Screen shot from "English", an on-going video project
Covert Entry covers most of the bases for CSIS misbehaviour, including illegal surveillance through their access to Canada Post (and the agency has been very helpful with Telus and their labour problems!)
This book also includes the sort of info I love to know: CSIS agents hang out at the Timothy's coffee shop on Front Street near their Toronto headquarters, but they really, really love the Starbucks on the corner of Queen & John. As do I.
I am not sure if they also love Pages Books & Magazines, located near their fave Starbucks, but I have it on very good authority that if they do shop at Pages, they most certainly DO NOT have a special discount card for preferred customers!
I also came upon a site from a company called C.S.I.S. that I assume is their gift store.
...and this little well dressed doggy can also be found at CSIS.
Here's something we can't blame on CSIS and their evil poodle plate (and that damn little red eyed doggy), according to this CBS report from 2004, It was the Mounties who were passing info on Maher Arar's so-called terrorist links to American intelligence.
David Wilkins, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, seems shocked that we'd be pissed about this, and warns us that we could be in the same position if we hold dual citizenship (the qualifier being: Location, Location, Location!). A friend and I were chatting about this last night, she was enraged, naturally, and I had to point out that the whole thing is a bit of a minuet. Wilkins has nothing to lose by shooting his mouth off, and we know that all Canadian intelligence officials were very interested in any info that Syria could torture out of Arar.
I like their logo! Very "CSIS is a girls best friend."
Oof. Now I feel bad about kidding around. That CBS report is brutal. Poor bastard. Have there been other documented instances of someone being sent to a torturing country for the purpose of information gathering? And why not send him to Guantanamo Bay?
The Syrian destination was because he held dual Canadian and Syrian citizenship. The poor bastard simply had a stop over in an American airport on his flight home from a visit to Syria, so they couldn't pull out the enemy combatant argument.
(I don't believe that it was a totally American decision, but I believe that the US is willing to take the heat for this one, to a greater degree, than our government is.)
Lots of documentation on repatriation to third party countries by the US. I think there are a few more Canadian citizens in the same position as Arar was. Someone said that the most amazing thing about Arar's case was that he actually came home at all.
Don't know if you mentioned this but the practice of turning suspects over to torturing countries is called rendition or extraordinary rendition. The US has a special plane for it. May all involved on our end deep-fry in hell.
extraordinary rendition...ugh. There's a good post about it here at Obsidian Wings (also a good picture of a kitty sniper). quote: As it stands now, "extraordinary rendition" is a clear violation of international law--specifically, the U.N. Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Degrading and Inhuman Treatment. U.S. law is less clear. We signed and ratified the Convention Against Torture, but we ratified it with some reservations. They might create a loophole that allows us to send a prisoner to Egypt or Syria or Jordan if we get "assurances" that they will not torture a prisoner--even if these assurances are false and we know they are false.
And in Canada...
... Amnesty International is concerned that when allegations of involvement in or support for “terrorist activities” are made against Canadian citizens, there may be a pattern or practice of Canadian officials encouraging or allowing those individuals to be dealt with by security agencies in other countries, including Syria and Egypt, where safeguards against human right violations are lacking and where the risk of torture and arbitrary detention is very high.
from Amnesty International Canada’s Submission to the Special Senate Committee on the Anti-Terrorism Act and House of Commons Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National Security as part of the Review of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act , May 16, 2005
Thanks Tom, my mistake, rendition was the word I was looking for in this context, repatriation is sending someone back to their country of origin and refers to refugees and POWs.
Rendition means surrender, but that is the term that is being used for the activities you describe. And we shall burn in hell on our end too.
The mindset of Cheney and Rumsfeld is "we're grownups, it's a tough world and tough measures are called for." They're just inept Washington bureaucrats though, living in a Tom Clancy fantasy world and watching their "grown up" plans turn to shit in Iraq and elsewhere. In reality they're not grownups but adolescent boy fascists, disappointed and bewildered by a complex world and letting all the evil sludge in their imaginations run riot now that they have some power. These fantasies emanate from the top, and encourage the rest of the military to give vent to their sadistic impulses. Turning so many lives to screaming agony. Many of the camp inmates in Guantanamo were just innocent dupes ratted out by Afghan warlords--they don't deserve this "extraordinary" treatment. None of them deserve to be in a concentration camp. In a sane world Cheney would be in the dock in the Hague, not buying a 2.9 million dollar house on the eastern shore of Maryland.
