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More shameful US renditioning......

Whilst the likes of George Bush and John Howard - and now Australia's Treasurer - speak of the Iraq War intended to bring democracy to the Middle East, it's a losing battle if their thought processes [big ask!] reflect on the actions of the Coalition of the Willing.

How stories, like that below, play out around the world can only be a matter of conjecture, but one can successfully speculate, that the US is seen as sorely condemned and democracy and Western "justice" taking a battering. Certainly not an ideal to emulate!

"In 2001, 19-year-old Murat Kurnaz was an innocent man caught in the wrong place at the wrong time. Accused of being a terrorist, he spent five years in Guantanamo before being released -- now he's telling his story.

Fifteen American soldiers watched over a man, shackled to a seat in the cargo bay of a C-17 Globemaster -- the Air Force workhorse that usually moves Abrams tanks, Chinook helicopters or infantry vehicles. Wearing goggles that shut out all light, a soundproof headset and a mask that covered his mouth so he could not speak, spit or bite, the prisoner arrived at Ramstein Air Force Base in Kaiserslautern, Germany, under the tightest security. The plane had burned through 36,000 gallons of jet fuel and had refueled in flight. During the seventeen-hour ride, the prisoner was provided with neither food nor water. Nor was he allowed to stretch his legs or relieve himself.

This was how what had been the world's greatest democracy when George W. Bush took the presidential oath in 2001 repatriated an innocent man who'd never represented a security threat to the United States. Murat Kurnaz was nineteen when he was taken off a bus in Peshawar, Pakistan. He had, as many first- or second-generation Muslims in Europe do, turned to a religion his family had abandoned when they emigrated from their native land. His religious awakening put him in proximity to Islamic fundamentalists: sufficient justification for detention by American forces, after the terrorist attacks of 9/11, as a supposed member of Al Qaeda."

So reports AlterNet in this compelling piece - about an innocent man who has now, post release, written a book and is being progressively being interviewed in the media.



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