As a Canadian who was born in Syria, I was very aware of the Michael Arar case mentioned in this clip. It was a scary wake-up call for me, making me realize how the “war on terror” had diverged from its original mission.
Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was detained in 2002 at JFK airport in New York and rather than being sent home to Canada was “rendered” to Syria, where he was detained in a coffin-sized cell for a year and tortured by the authorities. The U.S. government alleged that Arar has connections to Al Qaeda, but a judicial inquiry in Canada concluded that there is no evidence to support that. Eventually, Arar received an apology from the Canadian government, along with $10.5 million in damages. {hat tip to Alternet}
By the way, it gets really good halfway through.
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