over the individual to include secret imprisonment
away from court supervision with torture, under the justification such
abuses are justified by the "war on terror."  Sounds like Communist China,
or the old Soviet Union...

The mistake was made, it needs to be rectified, at least to the degree
> possible, and we need to get on with life.  We do not need to have it
> thrown
> up in our face time after time.


Again, the point is the abandonment of the basic legal protections of habeas
corpus which are fundamental to preventing government abuses.  This case
highlights the issue, partly because it has been so exhaustively documented,
and is becoming a focal point for why habeas corpus protections need to be
enforced.

This case is not the worst example, though it may be one of the
most documented.  Many have died in custody (and I emphasize in custody, not
on the battlefield) due to torture under US led operations under
circumstances where they were never formally charged with a crime nor was
guilt or innocence firmly determined.

http://www.projectcensored.org/newsflash/HardEvidence.pdf

------------
Ted Moffett
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