Harper's cynical manipulation of the Maher Arar file

That's a file open since at least 2002. In fact, CSIS obviously had a file on Mr. Arar well before that.


Mr. Arar was the Canadian dispatched to Syria for "questioning" by the US. Yup, that was back in the day when Assad was still a "good guy" and an ally of the Nations of Virtue. "Questioning" protocols have a little more elasticity in Syria than they do in the Nations of Virtue. "Question" a probable terrorist like Mr. Arar here in North America and all the bleeding heart soft-on-terror types will accuse you of torture.


So to keep our hands clean, we connived with the CIA to have Assad's thugs do the "questioning."


Mind you, that was while he was still a good guy.


There's nothing new in the Arar file, but at least thirteen years after the fact and ten years into the Harper regime, we suddenly get the news that the RCMP is charging a Syrian military officer in the torture of Maher Arar.


Could the timing of this announcement have anything to do with the fact that Harper is in the midst of a too-close-to-call election campaign?


What does the Harper gang get out of this?


A chance to silence Paul Martin, who's been a little too vocal in his support of Justin Trudeau. Martin was PM when the Arar fiasco originally unfolded.


A chance to change the focus from the faltering economy to the evil Assad.


A chance to pose yet again as the tough-on-terror, tough-on-crime strongman.


Are we expected to believe that the timing of these charges is a coincidence?

Obviously!


Otherwise, there would have to have been some pressure from the Harper gang to impact the fortuitous timing of this announcement from the RCMP, and that would be hugely inappropriate.

Maybe even illegal?!


You don't think anybody in the PMO would stoop that low, do you?

Libyan rebels torture opponents to death, but it's still Gadaffi's fault

The NYT put out a rather unflattering story today about our NATO-sponsored rebels in Libya. The Times was a major cheerleader for our Libyan adventure. Month after month after month of "Gadaffi bad, rebels good!"

Seems that even the New York Times is having second thoughts. They report that Doctors Without Borders has suspended operations in Misurata because the same prisoners keep showing up with new injuries. Only took the geniuses at MSF four months to figure out, hey, we're just patching these folks up so the rebels can torture them some more!

The torture victims seem to be comprised of two suspect groups; Gadaffi loyalists and black people. Black people who are suspected of being Gadaffi loyalists don't survive long enough to be tortured.

Apparently the police can't do anything because "everyone has a gun now."

And the Times reassures us that this is happening because of four decades of Gadaffi rule. Nothing is the responsibility of the NATO countries without whom the rebels would have been a minor foot-note in Libyan history by last April.

What a disaster. From the highest standard of living in Africa to complete anarchy in under a year.

Good work, NATO!