A Tortured Logic

By Amy Goodman, King Features Syndicate. Posted January 25, 2007.

It is up to the new Democratic majority to investigate the use of torture and demand prosecution for those who engaged in it.

The new head of the Senate Judiciary Committee was angry. Sen. Patrick Leahy was questioning U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about a man named Maher Arar.

Arar is a Canadian citizen who the U.S. detained without charge then sent to Syria in 2002. Leahy fumed: "We knew damn well, if he went to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held. He'd be investigated. We also knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured."