Bob Herbert has been a one-man campaign in the media to expose and decry the very evident US policy of removing all semblance of due process, abducting and torturing various Muslims from around the world in a deeply misguided and flawed attempt at anti-terrorism. It's a battle for the soul of America and Bob seems to be the only one really fighting to keep ours pure:
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.
Mr. Arar is the most visible victim of the reprehensible U.S. policy known as extraordinary rendition, in which individuals are abducted by American authorities and transferred, without any legal rights whatever, to a regime skilled in the art of torture. The fact that some of the people swallowed up by this policy may in fact have been hard-core terrorists does not make it any less repugnant.
There are few people who have the courage to do the right thing, especially in an envionment that discourages dissent and suggests that those who critique are either unpatriotic or out-of-touch with reality. Thank you, Bob.
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