EVEN CANADA WANTS IN THIS TIME?:

Arrest torturers, Syria told (ANDREW MILLS AND MICHELLE SHEPHARD, 10/28/05, Toronto Star)

The Syrian ambassador was hauled on the carpet in Ottawa yesterday after an independent report backed up claims by Maher Arar and three other Canadians that they had been tortured in Syrian jails.

Foreign Affairs Minister Pierre Pettigrew slipped out of the weekly cabinet meeting early yesterday to issue an angry demand to Syrian Ambassador Jamil Sakr that Syria investigate the allegations. [...]

By demanding Syria investigate, Ottawa is acknowledging for the first time that the claims of torture made by the four men have merit.

Pettigrew's swift and blunt reaction was evidence of the federal government sensitivity to criticisms over its failures in the Arar case, particularly its failure to recognize the Ottawa engineer was being tortured in Syria and to get him returned home to Canada sooner than he was.

As well, Canada has faced international criticism over its policy of detaining without charge non-citizens it is trying to deport as security risks to countries known to engage in torture.The allegations of torture come as Syria is under attack from the world community following a United Nation's report that implicates top Syrian officials in the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

when a regime change looks easy they all come out of the woodwork...

Posted by Orrin Judd at October 28, 2005 8:18 AM