Arar #5

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Last one for the day. These quotations are from a Toronto Star article on November 21, 2003, p. A13. I can’t find a link: U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft publicly washed his hands of the Maher Arar affair yesterday, saying his department acted within the law because it accepted Syrian assurances the Ottawa man would not … Read more

Arar #4

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1. From another Washington Post story on the Arar case, from November 5, 2003: Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Arar case fits the profile of a covert CIA “extraordinary rendition” — the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners…. … Read more

Plame Expressed as a Logrithmic Equation

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From the write up of the Sixty Minutes’ interview of O’Neill: Not only did O’Neill give Suskind his time, he gave him 19,000 internal documents. “Everything’s there: Memoranda to the President, handwritten “thank you” notes, 100-page documents. Stuff that’s sensitive,” says Suskind, adding that in some cases, it included transcripts of private, high-level National Security … Read more

Arar #3

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Here’s a useful timeline of the case from CBC News.

And here’s a Washington Post article from November 19, 2002, with more information on who approved Arar’s removal to Syria. (Thanks to reader Slartibartifast for the link.):

Then-Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, in his capacity as acting attorney general, signed the highly unusual order, citing national security and declaring that to send the man, Maher Arar, home to Canada would be “prejudicial to the interests of the United States,” according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity…..

A couple of questions/comments:

1) Based on these two DOJ web pages, the Deputy Attorney General is the second highest ranking person in the entire Justice Department.

(From the DOJ job description:“The Deputy Attorney General is authorized to exercise all the power and authority of the Attorney General….In the absence of the Attorney General, the Deputy Attorney General acts as the Attorney General.”)

So this was approved at a very high level. This cuts both ways. On the one hand, it is very upsetting to know that the second most important person in the Justice Department, acting as the Attorney General, would do this. On the other hand, it suggests that this power is reserved for unusual cases, not something that happens to everyone who is on the watch list and can be easily deported to a suitably nasty country. It also makes me wonder why they suspected Arar, and whether it was more than the unimpressive connections that Pyle cites.

(The article says “One U.S. official said yesterday that when apprehended at the airport, Arar had the names of “a large number of known al Qaeda operatives, affiliates or associates” in his wallet or pockets.” If that’s true it could have been a routine watch-list stop that became something more. I don’t think this would be acceptable even if Arar was guilty of something, or if he wasn’t guilty but they had good reason to believe it was. But it would be less flagrantly unacceptable.)

I do not know how unusual/routine it is for the Deputy Attorney General to act as the Attorney General. The thought immediately crossed my mind “why wasn’t Ashcroft acting as the Attorney General?” but for all I know the Deputy has the night shift, or Ashcroft was sick that week.

2) “then-Deputy Attorney General.” Larry D. Thompson is no longer Deputy Attorney General. He stepped down on August 11, 2003, and is now a visiting professor* at the University of Georgia law school.

His departure appears to have been voluntary–there’s a very complimentary press release here, including ‘quotations’ from Ashcroft:

“Larry was more than a Deputy Attorney General to me. He was my partner. He worked shoulder to shoulder with me at a time when history necessitated dramatic changes in the way the Justice Department did its job.”

(etc.)

Of course it’s possible that he was privately asked to resign over this case. (If so I wouldn’t have included that quotation in the press release, which really made me cringe. But that may be my bias showing through.) August 11 is before the story really broke. But it’s shortly after a human rights group reported that Arar was being tortured, and Arar’s wife asked Canada to recall its ambassador from Syria. (August 6th and 7th).

(There’s plenty of other good stuff in the Post story, which I may get to in a later post. Very much worth a read.)

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Class-blogging

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My “Terror in the 21st Century” class makes blogging both very difficult and very easy. Very difficult because there are 3 hours of class and 150 pages of reading every weekday. Very easy because I can write whole posts by excerpting the most interesting parts of my notes. For instance:

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Lefty Hawks reconsider the Iraq War

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In what has become a popular refrain — “I have no time to blog today/no time at all (hey hey) . . . ” — I have no time to blog today. Yet, as a left-leaning Blogohawk,* I feel compelled to note this article from Slate: “Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War.”

As for any “reconsideration” by this humble hawk, well: The aftermath of the Iraq war — particularly the discovery of a significant lack of WMDs and of an effective plan to deal with post-war Iraq — has confirmed my pre-war sense** that Bush inappropriately rushed into things. On balance, however, would I still have done what we (the coalition of the willing) did? I think, yes.

Those three words will have to hold the fort for me now. I’m off to less-exciting things.

