The New York Times > Opinion > Columnist: It's Called Torture

So often people say one thing and do another- why must the person in charge of our country be the one doing it now?

The New York Times > Opinion > Columnist: It's Called Torture: "President Bush spent much of last week lecturing other nations about freedom, democracy and the rule of law. It was a breathtaking display of chutzpah. He seemed to me like a judge who starves his children and then sits on the bench to hear child abuse cases. In Brussels Mr. Bush said he planned to remind Russian President Vladimir Putin that democracies are based on, among other things, 'the rule of law and the respect for human rights and human dignity.'

Someone should tell that to Maher Arar and his family.

Mr. Arar was the victim of an American policy that is known as extraordinary rendition. That's a euphemism. What it means is that the United States seizes individuals, presumably terror suspects, and sends them off without even a nod in the direction of due process to countries known to practice torture."