$10.5-million compensation can't buy him his life back

[FartinMowler]

OTTATWAT(CP) - Maher Arar could buy a lot of precious things with his $10.5-million compensation package - but not what he wants most.


"I wish I could buy my life back," Arar said after Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced the money and formally apologized for his hellish ordeal in a Syrian prison. "That's my biggest wish." Arar said no amount of cash can compensate him and his family for the 10 months he spent in a tiny concrete cell, the agonizing torture sessions he endured, or the years he spent falsely labelled as a terror suspect.

However, he said the apology finally clears his name and restores his reputation after five arduous years - although the U.S. still refuses to remove his name from its security watch list

The Syrian-born Canadian citizen, who worked in Ottawa as a computer engineer, was detained by U.S. authorities in New York in 2002 and deported to Syria on the basis of unsubstantiated RCMP suspicions.

I should add this is total bullshit that my country is giving anyone any money when someone is suspected of being a terrorist.

[Preechr]

I'm really glad he got the money and eventually his freedom.

Here in Georgia, they just released a guy after DNA evidence proved he wasn't actually a rapist and really shouldn't have spent the last 21 YEARS in prison. He'll probably get about a million, based on the last settlement. He said he was very angry for the first decade...

[kahljorn]

this is what trips me out about complaining about the military commissions act, like people aren't wrongly accused/convicted of crimes all the damned time...

[Preechr]

haha!

Civil Libertarian you definitely are not, kahl.

[kahljorn]

i like civil rights and freedom as much as anybody else -- I guess I just hate assholes more though, probably because they hate civil rights and freedom. I think with any justice system you run the risk of convicting the wrong person, but I don't think doing away with the justice system and code of laws is a good way to go about fixing it.

[Preechr]

You're a conservative prick.

[kahljorn]

not really. i just pretend to be because there's too many liberals on this board and i want to balance it out.

Plus I thought by definition conservatives want as few laws as possible, and liberals want as many laws as possible?

[Preechr]

No. Not at all.

Conservatives and (modern) Liberals, the latter of which are better described as progressives, are both authoritarian in nature. They believe in rule by law instead of the rule of law.

I live in the South. My legislature just tried to pass a law that allowed for local voting on as to whether communities might legalize selling beer and wine on Sundays, and the governor basically said, "Fuck You, I'll veto that." But then he said he was joking but that he doubted anything like that would ever pass. That's Conservative.

For a great example of Progressive Authoritarianism, imagine the same story but it's the illegal aliens that aren't allowed to buy beer on Sundays. Same thing...

[kahljorn]

those were the definitions in a political science book from my school :O

So you're, what, a libertarian?

[Preechr]

A Liberal.

Look up that "definitions" thread.

[Preechr]

Some people call them neo-cons, but neo-cons call themselves progressives that got mugged by reality.

[kahljorn]

I wonder what political affiliation I would be, last time I voted democrat because I didn't want bush in office and also because I liked kerry more. Although I did like parts of bush's speech.

Seriously I guess if I had to pick an official political affiliation it would be "Right" or "Correct" because everything i think and say is absolutely true and works.

lol just kidding.

So what do you think of the military commencment or whatever act anyway? you're welcome to respond in that thread

[Big Papa Goat]

I like how in this whole story Canada gets most of the blame, and the US gets the rest, but it was the US that deported him, and for god's sake, it was they Syrians that actually tortured him. Why aren't we trying to get money and apologies from the Syrians for what they did?
Also, on the far more interesting topic of political ideologies, I'll say this, Preechr has the best ideology of anyone on these boards. That being said, he's too ideological.

[Preechr]

Originally Posted by Big Papa Goat

I like how in this whole story Canada gets most of the blame, and the US gets the rest, but it was the US that deported him, and for god's sake, it was they Syrians that actually tortured him. Why aren't we trying to get money and apologies from the Syrians for what they did?
Also, on the far more interesting topic of political ideologies, I'll say this, Preechr has the best ideology of anyone on these boards. That being said, he's too ideological.

Damn. Thanks BPG...

SEE THAT, MAX?!?!?! NYAH NYAH NYA NYAH NAYH!!!!

[kahljorn]

Yea but max burbank is a COMEDIAN, and thus, like rush limbaugh, he is exempt from needing a good political idealogy.