They won't talk with them officially, but they are not above working with them secretly. Today's Washington Post featured this article by Doug Struck:
Canadian Was Falsely Accused, Panel Says After Tip From Ally, U.S. Sent Muslim to Syria for Questioning
I find it deeply disturbing to consider that the US cannot stoop to discuss peace in Iraq with Syria (or Iran), but has sufficient relations with them to use them for torturing suspects.
Canadian intelligence officials passed false warnings and bad information to American agents about a Muslim Canadian citizen, after which U.S. authorities secretly whisked him to Syria, where he was tortured, a judicial report found Monday.Arar, now 36, was detained by U.S. authorities as he changed planes in New York on Sept. 26, 2002. He was held for questioning for 12 days, then flown by jet to Jordan and driven to Syria. He was beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan -- where he never has been -- and then kept in a coffin-size dungeon for 10 months before he was released, the Canadian inquiry commission found.
The Bush administration is unwilling or unable to work with multiple countries for diplomatic solutions to war, but they are able to make arrangements with at least three countries to secretly abduct, confine and torture an innocent man. This is outrageous!
Ontario Justice Dennis O'Connor....concluded that "categorically there is no evidence" that Arar did anything wrong or was a security threat.
I believe that George Allen knows about the US program of "extraordinary renditioning" and approves of it. During the MTP debate, George Allen would not commit to whether he will vote for or against torture. He said he had to think about it.
Conservatives have been saying that these brutal methods are necessary in order to combat terrorism. It's no wonder that radical religious fanatics can easily stir up anti-American sentiment.
If George Allen really has a racist anger problem, it is not hard to see how he could heartlessly approve of cruel treatment. According to the Post article, there have been over 3000 "extraordinary renditions" since 9/11. I suppose Allen/Bush supporters might call the illegal abduction and torture of Maher Arar "collateral damage" or some other claptrap.
Cruelty and hatred turn ordinary people into either monsters or victims; they leave no other choice. But there is another way, found in the time-honored tradition of our justice system- a system that Bush wants to sweep aside in these cases. The policies of the Bush administration- which meet approval from George Allen- must not be allowed to continue.