Friday, August 05, 2011

Abdelrazik, Kenney, and the extension of the state

So today we find CSIS has leaked a document suggesting that Abousfian Abdelrazik had a phone conversation where he plotted with Adil Charkaoui to blow up an airliner. In 2000.

Some things come to mind.

First, this has not been proven.

Second, if true, there are criminal laws on the books in Canada to deal with these sorts of conspiracies. One would think that a phone call where a conspiracy such as this was conspired would be pretty damning evidence. Why then did CSIS et al put Abdelrazik through the rigmarole foreign torture and detention? Why was Abdelrazik allowed to board a commercial aircraft and fly to Sudan if had demonstrably plotted to blow up one? Why, if any of these 'evidence-based' accusations of explosive traces, terror training, etc, are remotely true, has Mr. Abdelrazik never been charged with anything? Why have other intelligence agencies cleared him?

And Jason Kenney is being rich when, he of the unproven war crimes lists, says,

Kenney also had a warning for those who'd been working with Charkaoui and Abdelrazik to clear their names, or had gone "to the extent of treating such people as folk heroes."
"All I can say is that I hope those who form these political support groups for individuals who have been the focus of security certificates or similar extraordinary efforts on the part of government think very carefully about this," added Kenney. "I hope that people will realize that the government does not take these measures lightly, and that these measures are only taken on the basis of very compelling evidence that such individuals mean Canada harm and no good."

I've met Abousfian Abdelrazik and found him to have a sincere and kind way about him. If he was ever involved in any nefarious activity or plotting, it would a) come as a surprise, and b) mean the government, CSIS, and RCMP seriously fucked-up.  

Given the pending lawsuit, the three federal amigos have every motivation to muddy the waters. This is a calculated leak. Moreover, it is a leak that comes on the tails of lists of unproven "war criminals," fraudulent Canadians, and threats to revoke citizenship.

Whether the leak against Abousfian Abdelrazik has any veracity is unknowable at this time. However, a smear campaign to discredit an individual Canadian citizen and his friends and supporters by the government and its agencies, without substantiated evidence, appears to be underway.

This government, its ministers, seem to be actively looking for ways to circumvent the burden of proof, and hobble individuals on little more than whiffs and whispers, using smears and innuendo.

The trend of individual Ministers of the Crown targeting individual Canadian citizens like this is truly terrifying. It is one thing to have the cruelty of state power represented and enforced by a faceless bureaucracy, but quite another when it is individual politicians directly intervening in the fates of citizens, regardless of their exoneration by the relevant credible government agencies.


double nickel said...

Fuckers. Why go to court when you can leak, threaten and smear with impunity. Fuckers.

Anonymous said...

"The Canadian Press reports that CSIS will not comment on its authenticity because of security concerns."

So if it leaked it then they are lieing to the Canadian people and the security they cite is really covering their own arses like Harper did with the detainee scandal.

If not leaked then our security service has more serious security concerns than the contents of this crappy paper. It cannot secure it;s own house.

Either way it ain't good.

Boris said...

harebell: Indeed. There's an odour coming off this something awful.

Rev.Paperboy said...

Dear Mr. Kenney,
I do "think very carefully" about this and giventhe nature of your government, completely expect to end up on some CSIS watch list or another for helping in my small way to defend a fellow citizen from the paranoid fantasies of you and yours,
Fuck you very much.

Beijing York said...

Harper's changes are coming fast and furious. The opposition parties, true to form, are being played by Harper yet again... fulminating over federal loyalty while Harper bulldozers ahead with the destruction of civil rights and good governance.

900ft Jesus said...

so suddenly Kenney and others can spew unsubstantiated claims rather than spit out their usual line of how they can't discuss this because of ongoing investigations.

Sacrificed to the cause. What's the quote from Nuremburg trials? Something about how the first innocent man sacrificed for ideals destroys those very ideals?

thwap said...

There's no reason to trust the pieces of shit in CSIS and the harpercon government.

My first instinct is that the anti-democratic sons of bitches are lying.

Arar, Abdelrazik, Almalki, Nurredin, El-Maati, ... all tortured, all found innocent. All of them, supposedly, high-level terrorists, according to the "geniuses" of CSIS, innocent men, suffering terribly because of the childish, shit-headed delusions of our political elites and their dumb-ass security experts.