#24678 I am a victim of Bush’s torture system, called plasma electromagnetic projectile which is illegally being used on me by the U.S. Military in Jacksonville, Florida.  He has been using it on me nonstop for seven years.  His brother, former Florida Governor Gebb Bush is also involved because I live in Florida.  The weapon is evil, just like the Bushes.

TO PARAMASVARAN Knadiah:  Your comment “bring back the Old Glory Days of the American people when the Star Spangled Banner flew proud and free,” made me cry.  It made me realize just how far we’ve fallen from our ideals and how dark the future looks for the world when America has lost its way.  I am so sorry that I am an American right now.  There are many of us who are trying to do what we can to bring some semblance of light to all this darkness.  We know what our government is doing in our name.  Yes, many of us are still numbed and we are fighting amongst ourselves as to what really happened on 9/11.  I feel that it was an inside job.  The evidence seems to support this.  But some of us feel it was just incompetence.  I feel that many of us Americans are trapped in a grotesque roller coaster ride wherein we are slaves to a system that extracts every bit of courage or strength out of us.  We have no good paying jobs left.  We are apathetic and confused.  Some criminals have taken over our government and it seems are trying to take over the world and people are still bewildered that it has even happened.  Propaganda assaults us daily. Some of us have some hope that the neocons are losing ground and that the elections will turn things around . . .others of us are afraid that before the Nov. elections, another terrorist event, war with Iran or another election theft will occur.  We are so divided that it is hard to plan a course of action.  We have no real good leaders.  They are all tainted with corporate money.  Please pray for us that we find our way back to the America our Pilgrim Fathers envisioned for us.

The Maher Arar case would not faze Bush supporters.  The guy was Arab.  Isn’t that “probable cause.” What rights?  Better safe than sorry.

Conservatives wail against “caring more about rights of terrorists than the safety of Americans.” They see no problem in presuming that whoever gets detained is a likely or potential terrorist.  They imagine an Osama bin Laden look alike in a cell.  Or any Muslim who travels, talks funny, or fails to praise Israel also qualifies.  The waterboard or electrode treatment serve as due punishment, even if the accompanying interrogation yields only shrieks and phony leads.  It’s a visceral act of revenge against “those people” for 9/11. 

Of the 39% of US voters who actually turn out to vote in November, perhaps a decisive 51% (20% of the population) do support torture, and that is all W needs.

re Comment #24812 by Derek on 9/21 - “America cannot export democracy, freedom and liberty abroad if it is abandoned at home.” Amen man! You’ve got that right! To claim to be exporting democracy at the point of a gun while taking away your own people’s freedoms is purest hypocrisy.

re Comment #24836 by Dan Noel - “A PFC may talk under torture. So may a sergeant. But a senior officer does not; he/she shuts up, or tells plausible lies, or tells bits of truth that cannot possibly harm his/her cause.” ... “A prime example is president Bush, who has been harassed by reporters, bloggers and liberals for years and yet still misleads and lies compulsively.”

Please tell me you don’t truly believe what you just said!

1.  Your statement assumes lower ranks would sing like canaries if tortured but the brass are somehow immune to torture because they have integrity? Does integrity and the ability to shrug off torture come to an individual as an added bonus only when they achieve higher rank or does it come as the result of demonstrated courage in the face of actual danger as well as a good upbringing by loving parents who instill good values? Exactly how much actual danger do most high brass ever even face, being so far behind the actual fighting lines and well protected by those selfsame lower ranks who do all the actual fighting and dying? No offense intended man, but what a crock of nonsense! Courage in the face of life threatening danger has zero to do with rank!

2.  Bush’s questioning by reporters somehow equates to being immune from torture? Balderdash! My sergeant husband has more courage in his baby fingernail than Bush has in his entire body.

The president of Venezuela walks among his people without fear and willingly faces tough questions, but your president Bush goes nowhere without a small army of armed thugs, bomb-proof vehicles, and anti-aircraft missiles parked on the roof of every building he stays in. He’s so ‘brave’ he can’t even handle dissenting questioning, let alone face actual danger. He lives perpetually in a bomb-proof glass bubble world. Big brave President Bush? NOT!

