Patrick Leahy: “What do we set as an example? We lose our way on this question of torture. When America arranged to have a Canadian…”

“What do we set as an example? We lose our way on this question of torture. When America arranged to have a Canadian citizen, changing a plane in the United States on the way to Canada, sent to Syria to be tortured, what did we tell the rest of the world? I will tell you what we told the rest of the world: Here we have the outrageous conduct of President Musharraf's Government in Pakistan. He is closing down the courts, he is closing down the opposition, he is closing down the press. We have to meekly say: Please don't do that; we do send you billions of dollars in aid; please don't destroy democracy. A Cabinet Minister in his Government was interviewed yesterday on a Canadian show. When he was asked if he was ashamed of the images the world was seeing of Pakistanis being clubbed by police in the streets, part of his reply was this: Are other countries--referring to the United States--ashamed of taking persons from another country to a third country and torturing them? Are they ashamed? I would like to think as Americans we hold the high moral ground, but we can be lectured because we have not, by the likes of a member of the Cabinet of a despotic regime in Pakistan, and there is no answer to it. There is no answer to it because what he objects to us doing is sending a citizen of another country who was on our land to Syria to be tortured, and we have no answer to that because this administration and this Government did it. I am proud to be an American.”