Plan Would Let U.S. Deport Suspects to Nations That Might Torture Them

September 30, 2004 9:01 AM

We are proud, free, God-loving Americans! We don't torture people! We let others do the job for us. The Bush administration is supporting a provision in the House leadership's intelligence reform bill that would allow U.S. authorities to deport certain foreigners to countries where they are likely to be tortured or abused, an action prohibited by the international laws against torture the United States signed 20 years ago.
posted by acrobat (16 comments total)

"Oh, and, we do, you know, torture people ourselves. Alright, any questions? VOTE FOR ME!"
posted by jon_kill at 9:14 AM on September 30, 2004

Giblets is also outraged.
posted by louie at 9:27 AM on September 30, 2004

This breaks my heart.
posted by rocketman at 9:39 AM on September 30, 2004

If we had a real press in this country, we'd all know far less about typewriters of the seventies and more about extraordinary rendition.
posted by plemeljr at 9:46 AM on September 30, 2004

I think it's a great idea.

As long as Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld are on the top of the list of deportees.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 9:47 AM on September 30, 2004

I think this can be described thusly: purest evil.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:56 AM on September 30, 2004

But wouldn't it be much quicker and cheaper to just copy Argentina under Pinochet and fly them out past US territorial waters and threaten to throw them from helicopters, blindfolded, into the sea ?
posted by troutfishing at 9:57 AM on September 30, 2004

"Give us your poor, your huddled masses…" uhhh, no--cancel that.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:09 AM on September 30, 2004

Sy Hersh on the Daily Show last night talked about what kind of stuff is going on in Guantanamo and how it compares to Abu Ghraib (ten times worse I think he said). Lovely.

Also, how easy it for them to revoke U.S. citizenship?
posted by destro at 10:11 AM on September 30, 2004

Like they aren't already doing this. Does the name Maher Arar ring any bells?
posted by orange swan at 10:13 AM on September 30, 2004

It does in Canada but I'm curious as to how many Americans have heard about the case.
posted by Turtles all the way down at 10:37 AM on September 30, 2004

It got a lot of play here, anyway. Is his case widely known about in Canada?
posted by kenko at 10:41 AM on September 30, 2004

Outsourcing really is the "new hotness".
posted by clevershark at 10:44 AM on September 30, 2004

so what would change from the current practices?

i guess they're just trying to legalize what they've been doing for the past 20-30 years.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:04 PM on September 30, 2004

Is his case widely known about in Canada?

Are you kidding? I daresay most Canadians are aware that one of our citizens was thrown to the wolves by the US, and most Canadians are more than a little cheesed by it all.

We're also a little cheesed by our governments remarkably heartless inaction throughout it all.
posted by five fresh fish at 1:11 PM on September 30, 2004

We don't torture people! We let others do the job for us.

Or we just put them in jail.
posted by homunculus at 9:57 PM on October 1, 2004