The fact that someone has a star on their collar instead of a stripe on their sleeve doesn’t somehow make one braver or more immune to torture!  In my opinion, if genuine torturers got their hands on Bush he’d be peeing his pants and begging to tell all he knows in 30 minutes. Why? Because bullies are notorious for their cowardice! They’re only brave when they have their gang to back them up. And as for integrity...liars don’t have any or they wouldn’t be compulsive liars now would they!

How many of America’s top brass dragged America into a war with Iraq on total lies? How few of those same big, brave, integrity-filled brass stood up and called them on their lies? How many big brave brass have the integrity of their convictions to be willing to stand in the trenches with the foot soldiers they order to go fight other foot soldiers? Zero! They and their kids are all home hiding out in the National Guard while everyone else’s kids are ordered to go face the bullets.

The way America’s leaders have constantly thrown their weight around and threatened or attacked any country that doesn’t toe the American line shows that the vast majority of America’s leaders for at least the last half century have been nothing less than world-class bullies! They’ve proved this over and over again by only attacking countries that are clearly militarily weaker, even if they’re democracies (i.e. Lebanon), while sucking up to any dictators willing to accept the same goals as America.

The American military leadership and the word integrity don’t belong in the same sentence. It’s as much of a oxymoron as to equate George Bush with the words ‘great statesman’! I’m sure there are a few with integrity but I’m also sure they’re in the minority or America would be in far fewer wars.

If a top brass of the U.S. intelligence or military community was ever captured and arrested by “the terrorists” and subject to torture, would he/she talk? If so, what would be revealed? All the state secrets in his/her possession? Perhaps information that has not been asked? To think so is an insult to that individual’s integrity.

A PFC may talk under torture. So may a sergeant. But a senior officer does not; he/she shuts up, or tells plausible lies, or tells bits of truth that cannot possibly harm his/her cause.

The same goes for terrorists. An idiot who is willing to explode with his bomb may talk under torture, but will hardly say anything useful. A top-level leader will not talk under torture, or will lead his interrogators on false leads, or will talk too late for the information to be valuable.

A prime example is president Bush, who has been harassed by reporters, bloggers and liberals for years and yet still misleads and lies compulsively.

America cannot export democracy, freedom and liberty abroad if it is abandoned at home.

As a Christian, Bush should not have invaded Iraq nor should he be subverting the conventions, laws and rules governing America and the world.

Reverting to torture will make him no different from the terrorists!

Bush has sullied America’s reputation for sure as he squandered the goodwill following 9/11.

Bush and Company are perhaps the ‘real’ terrorists in our world.

Occupation and militarism does not win over anyone.

Conflict, violence and war are contrary to God and how He would have us to live.

There is indeed a great need for dialogue of cultures, religions, and peoples of our world if we are to avoid further conflict in the Arab/Muslim Middle East.

Unfortunately, many Americans still do not appreciate or perceive the clear and immediate danger that the neocons (aka neo-fascists)pose to us and our entire way of life. They have a definite goal of establishing a Corporate-American empire extending around the world. 

The 9/11 WTC attack of which the Bush administration had been given previous information before the attack followed by Bush’s “pre-emptive” attack on Iraq and the following occupation of Iraq are manifestations of the PNAC imperial plans.

The neocons have the same philosophy as their soul-mates the Nazis and the Soviets that the (their) end justifies the means, no matter how horrific.

The neocons for whom Bush fronts are obsessed with torture.  The message they send with this insane behavior is to every nation and person in the world--"thwart our corporate domination of thw rold and we will destroy you in the most painful, degrading ways possible.  Fear us.  Bow to us.  We not only control you, we are your new perverted god.”

Everything about bush is regrettable!  Mr. Bush fancies himself a king it seems, and can see himself as doing no wrong.  In his world he the rich get richer, the poor have no value and therefore are expendable.  The military is for dying and those that can be pawned off for torture should be.  He is a despot and a criminal and should be treated as such by the world.  He has brought the U.S.A. to the lowest regard the world has ever seen with his lies and double standards.  Who can believe such as he?  He spies on and sets up the torture of his own citizens.  What do you expect him to do to those of other coutries?

