Ottawa presses Abdelrazik to admit to being al-Qaeda
More than 16 months after Canada's security agencies cleared Abousfian Abdelrazik, government lawyers are now pressing him to admit to being a senior al-Qaeda operative, echoing American accusations apparently extracted from Abu Zubaydah, the al-Qaeda leader water boarded more than 80 times under the Bush administration.
In written cross-examination over the past week, expected to be filed Tuesday in federal court, the Harper government accuses Mr. Abdelrazik, the Canadian citizen it has barred from returning home, of being "close to Abu Zubaydah, a former lieutenant of Osama bin Laden, involved in al Qaeda training and recruitment."
Canada is now relying on accusations that "are tainted by the use of torture," said Yavar Hameed, Mr. Abdelrazik's lawyer.
I just deleted the original paragraph of comment because I scanned the first couple of paragraphs of that article too quickly. I should have actually read to the end because the situation is even more ludicrous than I thought. While the rest of the world is coming to terms with the fact that the Bush administration was actually using torture to elicit false confessions in an effort to justify their invasion of Iraq, the Hapless Government™ is trying to use statements from a man who was waterboarded 83 times to prove that Abdelrazik is a terrorist.
Our own intelligence agents have long since cleared the man of any wrongdoing and without any criminal charge there is still no justification for preventing him from returning to Canada under the allowable exemption to the travel ban. But that won't stop Harper and his merry band of fuckwits from trying to justify their past policy of refusing to allow him back into the country. Never admit a mistake.
H/t to Greg.
Ye gods and little fishes! They got this from the tortured testimony of Abu Zubaydah? The man who was waterboarded 83 times in a single month (August 2002)? Whose testimony the FBI have said is entirely tainted? The man who probably didn't know much to begin with and now for sure doesn't?
The Canadian government has apparently relied on Zubaydah's testimony before, in the case of Harkat.
Are they totally unaware in Ottawa of how this scandal is now developing in the U.S.? How complicit, and then just how bloody stupid, do they wish to look?
The Zubaydah testimony is BS, obviously, but let's not lose sight of the real point here.
It doesn't matter where the "evidence" that Abdelrazik is guilty came from. It doesn't matter whether they got it from Osama bin Laden or the virgin Mary. That's a question for the criminal trial - if there ever was one.
The government does not have the authority to exile a Canadian in Sudan, period.
If the Sudanese wanted to charge him and re-arrest him, that would prevent him from boarding a normal flight. Then the Canadian government could intentionally drag its feet about coming to his defence while actually leaving him to rot in a Sudanese jail. That's what I had in mind but I was in too much of a hurry to spell it out.
You're right. As long as the Sudanese make no claim to him, there is nothing the Canadian government can come up with that justifies denying him entry to the country.
Well, I think there is a point in recognizing that, in our current government, we have ended up with a number of BushCo dead-enders who are defending acts and processes that look more and more like crimes.
Since a number of other Canadians are affected by the dead-enders' highly ideological stance, I think we have to continue to outline the deeper history behind all these bizarre stories.
Just from what's on the public record, we can already conclude that the CIA and the White House violated congressional-oversight laws in Zubaydah's case, and timelines raise the question of something that looks a lot like conspiracy (have I covered myself legally there?) in the production of the OLC opinion allowing Zubaydah's waterboarding.
And all that was happening at the time of the Downing Street memo (23 July 2002), the report to Tony Blair on what was happening in Washington on Iraq: "... the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
Hmm.. they've let this supposed Al-Queada agent stay at the Canadian Embassy for the past year or so. I find that rather bizarre to be accusing him of being Al Queada when they have no issue letting him stay at the embassy.
(And, your trackbacks still aren't working, properly, Pogge. I've tried tracking back to the one listed here under the blogpost (http://www.pogge.ca/cgi-bin/mt4/mt-tb.cgi/2312) and then I figured I'd try changing the number at the end of the trackback to 2315, since that's the # that shows up in your URL link.
It was able to ping the modified 2315 trackback, as well as the actual URL for this article but It wasnt able to ping the trackback you've listed here. (which isn't mattering at this point, because the 2 pinged addresses still aren't letting it show up as a trackback here).
Noted. I'll look into it.
POGGE eh,
Re: track back comment- I think he has a point (or I too am an idiot) I've tried to use this feature in the past - had no luck?
Aside from that- Great Post!
Something is definitely amiss. I just don't have time to dig right now. I'm part of a group that has a wiki and a forum that are currently seeing about 10 times their usual traffic because of swine flu and that's where most of my discretionary internet time is going.
It is despicable that the government continues to breach the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms, which guarantees Canadians the right to return to their country.
Of course, it is far easier to keep people far away, where their access to courts is limited, than to comply with the Constitution.
By keeping them overseas, vague claims of "national security" by government ministers will discourage all but the most energetic people.
That way, Canadians won't find out how flimsy many "national security" claims really are.
I have watched simulated water boarding on T.V. many times. After a few sessions of this inhumane torture, I'd be willing to tell them anything they wanted to hear. Now I've learned that the actual torture was carried out by civillian contractors!! I suppose this gives the goverment plausible deniability.Always remember, you torture theirs, they'll torture yours
There's a detail in this a.m.'s Globe and Mail editorial about Abdelrazik that was news to me:
They did? Anyone know when that happened?
I don't have a link but I recall reading about it. I think it was a few months back.
Hunh. This has to do with Judd and the subsequent announcement of his resignation (report dated 15 Apr):