It appears that a native Syrian living in Canada, Maher Arar, traveled to the U.S. where he was apprehended by the FBI and deported to his home country based on information provided to the FBI by the Canadian authorities.  During his four—year sojourn in Syria he was reportedly imprisoned and tortured.  There is no defense for torture, and imprisonment without due process.

But let's be sure that we get the vocabulary in this incident straight.  There may have been dereliction or simply errors on the part of the Canadian authorities and/or the FBI.  But the responsibility for Mr. Arar's treatment in Syria is wholly the responsibility of Syria.  To the extent that deporting Mr. Arar to Syria is considered reprehensible, it is reprehensible to the extent that Syria is a depraved and savage regime.

In recent years, much of the Canadian press and many of her political leaders have taken the view that it is the U.S. that is the source of 'instability' in the world.  Let's be sure that we note that BOTH the Canadian press AND the usually left—wing mainstream American press are taking it as self—evident that Syria is so depraved and savage a regime that it was ipso facto unacceptable to deport Mr. Arar there.

Therefore, we now have a base line in future discussions of and news from the Middle East.  In Canadian and American press terms at least, Syria is a depraved and savage regime.  It is worth while keeping that fact in mind as the narrative in the Middle East develops.

Greg Richards   9 20 06