Sabreena Barton

As Dave and K. Allen reported earlier, the RCMP, yup, those scarlet-jacketed images of John Wayne-type honesty, morality and sense of fair play, apparently LIED THROUGH THEIR TEETH to American authorities which resulted in the deportation and torturing of Arar.

And now the Commissioner of the RCMP won’t comment to the public who pays him and his fellow conpirators.

The RCMP should be censured by the Government of Canada and substantial compensation paid to Arar… money which should come from the POCKETS of those officers and officials who LIED. Then those involved should be dishonorably dismissed.

When public officials lie to the public either by omission or commission, they should be arrested, charged, tried and, if convicted, sentenced to a minimum of 25 years. It is intolerable for the public in a democracy to be lied to by their pulbic servants. Plain and simple. Intolerable.

Bush is a liar, an embarrassment, and in my book, the greatest threat to peace there is.  We already had enough of an image problem around the world, and that image is now so tarnished it’ll take generations to clean up. 

The very first time I saw that man on TV I felt he was evil incarnate.  I didn’t vote for Bush either time.  I was sick the first time he got in and convinced he stole the election.  I not only cried the second time, but sunk into a serious depression for almost 3 months.  “We the people” need to take back the government.  Somewhere along the way, we forgot that WE control the government, not the other way around. 

What puzzles me the most is that no move has been made on the international level to call this man and his entire administration on their actions.  If he isn’t stopped my fear is that he will lead us all into WWIII.  He’s already got his eye on Iran next.

Maher Arar is a Canadian hero.

No wonder the country is becoming more hated by the rest of the world.  Where were the brains of the American voters to promote such people to power?

Comment #24533 by Ethan Boger on 9/20 at 1:22 pm

You think I’m wrong to say ordinary Americans are wonderful people? Sure there are still some who love Bush and refuse to believe he’s a liar but...How many Americans who supposedly voted for Bush, in reality, actually voted against him but had their votes illegally manipulated through Diebold and other forms of voter fraud? How many tried to vote but were blocked from voting in areas where the public was known to be anti-Bush? How many instances of vote manipulation were discovered and nothing done about it because the crooks already in power blocked any investigation?

I refuse to believe that there are that many multiple millions of idiots in America who still believe Bush and his cabal of war mongers are honest men who desire America’s good. Had an HONEST vote been taken there’s no way he’d have survived a second election, even if his first election was an honest one (which I doubt)!

I disagree with you Ethan. Not all Americans are bad or politically lazy people. Sure there are some still taken in by the hype of a deceitful main stream media manipulation designed to perpetuate the power of the evil ones who’ve cheated their way to power. That doesn’t make all Americans “arrogant, ignorant and risk-averse” as you stated.

In this much I agree with you totally...far more “Ordinary Americans should start taking responsibility for the actions of their government.” That is true of every adult in every country. The problem with accomplishing this is that Americans seem to be sitting around feeling helpless to stop the never-ending power grab of crooks who lied their way to power and then continually assist one another in maintaining that power. I believe the majority of Americans would vote the Commander-in-Thief and all of his lying minions of evil out of office if they could find some honest politicians to run in their place and some honest judges and lawyers to prosecute the current liars and thieves right into major jail sentences for their theivery and war crimes.

As a Canadian I’ve seen this same sort of corruption going on for years among those in power in my own country, and have seen evidence of it in the news broadcasts of every other country. Anyone who tries to run for office as an honest person of integrity, who truly wants to better the lives of all men, is continually blocked from accomplishing anything by the massive number of crooks in office. Who was it who once said, “Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.”?

As I’ve said before, when are people going to realize that the so-called two party system is an out and out lie designed to give people the illusion that their vote is actually going to give them a better government “next time around”. How can you have an honest government if those already in power will only support your political position if you become as big a crook and liar as they are? As long as people continue to vote ‘party’ instead of for individuals of integrity we will continue to suffer from the poor governance of political liars whose only goal in life is to gain further power and profit.

I don’t know what it will take for the mass of humanity to finally overpower the crooks, liars, and power-hungry who’ve managed to gain control of all the governments of this world, in EVERY country, but somehow we the people must find a way to hold all of our leaders accountable. If we don’t soon find a way to remove from high office all the crooks, liars and war-profiteers, our world is doomed to a final descent into the total hell of anarchy and world war III, in the near future, that will be worse than all other wars put together.