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Arar #2

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Here you go, the fruits of my first googling. I do an awful lot of quoting–to make it clear what are my words and what are not, I have tried to italicize the text of all quotations.

1. The transcript of Arar’s November 4 statement to the media is probably the best place to start. Not surprisingly, it is graphic.

2. The SF Chronicle editorial on the government’s basis for suspecting Arar is disputed. Anonymous U.S. and Canadian intelligence officials told The Canadian Post in December that they were “100% sure” that Arar had been at an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Here is a CTV summary of the allegations.

Excerpts: “The officials allege Arar travelled to Pakistan in the early 1990’s, then entered Afghanistan to train at the al Qaeda base known as the Khaldun camp.” (“Graduates” of that camp were involved in the 1993 WTC bombing and the 1998 embassy bombings.) “Arar, 33, says he confessed to travelling to Afghanistan only after being tortured in Syria. He now insists he’s never been to that country and that he’s not a member of al Qaeda.”

“He now insists” might imply that Arar has changed his story–but in his initial statement he denies connection with Al Qaeda, denies ever going to Afghanistan, and says that they tortured a confession out of him. I believe this was before the allegations by the anonymous intelligence officers; here is is the relevant quotation.

Then on the third day, the interrogation lasted about 18 hours. They beat me from time to time and make me wait in the waiting room for one to two hours before resuming the interrogation.

While in the waiting room I heard a lot of people screaming. They wanted me to say I went to Afghanistan. This was a surprise to me.

They had not asked about this in the United States. They kept beating me so I had to falsely confess and told them I did go to Afghanistan. I was ready to confess to anything if it would stop the torture. They wanted me to say I went to a training camp.

Pyle (the author of the SF Chronicle editorial) does not give sources for the explanation for Arar’s presence on the watch list. My guess is that they come from these passages in Arar’s statement:

They said they wanted to know why I did not want to go back to Syria. I told them I would be tortured there. I told them I had not done my military service; I am a Sunni Muslim; my mother’s cousin had been accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was put in prison for nine years.

and

They asked me about Abdullah Almalki, and I told them I worked with his brother at high-tech firms in Ottawa, and that the Almalki family had come from Syria about the same time as mine. I told them I did not know Abdullah well, but had seen him a few times and I described the times I could remember.

I told them I had a casual relationship with him.

They were so rude with me, yelling at me that I had a selective memory. Then they pulled out a copy of my rental lease from 1997. I could not believe they had this.

I was completely shocked. They pointed out that Abdullah had signed the lease as a witness. I had completely forgotten that he had signed it for me — when we moved to Ottawa in 1997, we needed someone to witness our lease, and I phoned Abdullah’s brother, and he could not come, so he sent Abdullah.

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Maher Arar

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This article (via Brad DeLong, via Crooked Timber) is about the Maher Arar case. It outlines the basic story, which many of you will be familiar with: a Canadian citizen, changing planes at JFK, is deported to Syria where he is tortured for months and then released. (Arar is a joint Canadian-Syrian citizen but had not been to Syria for 16 years. I vaguely remember reading, though I do not have a cite for this, that the reason he’s a joint citizen is that Syria did not allow him to renounce his citizenship there.)

The article, an editorial by a Con. Law professor at Mount Holyoke, contains some new details, about exactly what happened to Arar,

So, they put Arar on a private plane and flew him to Washington, D.C. There, a new team, presumably from the CIA, took over and delivered him, by way of Jordan, to Syrian interrogators. This covert operation was legal, our Justice Department later claimed, because Arar is also a citizen of Syria by birth….

The Syrians locked Arar in an underground cell the size of a grave: 3 feet wide, 6 feet long, 7 feet high. Then they questioned him, under torture, repeatedly, for 10 months. Finally, when it was obvious that their prisoner had no terrorist ties, they let him go, 40 pounds lighter, with a pronounced limp and chronic nightmares.

and about what the government’s basis for suspicion was.

The Syrians believed that Arar might be a member of the Muslim Brotherhood. Why? Because a cousin of his mother’s had been, nine years earlier, long after Arar moved to Canada. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police reported that the lease on Arar’s apartment had been witnessed by a Syrian- born Canadian who was believed to know an Egyptian Canadian whose brother was allegedly mentioned in an al Qaeda document.

