It turns out one of the positive things that will happen due to the Democrats taking control of Congress in January, (and there are many) is they’re finally going to demand answers of the Bush administration and summon US Attorney-General (and Bush toadie) Alberto Gonzalez to the judiciary committee in January to explain why they have continued to bar Maher Arar from the US and continue to label him a security risk even after he was exonerated by a Canadian inquiry.
The Dem to be leading that charge is Patrick Leahy, and he isnt impressed with the Bush Administration’s stance on this issue:
Leahy says he wants Gonzales before his committee to discuss the entire U.S. policy of rendition and he said in a speech last week he will no longer put up with non-answers shrouded in security concerns or promises to get back to him. “It’s not just this individual case,” Leahy said, “but what does this say when someone’s plane stops here, they have citizenship in a neighbouring country and we ship them back to Syria. You know they are going to be tortured..This is beneath our country. And it does absolutely nothing to make us more secure and it is a gross human rights violation.. One thing that can be done is our country should sit down with yours and say: How did we all screw up here?”
Nice to see the concept of oversight returning to the US Congress.
I wonder what the new Liberal Deputy Leader has to say about this.