True, the Canadian RCMP had bad intelligence, which it fed to the US about Arar, not to mention 3 others who are waiting for their day in court. But the USA “deported” Arar to Syria. If he was in fact deported, it should have been to Canada. And the USA will not cooperate with the investigation - it’s all top secret.
So I’d say Sheer got it right. Canada was criminally incompetent and willing to blindly follow wherever America led. They’re all trying to wriggle out of any responsibility now. Our Bush-league Prime Minister will say he’s sorry, but the real test will be if he pressures your royal penis to fess up.
And what are the odds of that happening?
Same as our Royal Mounted Police fessing up.

Comment #24410 by Pat on 9/20 at 3:15 am:
“Ordinary Americans are wonderful people “

Ordinary Americans are not wonderful people. A majority of Americans voted to retain Bush as President well after the lying and mishandling of the war had become well established.
Ordinary Americans are arrogant, ignorant and risk-averse. Why else would this have happened?
Ordinary Americans should start understanding the true price of cheap food, cheap oil and cheap security.
Ordinary Americans should start taking responsibility for the actions of their government.

King “W” compared bin Laden and Hussein to Hitler. Hussein’s atorcious human rights abuses were largely ignored when he was an ally fighting the Iranians. Unfortuantely, our intelligence did not know that he was poisoning the Kurds (laugh).

It saddens me when our King speaks of human rights when we are holding prisoners in Guantonomo without due process. Any wonder why the world hates us and considers us hypocrites?

I suggest that we keep those prisoners in Guantanomo forever. I love to see my tax dollars at work.

Your doing a great job King “W”!

We hired the village idiot. And it’s our fault that he still has power.
We, the people of the United States are the government. And it is our DUTY, to protect our country from a corrupt government, not our “elected officials”. And therein lies another problem. We haven’t had honest “representatives” in the Senate and Congress for decades, maybe longer,. What we have are professional politicians.
Again, our fault. we sit on our collective keesters, lamenting the shape of the nation, and the phone and computer are at arms length.
If WE ALL contacted our legislators, and demanded a change now,..it would happen.
But we don’t..so we suffer,…
It’s enough to drive you to drink..

So many Americans continually talk about how things would be better with this or that party in power. Would someone please explain to me why so many Americans are stuck in the delusion that only a Democratic or a Republican “party” can save America? Neither party has done anything to actually better all Americans, but instead only betters what is good for the rich corporations of America. So, why do so many voters look to any particular group to save them from the war mongering crazies who are destroying the land of the free by running America into a full blown dictatorship?

Why do Americans not look for honesty and integrity in their leaders instead of party affiliation? As long as people look to any “political party” to save them instead of DEMANDING integrity of leaders REGARDLESS OF PARTY AFFILIATION, Americans will continue to see their country descend into never-ending barbarism and war.

And it’s a certain bet that it won’t be the rich and powerful who suffer the consequences if the American people refuse to demand accountability of their leaders. The power and profit gang will continue to hide themselves and their offspring in the National Guard to give the pretense of defending their country, while ordinary citizens will continue to be expected to go and face the bullets, bombs and death in wars created by the elite to rape more resources from other countries to further increase their power and profit.

When politicians can be bought by big business for a lousy party donation, you can expect the guarantee of nothing but lies for the common man and bigger profits and lack of accountability for politicians and corporations. Unless politicians, regardless of party, are forced to behave with integrity and live by the same standards they demand of everyone else, the world will continue to face never-ending war.

When is this country’s population going to wake up to this Administration’s blatant disregard for what our forefathers established over 225 years ago?  How long can this go on?  Hopefully, this November will give Mr. Bush a wake up call.

While I am usually in agreement with Mr. Scheer in his criticisms of the Bush administration, and certainly agree that rendering and torture, however defined, are wrong, this article has a glaring omission.  Nowhere is it stated that the RCMP were also involved.  To imply that the Bush administration is the only culprit here is wrong.

According to Mr. Scheer’s former employers, The Los Angeles Times, “the RCMP provided American authorities with information about Mr. Arar that was inaccurate, portrayed him in an unfairly negative fashion and overstated his importance in the … investigation.”

I am all for placing blame where it is warranted.  This article however, never mentions the Canadian authorities mishandling of the situation and would lead one to believe that only the Bushies erred.

Did the Bush Administration err?  Yes they did.  Did the Canadians?  Yes they did.  Did Scheer do so when he omitted salient facts about the case?  Yes he did.

King George is afraid of everything even with his own shadow !

My guess is that Bush is really thinks God is guiding him in all decisions.

Maybe it is a good thing we are trying to spread democracy around the world, because we are destroying the demoracy at home and will eventually need somewhere to live when this is all done?

Seriously, our current Administration is taking advantage of the good, honest hard working Americans.  They are isolating the US as a very large island in a very small world. 

Regardless of what Bush and his cronies think, we are not indistructible or un-conquerable.  Unfortunatley, many of us never thought our slide into the modern dark ages would come from within!

Sincerely, proud to be an American, but lately embarrassed to be an American.

Why is the US sending sensitive “terror suspects” to be tortured and interrogated in Syria, a country it brands a sponsor of terrorism? Good question. Perhaps the US should be a bit more honest about Syria. Syria matters. It helps Hezbullah because its only big friend is Iran because the US ignores it - but it is not a Shia country and its government has no real interest in any kind of religious Islamic uprising. It helps Hamas because Israel is still in control of the Golan Heights, Syrian territory. It has no interest in civil war in Iraq because that threatens its own stability. It opened up its intelligence to the US after 9/11. Today it happliy does the US’s dirty torture work. So it can be cooperative, if cooperation is in its interest. So why doesn’t the US actually offer it something, instead of continually slagging it off? It’s a real failure of imagination.

While knee-jerk emotional responses make one feel good, this is no time to blindly delve into what might have been and what should have been. Now is the time to hold the democratic party to the fire of what is going to be. The democrats seem so gleefully expectant of victories that there is no planning, no semblance of coordination and no grass-root connections. I am ashamed of how the hubris of the democratic leaders has clouded the wisdom that is needed now in this dark period of our countries history.

In my travels I talk to many people I know personally. I am always surprised to lean that their own fear of the unknown, masterfully presented by the current administration, causes them to accept the “ticking time bomb” motif as opposed to the Geneva Convention way of life.
Consider this: The Geneva Convention is the way of the righteous who are forced to fend off attacks by enemies. Those who torture are more inclined to shoot first and ask questions later, and in some cases never ask questions of merit. I see the former as heroic and the latter as frightened cowards or nervous bullies.

As Bush once said and I paraphrase:  I prefer dictatorship to democracy, but only if I can be the dictator.

The naive blindness and wilfull ignorance of some Americans have given our nation its first “dictator” and not a benevolent one either.

Thanks to King George we do have three new stooges. They are George, Dick, and Don. All three of them created a lot of tragi-comedies and we still need more buffooneries, for laughing and shedding tears, even they’re not quite accountable to anyone of us. In another words, they’re only accountable between themselves. In the face of our brilliant new-world dominance our destiny has been murdered in the unanticipated malevolence of this trio. So everyone wonders how they could restore self-esteem, value and dignity to be saddled with such big illusory dreams and problems in their so tiny little brain and life ? Yes, how could they, so disastrously, succeed ?

In an era when truth; civility; morality; compassion; decency; honesty;good neighbourliness are expected to prevail, the ‘antics’ of the United States both at home and overseas makes everything look like a sickening joke. How do the citizens of the United States get up in the mornings and look at thei faces in the mirror. How do they feel when they travel overseas and people comment about them behind their backs. What happened to the ‘real’ America that the Pilgrim Fathers and those that followed wanted to found and to create a hallowed land where folks were really free.

The American Dream appears to be a nightmare when viewed vis-a-vis with what goes on now at every level of thinking. Outsiders look to the US to be the world leader in all things good.
Stories and images that come out of the US and from areas where the US now operates state otherwise.

