The Canadian judiciary has issued a report into the treatment of a Canadian Muslim arrested in New York, deported to Syria and tortured. I have yet to see any coverage of this story in other American news sources. CNN this morning has this story about the treatment of a detainee, though it should be emphasised that in the context of the current American debate, with the Whitehouse arguing that ‘terrorists’ (not ’suspects’ but ‘terrorists’) deserve no better and that treating them this way has kept America safe for five years, it is impossible to assume that that story would automatically generate shock in the mind of the American reader.
In other news, a smiling President Bush making a rare trip to the U.N. to ‘promote democracy’. To see any contradiction in these positions is, in the current political climate, to mark oneself out as a ‘liberal’, a term of political abuse for many. Senator McCain, a Republican and war hero, who has consistently fought American treatment of detainees may have damaged his bid to be President with his stance. What no American appreciates fully is the extent to which America’s standing abroad is suffering as a result of these stories - but then, with America’s military and economic strength and, more importantly, American perceptions of the same, no patriotic American minds what Europeans, Canadians or anyone else thinks of U.S. Government policy. After all, it is really none of our business.