Over the weekend, news broke about Maher Arar, who has Canadian and Syrian dual-citizenship,… Over the weekend, news broke about Maher Arar, who has Canadian and Syrian dual-citizenship, but lived in the former country until he was arrested by officials in the United States and deported to Syria in 2002.

His comments about his forced sojourn – read: imprisonment and torture – in Syria prompted the Center for Constitutional Rights to demand an investigation by Attorney General John Ashcroft into Arar’s treatment.

The first question that springs to my mind is: How could the United States decide the country of which Arar was more a citizen? Syria clearly won, but why?

President Bush has criticized Syria for its links to terrorist organizations. Amnesty International’s Web site provides a laundry list of Syria’s infractions – torture and arresting “prisoners of conscience” seem to be recurring themes. Why, then, did the United States send Arar there, rather than pleasant, death-penalty-free Canada, the country in which Arar chose to live?

The answer appears to be that this country now has outside contractors for its dirty work. The Eighth Amendment prohibits torture? No problem! Syria has no such qualms or judicial hang-ups.

Now, I like my soapbox. I’ve grown into it – it has little outlines where my feet go, and “Life Buoy” written on the side. And when I heard about Arar’s case, I knew that I could easily rant about the decline of the justice system and blah blah blah. I’m a college student, and a college journalist, so part of my job is railing against what I see as the Great Injustices of the World – note the capitalization; there will be a test.

But for all the outrage, little is done. The Pitt News ran a U-Wire story Nov. 7 about how protestors need a unified message to avoid the appearance of being a bunch of longhaired idiots with puppets. Style issues aside, the writer did have a point – there needs to be a rallying cry, one felt both on the streets and in the polls.

And so here is Arar’s case; he seems like a worthy poster-boy for addressing the GIotWs.

To kick-start this, I did a bit of research. All political action should begin with proper research. One of my activist friends spends most of her days reading newspapers, both domestic and foreign, trying to piece together truth from slanted reporting. As a result, she can talk about any political issue with authority, citing multiple reliable sources, the benchmark of a good argument.

So in an effort to get people not only outraged, but also informed, I researched. I don’t pretend to be unbiased – this is an Opinions column after all. But my sources are mostly Canadian, with the occasional U.S. or English newspaper thrown in.

I didn’t include what Al-Jazeera said, because it was a rundown of what everyone else said, and, on a search, the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review’s and The Washington Times’ Web sites didn’t yield any articles concerning Arar.

Here’s what I found:

Arar was arrested in New York in September 2002, and deported to Syria, where he said he was tortured, beaten and kept in a cell he called “a grave,” according to an article in the Nov. 11 edition of The Washington Post.

The article also termed the process of deporting people to countries known for their lovely torture practices as “rendition” – because giving it a totally nondescript name makes this totally gruesome procedure more palatable, of course.

Arar’s already got a lawyer, Lorne Waldman, and a list of complaints concerning how the media is handling his case, according to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

And others are using his case as an example of unfair treatment and detention. The Globe and Mail, based in Toronto, listed the others who, seeing Arar’s case, hope to use it as an example of the dubious detention practices. Some of the complaints are on behalf of people on the FBI’s Most Wanted List.

The London Free Press reported that Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien demanded answers from U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, but Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham stated that these answers might never come, according to The Ottawa Citizen.

Got that? Arar’s case provides a lot to digest, and even more to understand. But outrage without backing facts is just hot air. So before you start growing your hair and damning the man, start reading. You just might learn something.

Sydney Bergman’s hair would just like to assert that it may be long, but it does not smell like hippy. Both she and it can be reached at [email protected].