Surely the American people have not become so numbed that they do not really know what is going on in the USA and overseas wherever the USA has an interest - except to know what is only “fed” to them. I remember reading sometime ago that USA tourists were wearing Canadian jackets and carrying Canadian flags to avoid being branded as a citizen of the US when they were overseas.  Must an American citizen stoop to that low level to hide his shame. Come on - People of the USA - get a clear head on what is going on and bring back the Old Glory Days of the American people when the Star Spangled Banner flew proud and free.

Only if we could actually get him to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.  It is a 1940’s social democrat document and is now anathema to the entire capitalist world.  In the 1940’s that was the center position. Now it is far left.  Moderate leftists such as myself (or Chomsky) are now far far left.  Certainly humankind has regressed.

Visit
http://www.worldcantwait.org
and organize to take back this country

It’s about time for every country who actually pays more than lip service to the sort of ideals revered by ordinary Americans in the once great United States Constitution, to sentence Bush and his cabal of world class bullies to the same treatment they so willingly espouse for others.

Those countries who actually seek to live in peace with their neighbours, unlike American, Israeli and British politicians, should impose exactly the same economic sanctions against war mongering America, Britain and Israel that American. British and Israeli Politicians are so willing to hand out to other countries who refuse to live in peace with their neighbours. Maybe then the American, British and Israeli people would finally find a way to limit their politicians love for war and put a stop to their political imperialism and war profiteering at the expense of so many innocent lives. Not one of their so-called wars to bring peace have made the world safer. Every single one has only made the world less safe.

Ordinary Americans are wonderful people but they have allowed their leaders to provoke and wage more conflicts and wars on the least pretext than any country has a right to commit without facing the consequences of such never ending belligerence towards others. No country needs to keep armed troops on approximately 122 bases in other people’s countries and then have the gall to try to claim they are not trying to control the world through imperialistic conquest.

I cannot comprehend why the American people refuse to stand up and demand that their leaders commit no further Imperialistic attacks on other sovereign countries. After all it is their children who are dying for the war profiteering goals of their political leaders, while their political leaders protect their own children from facing the bombs and bullets they demand everyone else face.

Bush claims his wars are just and right and truly necessary. Ok then! How many Bush family children have ever faced even a single bullet or bomb in the actual war conditions created by their father or grandfather’s love of war and war profiteering? How many of Rumsfield’s children have faced DU poisoning, phosphorus or cluster bombs, bullets, etc. from their dad’s love of war profits? When was the last time Condie Rice or her immediate family put on combat gear and faced the anger of those she so willingly advocates killing?

What were their bank balances before they drove their country to war and what are they after the last 5-7 years of bombing or providing the bombs to blow the crap out of Afghanistan, Iraq, Lebanon, Palestine, etc, etc, etc. While ordinary Americans become poorer due to outsourcing of American jobs to countries whose minimum wage is pathetically low, your politicians continue to get richer and richer from war profiteering.

Wake up America! Impeach your president. Charge his cabal of war profiting cronies for lying you into never-ending war. You were once a great, free and wonderful country. Take your country back from the war criminals now running it. Force your leaders to live by your American constitution or face impeachment and jail.

Just when one thinks that the Bush administration could get no worse, could sink no lower, along comes a story like this one. The breathtaking irony of Bush invoking the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is mind-boggling. But there you go…

A buffoon for a President… a zealot neocon for a VP… a girl on a woman’s mission in State…

Meanwhile in the epicentre of world terrorism, Pakistan, a duplicitous Musharraf continues on his merry way…

God help us all. Someone has to. The loonies are running the bin.

it is very difficult for me to imagine that our government castigates Syria publicy for allowing people to cross back and forth to Iraq ... for its support of Hezbollah .... but would send a Canadian who fled that country back to Syria for what turns out to be no reason at all

we were diplomatically deaf to their appeals re this man along the way; and still are, even as Canadian troops now try to help pick up the pieces of unfinished business in Afghanistan ... left undone by our foolish diversion of US resources from that conflict to Iraq

and our “ally” Pakistan basically threw in the towel re controlling Islamic militants operating from their western border region just recently

but Mr. Bush pushes on, mouthing the same generalities that seem unconnected to reality

rather than impeach the President, the Vice President, and fire the Defense Secretary, they should each strap on a decent field rifle, and join the troops in the hunt for Osama ...