Elections 101: Link Salad with Righteous Indignation Vinaigrette
As predicted, I'm a little zonked, and don't quite feel up to extensive writing about the rest of today's picks from the 101:
Benamar Benatta, an aeronautical engineer, fled Algeria and claimed refugee status in Canada on September 5, 2001. Shortly after September 11, 2001, the RCMP removed him from a refugee detention centre in Canada, and illegally transferred to the U.S., "presumably because he is a Muslim man who knows something about airplanes." He was held in Brooklyn for six years, and says that during that time he was beaten and abused. "Mr. Benatta was actually cleared of any terrorist activity by the FBI in November 2001; however, he was never told that he was cleared because he was being held incommunicado and did not have access to a lawyer."
Preston Manning promised to look into the matter, but did nothing.
Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen whose name got onto a list of terrorist suspects has not been charged with any crimes:
In 2006, some government - perhaps Canada's - added Mr. Abdelrazik's name to the UN Security Council's list of international terrorist suspects, which requires member states to freeze his assets.
He is also on the no-fly list maintained by airlines, which are compiled with the covert input from government counterterrorism agencies, including Canada's.
Three years earlier, in August of 2003, Mr. Abdelrazik was plucked off the streets of Khartoum after returning to Sudan from Montreal to visit his ailing mother. No reason has ever been given for his arrest.
The Paintball 18 blog: Fahim Ahmed spoke with Thomas Walkom from solitary confinement in the Don Jail:
At the beginning, the overarching storyline was that police had managed to derail a homegrown terror plot on the scale of the London bombings
Since then, however, the government's case has begun to fray. First, it was revealed that two police informers had played central roles in the alleged plot. One was reportedly paid $4 million
Second, charges against three juveniles were stayed (effectively meaning that they are off the hook).
Then last month, in the midst of testimony from police informer Mubin Shaikh, the government abruptly halted the preliminary hearing into the charges and announced it would go directly to trial - probably sometime next year....
By the time his trial is finished, Ahmad figures he'll have been in solitary confinement for 2 1/2 years....
"When they first charged me, I never understood them (the charges). I still don't understand them. They seemed completely made up. They made no sense to me. But then when I hear how much the informers were being paid, I said `Hey, when you're being paid $4 million for something it doesn't take too much to make up some kind of story.' Right?
"(The Crown) says I'm part of some group. What group? Nobody answers. They say: `We'll tell you in court.' It's been a year and a half and still no one answers this question. ... "
The unfortunate poster child for extraordinary rendition is, of course, Maher Arar. The government thinks it may be legal, and seems happy to let American airplanes involved in extraordinary rendition land in Canada:
Legal advice on rendition was prepared by the Justice Department, in consultation with Foreign Affairs, in late 2005 after it became clear American planes linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were passing through Canada.
Benamar Benatta, an aeronautical engineer, fled Algeria and claimed refugee status in Canada on September 5, 2001. Shortly after September 11, 2001, the RCMP removed him from a refugee detention centre in Canada, and illegally transferred to the U.S., "presumably because he is a Muslim man who knows something about airplanes." He was held in Brooklyn for six years, and says that during that time he was beaten and abused. "Mr. Benatta was actually cleared of any terrorist activity by the FBI in November 2001; however, he was never told that he was cleared because he was being held incommunicado and did not have access to a lawyer."
Preston Manning promised to look into the matter, but did nothing.
Abousfian Abdelrazik is a Canadian citizen whose name got onto a list of terrorist suspects has not been charged with any crimes:
In 2006, some government - perhaps Canada's - added Mr. Abdelrazik's name to the UN Security Council's list of international terrorist suspects, which requires member states to freeze his assets.
He is also on the no-fly list maintained by airlines, which are compiled with the covert input from government counterterrorism agencies, including Canada's.
Three years earlier, in August of 2003, Mr. Abdelrazik was plucked off the streets of Khartoum after returning to Sudan from Montreal to visit his ailing mother. No reason has ever been given for his arrest.
The Paintball 18 blog: Fahim Ahmed spoke with Thomas Walkom from solitary confinement in the Don Jail:
At the beginning, the overarching storyline was that police had managed to derail a homegrown terror plot on the scale of the London bombings
Since then, however, the government's case has begun to fray. First, it was revealed that two police informers had played central roles in the alleged plot. One was reportedly paid $4 million
Second, charges against three juveniles were stayed (effectively meaning that they are off the hook).
Then last month, in the midst of testimony from police informer Mubin Shaikh, the government abruptly halted the preliminary hearing into the charges and announced it would go directly to trial - probably sometime next year....
By the time his trial is finished, Ahmad figures he'll have been in solitary confinement for 2 1/2 years....
"When they first charged me, I never understood them (the charges). I still don't understand them. They seemed completely made up. They made no sense to me. But then when I hear how much the informers were being paid, I said `Hey, when you're being paid $4 million for something it doesn't take too much to make up some kind of story.' Right?
"(The Crown) says I'm part of some group. What group? Nobody answers. They say: `We'll tell you in court.' It's been a year and a half and still no one answers this question. ... "
The unfortunate poster child for extraordinary rendition is, of course, Maher Arar. The government thinks it may be legal, and seems happy to let American airplanes involved in extraordinary rendition land in Canada:
Legal advice on rendition was prepared by the Justice Department, in consultation with Foreign Affairs, in late 2005 after it became clear American planes linked to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were passing through Canada.