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O’Neill — InstaReaction

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For a more detailed analysis of the O’Neill story, see Katherine‘s post below. My InstaReaction to the Sixty Minutes’ interview was: 1. O’Neill is telling the truth, as he understands it, but 2. O’Neill’s truth does not necessarily accord with the generally-accepted definition thereof. In other words, O’Neill is credible without being believable. He definitely … Read more

The Big O

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Is it satisfying to have the former Treasury Secretary, who sat on the National Security Council, say many, many of the things I’ve said and thought about the Bush administration? You betcha. But what I’d really like is a month off from school and access to the 19,000 documents he gave Suskind. Failing that, here’s … Read more

Not all one thing. Never all one thing.

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OxBlog brings to our attention a Thomas Friedman Op-Ed about Turkey that should be read by anybody who walks around assuming that Islam itself is the enemy of the West, rather than fanatical elements inside of it. A significant portion of the text: I happened to be in Istanbul when the street outside one of … Read more

Well, they found something…

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AP and Reuters are both reporting the discovery of mortar shells that may – repeat, may – contain blister gas. They’re being tested now to determine whether or not that they are, in point of fact, chemical weapons; the shells appear to have been buried for at least a decade, and are probably left over … Read more

My Favorite Marxists…

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…are waxing philosophical about blogging: Accordingly, we suspect that news and commentary alike, whether in the newspapers, on television or on blogs, can never be as objective, or as rational, as we all like to pretend they can be. We’re not saying that trying to be objective and rational is a waste of time; just … Read more

Actually, it will…

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… but your concerns have been noted. Sorry: I’m making a joke about this Signifying Nothing post title (The Center Will Not Hold), which links to this Peaktalk article (The Disappearing Center). Generally speaking, the latter talks about Canadian and Dutch politics, noting that the latter has recently exhibited a polarization of its political parties … Read more

Cancer and Saddam Hussein

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It may very well be that the past reports of Saddam Hussein’s cancer are correct. If true it’s nothing that I’d wish on another human being (lymph cancer is a nasty disease), but it’s hard to call it a, well, tragedy in this particular case. I’m just grateful that we had this confirmed after regime … Read more

I dig old sweet long lanky non-stop Abe.

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That smooth cat von was talking and jiving, funning and sunning, smiling and nodding himself down a suave path of song and dance about the music that established his zone of jive, so I’m gonna lay down the rap on my new pride and joy. I want to talk to you about my man, my most righteous of brothers, my guy rolling a spliff right now from the Nazz’s own personal crop and showing the Werewolf and the Man in Black just how you jive and scat to Gabby when she’s feeling like making that trumpet she totes howl, oh yes, my cats and kitties, howling all the way to Judgement Mother Day.

Yes. His Lordship himself. I found him out in the wilderness (shown the way by the righteous stud Lincoln Cat, who will be grooving down in my own righteous blogstash with the rest of the mad, lyrical cats as soon as I can mixel the pixel with the trixel, connect the dot on the screen free and clean, Jean) and he’s gonna talk to us about my boy. The biggest mother cat of the Gee Oh Mother Pee. The one that brought it all in and made it sing. But my gums can stop flapping any time now.

Oh, if you were worrying about the length of the quote – the righteous cats and kitties in the know, Joe, have declared the square:

All cats and kitties who are blown away by this material are encouraged to perform it, share it, download it, post it, make it known to the not-yet-hip, but hungry, masses.

Dig.

Moe

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As Iowa Turns

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This Harkin endorsement can only be good for Dean, and I think it’s a much bigger deal than the four year old Canadian TV show thing. But my favorite line of the AP story on Harkin was this: “To me, it’s a cynical attempt to participate in the Iowa caucuses if that’s the way he … Read more

Threat Level Reduced.

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As Atrios informs us, The Department of Homeland Security has reduced the terrorist threat level from Ernie to Bert. This is obviously good news. I don’t know about that scale, though. Cookie Monster and Oscar are kind of threatening and/or grouchy for the lowest threat levels; I think Grover and Kermit might be better choices. … Read more

David Brooks Apologies for his Neo-con = Jewish Comment

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Poynter Online provides David Brook’s apology for equating “neocon” with “Jewish” in this column, and thereby implying that critics of neocons or their policies are antiSemitic. (Brooks was roundly criticized by, among others, Josh Marshall, as well as my “lefty” co-blogger Katherine and my “righty” co-blogger Moe Lane.) Brooks explains that his comment was intended … Read more

The good old days

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Via Atrios, here is a National Review article on the law of rape.: Pre-feminist common sense suggested that a woman who comes alone to a man’s hotel room late at night has already consented to sex with him, but on the all-or-nothing principle so dear to ideologues everywhere, feminist orthodoxy insists that the adoption of … Read more

Continuing the chilled-out theme. . . .