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Screen shot from "English", an on-going video project
Covert Entry covers most of the bases for CSIS misbehaviour, including illegal surveillance through their access to Canada Post (and the agency has been very helpful with Telus and their labour problems!)
This book also includes the sort of info I love to know: CSIS agents hang out at the Timothy's coffee shop on Front Street near their Toronto headquarters, but they really, really love the Starbucks on the corner of Queen & John. As do I.
I am not sure if they also love Pages Books & Magazines, located near their fave Starbucks, but I have it on very good authority that if they do shop at Pages, they most certainly DO NOT have a special discount card for preferred customers!
I also came upon a site from a company called C.S.I.S. that I assume is their gift store.
...and this little well dressed doggy can also be found at CSIS.
- L.M. 9-23-2005 1:01 am
Here's something we can't blame on CSIS and their evil poodle plate (and that damn little red eyed doggy), according to this CBS report from 2004, It was the Mounties who were passing info on Maher Arar's so-called terrorist links to American intelligence.
David Wilkins, the U.S. Ambassador to Canada, seems shocked that we'd be pissed about this, and warns us that we could be in the same position if we hold dual citizenship (the qualifier being: Location, Location, Location!). A friend and I were chatting about this last night, she was enraged, naturally, and I had to point out that the whole thing is a bit of a minuet. Wilkins has nothing to lose by shooting his mouth off, and we know that all Canadian intelligence officials were very interested in any info that Syria could torture out of Arar.
- L.M. 9-23-2005 6:46 am
I like their logo! Very "CSIS is a girls best friend."
- sally mckay 9-24-2005 8:23 pm
Oof. Now I feel bad about kidding around. That CBS report is brutal. Poor bastard. Have there been other documented instances of someone being sent to a torturing country for the purpose of information gathering? And why not send him to Guantanamo Bay?
- sally mckay 9-24-2005 8:42 pm
The Syrian destination was because he held dual Canadian and Syrian citizenship. The poor bastard simply had a stop over in an American airport on his flight home from a visit to Syria, so they couldn't pull out the enemy combatant argument.
(I don't believe that it was a totally American decision, but I believe that the US is willing to take the heat for this one, to a greater degree, than our government is.)
Lots of documentation on repatriation to third party countries by the US. I think there are a few more Canadian citizens in the same position as Arar was. Someone said that the most amazing thing about Arar's case was that he actually came home at all.
- L.M. 9-24-2005 9:00 pm
Don't know if you mentioned this but the practice of turning suspects over to torturing countries is called rendition or extraordinary rendition. The US has a special plane for it. May all involved on our end deep-fry in hell.
- tom moody 9-24-2005 9:21 pm
extraordinary rendition...ugh. There's a good post about it here at Obsidian Wings (also a good picture of a kitty sniper). quote:
- sally mckay 9-24-2005 9:38 pm
And in Canada...
from Amnesty International Canada’s Submission to the Special Senate Committee on the Anti-Terrorism Act and House of Commons Sub-Committee on Public Safety and National Security as part of the Review of Canada’s Anti-Terrorism Act , May 16, 2005- sally mckay 9-24-2005 9:44 pm
Thanks Tom, my mistake, rendition was the word I was looking for in this context, repatriation is sending someone back to their country of origin and refers to refugees and POWs.
Rendition means surrender, but that is the term that is being used for the activities you describe. And we shall burn in hell on our end too.
- L.M. 9-24-2005 9:49 pm
The mindset of Cheney and Rumsfeld is "we're grownups, it's a tough world and tough measures are called for." They're just inept Washington bureaucrats though, living in a Tom Clancy fantasy world and watching their "grown up" plans turn to shit in Iraq and elsewhere. In reality they're not grownups but adolescent boy fascists, disappointed and bewildered by a complex world and letting all the evil sludge in their imaginations run riot now that they have some power. These fantasies emanate from the top, and encourage the rest of the military to give vent to their sadistic impulses. Turning so many lives to screaming agony. Many of the camp inmates in Guantanamo were just innocent dupes ratted out by Afghan warlords--they don't deserve this "extraordinary" treatment. None of them deserve to be in a concentration camp. In a sane world Cheney would be in the dock in the Hague, not buying a 2.9 million dollar house on the eastern shore of Maryland.
- tom moody 9-24-2005 10:02 pm