Syria: Friend or Foe? AOL hilites today a report about the findings of an official inquiry in Canada into the "extraordinary rendition" by the United States of a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin who was merely passing thru the U.S. when he was stopped by the U.S. Government because the 'Royal' Canadian Mounted Police had erroneously placed him on a terrorist "watch list".
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I saw a broadcast report on this case a couple of weeks ago that detailed high-handed and illegal behavior by U.S. authorities. The man was seized by the U.S. Government, held in jail overnite without being allowed to contact an attorney, then deported not back to Canada, the country of which he is a citizen, but to Syria. It is my understanding that it is illegal to deport a person to a country not his own. It is also illegal to arrest anyone and hold him or question him without access to an attorney.
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The agents involved in that behavior asserted that because he wasn't a citizen of the U.S., the Constitution didn't protect him. That is not the way the Constitution works.
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The Constitution controls the behavior of the Government, not of private persons foreign or domestic. It establishes uniform standards for the behavior of our Government toward anyone, of any nationality, anywhere on Earth. There is no escaping its provisions and protections against Government abuse. But the Bush Administration doesn't approve of constitutional restrictions upon Government power, so evades the Constitution every chance it gets.
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Syria is, we are told over and over, a state sponsor of terrorism involved in the activities of Hezbollah, and an ally and agent of Iran that we should plan war against. But then we ship a Canadian to Syria for torture to get information to fite terrorism! Syria also recently fought off an attack upon the U.S. Embassy in Damascus, with loss of Syrian life.
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So, is Syria The Enemy, or a friend? Does Syria work to harm us or defend us? I'd like to know.
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(The current U.S. military death toll in Iraq, according to the website "Iraq Coalition Casualties", is 2,687 — for Israel.)




- posted by L. Craig Schoonmaker @ 12:45 PM