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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture
#3832386 - 02/25/05 10:14 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Extraordinary Rendition is the legal process of sending our terror detainees to countries where torture is legal, thus escaping all punishment under the Geneva Convention. Read about it here: New Yorker: Extraordinary Rendition
Here is an interview for you with a victim of Extraordinary Rendition. Let's hope he finds some peace someday:
NYTimes/Bob Herbert
If John Ashcroft was right, then I was staring into the malevolent, duplicitous eyes of pure evil, the eyes of a man with the mass murder of Americans on his mind. But all I could really see was a polite, unassuming, neatly dressed guy who looked like a suburban Little League coach. If Mr. Ashcroft was right, then Maher Arar should have been in a U.S. prison, not talking to me in an office in downtown Ottawa. But there he was, a 34-year-old man who now wears a perpetually sad expression, talking about his recent experiences - a real-life story with the hideous aura of a hallucination. Mr. Arar's 3-year-old son, Houd, loudly crunched potato chips while his father was being interviewed.
. . . In the fall of 2002 Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen, suddenly found himself caught up in the cruel mockery of justice that the Bush administration has substituted for the rule of law in the post-Sept. 11 world. While attempting to change planes at Kennedy Airport on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunisia, he was seized by American authorities, interrogated and thrown into jail. He was not charged with anything, and he never would be charged with anything, but his life would be ruined. Mr. Arar was surreptitiously flown out of the United States to Jordan and then driven to Syria, where he was kept like a nocturnal animal in an unlit, underground, rat-infested cell that was the size of a grave. From time to time he was tortured. He wept. He begged not to be beaten anymore. He signed whatever confessions he was told to sign. He prayed.
Among the worst moments, he said, were the times he could hear babies crying in a nearby cell where women were imprisoned. He recalled hearing one woman pleading with a guard for several days for milk for her child. He could hear other prisoners screaming as they were tortured. . . .
The Justice Department has alleged, without disclosing any evidence whatsoever, that Mr. Arar is a member of, or somehow linked to, Al Qaeda. If that's so, how can the administration possibly allow him to roam free? The Syrians, who tortured him, have concluded that Mr. Arar is not linked in any way to terrorism.
. . . Official documents in Canada suggest that Mr. Arar was never the target of a terror investigation there. One former Canadian official, commenting on the Arar case, was quoted in a local newspaper as saying "accidents will happen" in the war on terror. Whatever may have happened in Canada, nothing can excuse the behavior of the United States in this episode. Mr. Arar was deliberately dispatched by U.S. officials to Syria, a country that - as they knew - practices torture. And if Canadian officials hadn't intervened, he most likely would not have been heard from again.
. . . A lawsuit on Mr. Arar's behalf has been filed against the United States by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York. Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer with the center, noted yesterday that the government is arguing that none of Mr. Arar's claims can even be adjudicated because they "would involve the revelation of state secrets." This is a government that feels it is answerable to no one.
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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our government is run by madmen.
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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How, HOW, have we not impeached these terrorists that occupy our White House?
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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832577 - 02/25/05 11:12 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Duh, they have Jeezus on their side.
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Who is this "jeezus" you speak of? Is he mexican?
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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832589 - 02/25/05 11:14 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Nobody fucks wit de jeezus.
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832592 - 02/25/05 11:15 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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have you forgotten the 62 million people who voted for Bush?
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: Vvellum]
#3832607 - 02/25/05 11:20 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Yeah, I kinda forgot I'm surrounded by a country of Bush/Kerry Republicrat morons. Has anybody seen my freedoms? They seem to have misplaced them....
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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832610 - 02/25/05 11:20 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
DNKYD said: Bush/Kerry Republicrat morons.
?Cheney?
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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freddurgan
Techgnostic
Registered: 01/11/04
Posts: 3,648
Last seen: 11 years, 9 months
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: Vvellum]
#3832611 - 02/25/05 11:20 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Man what the fuck? I'd like to hear a little more about that story. I'll bet there is alot of shit they left out.
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Quote:
OneMoreRobot3021 said:
Quote:
DNKYD said: Bush/Kerry Republicrat morons.
?Cheney?
Bush = Kerry Republican = Democrat
The easiest way for things to stay the same in the country while the public thinks things have changed is to present two equal "opposite" candidates. That gives us the republican and democratic party. Ever wonder why they seem so different around election time, but for the rest of the 4 years they are pretty much the same? If the repub in office is doing a shitty job, replace him with a dem the next time around. The public thinks "hey, we've got a blue in office instead of a red. It must have changed for the better." But the overall direction of the country is the same.
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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832649 - 02/25/05 11:29 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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I agree that the two-party system is faulty but I also think people who talk like you're talking need to take a more active role, even if it's just on democratic message boards and blogs, in helping to shape the voice of the democratic party. We need to be participants in great liberal experiments like what the people over at Daily Kos and Eschaton are doing, which is creating an open forum for liberal discussion and then communal efforts in contacting our governmental leaders. The internet is letting us gather power and let the people upstairs know the people downstairs are keeping tabs. Either that or join the third party of your choice and get active.
Note, I am a hypocrite because I am nowhere near as active as I wish I was.
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: freddurgan]
#3832666 - 02/25/05 11:33 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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look into it. reports bush admin. sending CIA planes full of prisoners to grossly authoritiarian countries without laws on torture are out there in the media.
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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I'm a libertarian. Why would I join the democratic party when it's the same as the republican party?
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832683 - 02/25/05 11:36 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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If the libertarians ever got into such positions as the republicans and democrats, they would also go corrupt. keep in mind how power concentrates in the 2-party system and how this is fertile ground for corruption.
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DNKYD
Turtle!
Registered: 09/23/04
Posts: 12,326
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: Vvellum]
#3832700 - 02/25/05 11:38 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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I believe that if we take back this country and reinstate that document from days of yore called the Constitution of the United States of America, we will have a small enough government where corruption won't be as big of a problem. Sure, there will always be corruption in places of power. But if we have that corruption contained on a very, very small scale we can combat it more easily and effectively.
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OneMoreRobot3021
Registered: 06/06/03
Posts: 61,024
Loc: the sky
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832712 - 02/25/05 11:40 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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Quote:
DNKYD said: I'm a libertarian. Why would I join the democratic party when it's the same as the republican party?
I understand your point, but I still find your statement ridiculous. They are subject to the same points of infection via big business but they are NOT the same. And if members of a party decide to change the direction of the party, they can change it.
-------------------- Acid doesn't give you truths; it builds machines that push the envelope of perception. Whatever revelations came to me then have dissolved like skywriting. All I really know is that those few years saddled me with a faith in the redemptive potential of the imagination which, however flat, stale and unprofitable the world seems to me now, I cannot for the life of me shake. -Erik Davis
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Vvellum
Stranger
Registered: 05/24/04
Posts: 10,920
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Re: Extraordinary Rendition (Bush/Torture [Re: DNKYD]
#3832741 - 02/25/05 11:44 AM (19 years, 26 days ago) |
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...and that corruption will migrate into other spheres of political and economic influence.
oh, and how exactly can a federal government be as small as was found in the 18th century when the actual size of the country has quadrupled? Seems to me things would need to be broken apart...seems to me that republics are best in operation in small areas - not spread across 3,000 odd miles so much so that those who represent you, you have no ties to whatsoever, nor will you ever meet them nor do they know you.
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