I Have No Recollection

The Maher Arar case takes a turn for the preposterous as Condoleeza Rice "admitted on Wednesday the United States had mishandled" his case but "stopped short of an apology." So, what, it was mishandled but she's not sorry it was mishandled? Why not? Meanwhile, if she's suffering from Alzheimer's maybe she ought to resign:

Rice did not apologize in the hearing and avoided directly answering a question from Massachusetts Democrat Rep. William Delahunt who asked if she knew Arar was tortured in Syria.

"You are aware of the fact that he was tortured?" Delahunt asked.

"I am aware of claims that were made," she responded.

But when asked if the United States had received any diplomatic assurances from Syria that Arar would not be tortured, Rice said her memory of the events had faded and she would have to respond later to the question.

Uh huh. It's kind of shocking how this administration ricocheted so quickly between outsourcing torture to Syria to refusing to have any diplomatic relations with Syria. There's a happy middle ground where you show a willingness to conduct diplomacy with "bad guy" regimes but don't actually engage in the practices that make them bad guys.

This article available online at:

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2007/10/i-have-no-recollection/43420/