Dear Minister Cannon:
I write in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik's constitutionally and internationally unchallengeable right to return to Canada.I write also as a Canadian citizen whose conscience has been shocked by cascading revelations, in the courts and press of the U.S., the UK, and here at home, of the role played by Western governments, among them my own, in clear and extreme violations of international law, many of those violations rising to the level of war crimes.
Anyone with an internet account can discover in minutes that continuing American claims about Mr Abdelrazik rest on testimony from the Saudi Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002, whose torture before and since has been attested to by the ICRC (pdf) and the FBI. The most credible FBI witnesses have also testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to their doubts about Abu Zubaydah's status with regard to al-Qaeda and about his mental capacity, even before he was tortured.
The UN Security Council's 1267 Committee have said that Mr Abdelrazik is free to fly home to Canada. We know that the only testimony against him is historically, tragically tainted.
I often wonder whether members of my own government or of the departments and agencies that act in the name of the sovereign citizens of Canada, all of us represented by our queen, and thus all of us more permanent than you, superior to you, have noticed the water rising about the ankles of American public servants, former and current, who seem to have grown up ignorant of the jurisprudence we inherited from Nuremberg 1945-46. Rationalizing war crimes itself becomes a crime, and I doubt that Canadians in time to come will judge anyone who committed such crimes in our name in kindly fashion.
Mr Abdelrazik has a paid airline reservation to return to Canada on 12 June, and an appointment with the Hon. Mr Justice Zinn (pdf) on 7 July. I appeal to you to respect both Canadian and international law, and to end the bizarre melodrama of my government's inexplicably duplicitous dealings with another Canadian citizen.
Please just stand aside, and allow Mr Abdelrazik to fly home.
Yours sincerelyreal name plus real address
Please support Project Fly Home however you can.
Abousfian Abdelrazik is one of at least a dozen Canadians or other human beings who have been treated by successive Canadian governments and our curious agencies in suspect and disturbing ways, especially since 9/11 but not only since then.
The wrong that has been done to each of them should disturb all of us, on their behalf and then also because democracy -- here and in an international community of human beings committed to humane justice -- simply cannot survive elites who believe that they are above the law and that the rest of us should respect their quiet pacts to cover one another's hinder parts when we all suddenly realize that they have committed horrific crimes against innocents.
(Actually, horrific crimes against the not-so-innocent would still be horrific, and we know of some of those -- see KSM, eg.)
Justice ministers who think that "national security" means CYA for elite buddies in other countries who have broken the law -- especially elite buddies among the dead-enders of the Bush torture regime -- should no longer be justice ministers.
H/t to Alison at BnR for nagging me shamelessly to post before she does.
Awesome. Seriously.
The Best. Seriously, thanks Alison for nagging.
So... stolen shamelessly, but I made a couple of additions (look for the ***) to my letter before I emailed it to Cannon, Harper and my MP (blech!!!) Poillievre (please excuse my poor html skillz):
Dear Minister Cannon:
I write in support of Abousfian Abdelrazik's constitutionally and internationally unchallengeable right to return to Canada.
I write also as a Canadian citizen whose conscience has been shocked by cascading revelations, in the courts and press of the U.S., the UK, and here at home, of the role played by Western governments, among them my own, in clear and extreme violations of international law, many of those violations rising to the level of war crimes.
Anyone with an internet account can discover in minutes that continuing American claims about Mr Abdelrazik rest on testimony from the Saudi Guantanamo detainee Abu Zubaydah, who was waterboarded 83 times in August 2002 (http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2009/04/18/khalid-sheikh-mohammed-was-waterboarded-183-times-in-one-month/), whose torture before and since has been attested to by the ICRC (http://www.nybooks.com/icrc-report.pdf)(pdf) and the FBI. The most credible FBI witnesses (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ali_Soufan) have also testified before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee to their doubts about Abu Zubaydah's status with regard to al-Qaeda and about his mental capacity, even before he was tortured.
The UN Security Council's 1267 Committee (http://www.un.org/sc/committees/1267/consolist.shtml) have said that Mr Abdelrazik is free to fly home to Canada. We know that the only testimony against him is historically, tragically tainted.
I often wonder whether members of my own government or of the departments and agencies that act in the name of the sovereign citizens of Canada, all of us represented by our queen, and thus all of us more permanent than you, superior to you, have noticed the water rising about the ankles of American public servants, former and current, who seem to have grown up ignorant of the jurisprudence we inherited from Nuremberg 1945-46. Rationalizing war crimes itself becomes a crime, and I doubt that Canadians in time to come will judge anyone who committed such crimes in our name in kindly fashion.
***(That means that our greatest generation, who fought, bled and died for us in World War Two - they fought, bled and died to protect us from the stuff you're trying to pull right now. Either everyone gets a chance to appear in court to defend themselves, or pretty soon "someone" starts to decide that "different" someones should just "go away" and stop making a nuisance of themselves. Aren't you ashamed that it's even possible for people to make that comparison... about YOU?!)***
Mr Abdelrazik has a paid airline reservation to return to Canada on 12 June, and an appointment (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/world/court-orders-ottawa-to-allow-abdelrazik-to-return-to-canada/article1168783/) with the Hon. Mr Justice Zinn (http://v1.theglobeandmail.com/v5/content/features/PDFs/sudan.pdf) (pdf) on 7 July. I appeal to you to respect both Canadian and international law, and to end the bizarre melodrama of my government's inexplicably duplicitous dealings with another Canadian citizen.
Please just stand aside, and allow Mr Abdelrazik to fly home.
Yours sincerely
KiaRioGrl79
xxx Street Name
Riding of Nepean-Carleton
613-xxx-xxxx
***PS - If you feel this gentleman is such a security risk, why have you been allowing him to live in our Embassy for the last few years?! The many contradictions in your statements and actions in this matter are rather amazing.***
You go, KiaRioGrl -- great stuff. I hope that lots of people are writing and calling this week -- Friday is the day Mr Abdelrazik is supposed to fly home.