On Tuesday, Dick Marty, the head of an investigation being conducted by the Council of Europe into possible human rights violations committed by the United States, revealed there is growing evidence that the CIA sent detainees to other countries in order to subject them to the kind of interrogation not permitted within the U.S.
The New Yorker printed an article in February 2005 presenting evidence of an “Extraordinary Rendition” program in which suspects are flown to countries like Egypt, Morocco, Syria, or Jordan. Once there they are subjected to unspeakable torture. The U.S. has consistently denied the existence of any such program despite the mounting evidence and the growing number of victims of such torture. How the Bush istration continually gets away with it is mind-boggling. However, information is beginning to surface. Their treatment of former CIA operative Valerie Plame is one such example. And in 2003, Mahar Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian was exonerated of any terrorist involvement only after having endured beatings and other forms of torture in Syria after being deported there by the U.S. He put it aptly in an interview with The New Yorker: “They are outsourcing torture because they know it’s illegal.” It seems the U.S. government has transformed this “war on terrorism” into a war on freedom and the rights of the individual. No one is really free, not even Americans with Bush’s recently uncovered wiretap surveillance on American citizens. Bush and his istration seem to think that they are above the law. It is commendable that news outlets like the New York Times and The New Yorker are not letting him slip under the radar. As a society, we cannot allow the Bush istration to get away with these atrocious actions. We need to voice our opposition and let the U.S. istration know that international laws do indeed apply to them, contrary to what they may think.
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