On a Roll

Well I just happened to read a disturbing article by Robert Fisk about the actions of the former Shah of Iran's intelligence (torture) agents SAVAK. He was musing on the 30th anniversary of the Iranian Revolution and the causes of this revolution.

I'll never forget how, a few years ago, western governments worshiped the infallible president of Uzbekistan. A strong ally and fighter of terrorists. I don't care to remember his name. The one thing I'll never forget though was his agents' favourite torture method: boiling victims alive. Can you imagine that one?

Well for a taste of one of the Shah's torture chambers, here's Robert Fisk interviewing a fellow reporter:

“There was a fishpond outside,” he told me. “There were vases of flowers in the front hall. But downstairs there were cells. In each of them was a steel bed with straps and beneath it two domestic cookers. There were lowering devices on the bedframes so the people strapped to them could be brought down on the flames. In another cell, I found a machine with a contraption which held a human arm beneath a knife and next to it was a metal sheath into which a human hand could be fitted. At one end was a bacon slicer. They had been shaving off hands.”

Dear Prime Minister

Oh what to do with this blog. I kind of want to retire it. Not that there aren't a million things to blog about every day but well it just doesn't feel natural like it used to.

Perhaps I'll just post letters that I write to the Prime Minister. I probably write a few times a month. I know that he loves to hear from me. Unfortunately when shit goes down CSIS or the RCMP will probably pay me a visit and that will be that. But for now I might as well enjoy my democratic right to challenge the government.

Not that they listen.

--

Dear Prime Minister Harper,

I'm writing today about the apparent banning from Canada of an elected and sitting British Member of Parliament from Canada. George Galloway, MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, I'm shocked to hear is considered by your government a threat to national security. Based on my reading of Section 34(1) of Canada's immigration act, I can see no grounds to ban him.

He is not coming to Canada to encourage violence. He is not being invited to tour the Ministry of Defense nor the headquarters of CSIS, so our state secrets are secure. Why therefore is his visit a threat to national security?

The answer is pathetically simple for all to see: he opposes the war in Afghanistan and plans to spell out his opposition to those Canadians who care to listen to him. Your government disagrees with him so he is labeled a threat to national security.

Prime Minister Harper I'm so terribly disappointed in your childish behaviour in regards to MP Galloway and especially that of Minister Kenney. The funny thing is that if you would have just let him in his publicity would have been minimal. Now more Canadians are exposed to these proceedings and, like me, are seeing the erosion of our democracy.

The United Kingdom like Canada is a democracy and I find it strange that Canada, that has inherited its democratic traditions from the Westminster model, should stoop to such transparent and pathetic actions. The banning of dissenting voices is hardly democratic behaviour and you should know better.

You're going to lose this one. Let him in.

(And last but not least, check out this article from CanWest which lays in to George Galloway and is very partisan but then again who isn't. I just don't think he compares to far-right politicians like Jean Marie Le Pen. And it's not like he was delivering guns to Hamas when he went to Gaza earlier this year. Giving food and blankets to terrorists makes you a terrorist apparently.)