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. . . . stop by the Fafblog. Fafnir’s got some new stuff up, and some of it’s pretty good. A taste: SUCKS TO BE MUSHARRAF. Pakistani military dictator Pervez Musharraf who[,] as regular Fafblog readers know[,] is my favorite Pakistani military dictator ever – check out my Musharraf fansites, “Whassup, Musharraf!” and “Pervez n … Read more

Obligatory toe-picking music post.

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Relax, partisans and neopartisans: it’s the weekend, and time to chill out, crack open a Pabst, and listen to some music, new and old. What am I listening to? Well, shucks, I thought you’d never ask. A little Norwegian electronica from Flunk‘s recent debut. It’s a deeply flawed album, but I’m a sucker for Norwegians. … Read more

Followup on Horse Trading

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In responses to this post (where, among other things, I mentioned in passing to not expect a nonbrokered convention and to expect horsetrading) I was asked by reader praktile,

Moe, what kind of horse trading do you think would happen? Do you have any insight as to how those behind-the-scenes discussions happen?

Fair questions, both of them.

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Koufax Awards…

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Wampum is holding them again. We’re up for one: Best Non-liberal blog – which is odd, considering that I’m the only Righty posting here. I was hoping that von and Katherine would get a nomination or something… still, check ’em out. Dwight Meredith’s just got a permanent gig there, and he’s got the Blogger’s Touch. … Read more

Ain’t No Fun

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By now all y’all have probably seen Bush’s immigration proposals. I want to see the concrete plan first, but I’m generally in favor of an amnesty for illegal immigrants, so I’m always ready to at least consider policy changes that might make that more likely.

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Meanwhile, back at the Ranch…

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… Wesley Clark gives his campaign manager heartburn, ulcers and a coronary. Clark: Abortion decision is the mom’s alone

Democrat Wesley Clark said yesterday he would never appoint a pro-life judge to the federal bench because the judge’s anti-abortion views would render him unable to follow the established judicial precedent of the 1973 Roe v. Wade decision.

The Presidential candidate also told The Union Leader that until the moment of birth, the government has no right to influence a mother’s decision on whether to have an abortion.

“Life,” he said, “begins with the mother’s decision.”

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To Win Over Disillusioned Dean-bots, get ready to form Voltron!

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(This post is directed mainly towards fellow Democrats or Democratic-leaning independent. If you’re it’s not given for you that the Democrats are the good guys and that Bush has to go, it won’t make much sense.)
I wouldn’t make the same prediction about the primary as von—, but I think it’s a strong possibility & I’m going to write this post on the assumption that it will come true.

I think it’s becoming clear that the last phase will be a two man race between Dean and Clark, and that both have a realistic chance of winning. I should be happy with this. I’ve been wishing for a two man race between Dean and Clark since September and especially since December. The scurvy Congresscritters* have been routed, and it’s down to our two strongest candidates. I thought at one point that I’d be nearly as happy with Clark’s nomination as with Dean’s.

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1968, 1972, 1994, 2000, 2002

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People are still raising the specter of “Dean as McGovern.” (Actually “raising” is not an accurate term anymore. Every Dean supporter has heard this one too many times to count, for over half a year. “Waving around the specter with cries of ‘DOOM! DOOM!’ ” is a little wordy though.)

Here’s my main problem with these comparisons. It’s not that they’re inaccurate or unoriginal (though they are both those things.) It’s this: 1972 was not the worst year for the Democratic party in the last half century, and the belief that it was is a symptom of something seriously wrong with our party.

Yes, it was a landslide. But Democrats still controlled both houses of Congress. And of course, a year and a half after his second term began, Nixon resigned, and “don’t blame me, I’m from Massachusetts” bumper stickers became very popular. In my list of “lousy years for the Democratic Party”, 1972 is no higher than fifth.

These are my top four, in descending order:

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This is the Clark-bot. You will be assimilated.

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(Disclosure: I’m not a Democrat, though I have voted for a few . . . . .) There are three memes that seem to keep cropping up regarding the Democratic primaries: 1. The race for the Democratic primary is now between Dean and Clark; 2. Dean really energizes some people; but, 3. Dean really turns … Read more

New Blogger on Tacitus

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Tac has given Wild, Wild Lefty commenter Trickster guestblogging privileges: I’m aware that most of you folks read that site anyway, but let’s welcome him/her all the same. Plenty of time for brickbats later. Moe