GS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Maher Arar, Extraordinary Rendition, Fear Mongering
Multiple choice on everything from a week or week and a half before midterm (IMF, WB) till
todays lecture
Short answer is almost entirely culture and war on terror
Essay is one question → broad, requires synthesizing different parts of the course
Human Rights and the Global War on Terror
Moral Absolutism
● How do we navigate between the absolutism of American neo-conservatism and radical
jihadi ideology?
● Similarities in logic:
○ Both think god is on their side
○ Both are governed by myth and narrative of bringing about a new kind of society
by the systematic use of violence
○ Both conceive of a new world order brought about by “creative destruction”
Bush Bin Laden
Camp Delta, Guantanamo Bay → torture
GWOT Human Rights Abuses → dehumanization, prisoners treated like dogs, interrogation
tactics
Abu Ghraib Prison → put prisoners on cardboard boxes and hook them up to wires (didn’t really
have charge but made them think there was)
● Dehumanization we see about ISIS etc is being replicated in War on Terror (said it was
only used for “bad apples”)
Canada and the War on Terror
● Erosion of liberties
○ Extraordinary rendition: the arrest of a citizen or foreign national who is sent to a
third-country (usually the country of birth) for purposes of interrogation and
possibly torture, e.g. Maher Arar sent to Syria and tortured in prison
○ “Security certificates”: contravene the principles of our legal system by holding
suspects without releasing the evidence to them or their attorneys; 5 Muslim
suspects were held without charges; without trial; now in house arrest
Liberty vs Security?
● Erosion of our own democratic ideals: tradeoff between security and liberty?
● Fear mongering: keep a civilian population under fear and threat; compliant; willing to
give up some freedoms for security
● Terror alerts: keep populace suspicious and “on guard” against sleeper cells
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Multiple choice on everything from a week or week and a half before midterm (imf, wb) till todays lecture. Short answer is almost entirely culture and war on terror. Essay is one question broad, requires synthesizing different parts of the course. Human rights and the global war on terror. Both think god is on their side. Both are governed by myth and narrative of bringing about a new kind of society by the systematic use of violence. Both conceive of a new world order brought about by creative destruction . Gwot human rights abuses dehumanization, prisoners treated like dogs, interrogation tactics. Abu ghraib prison put prisoners on cardboard boxes and hook them up to wires (didn"t really have charge but made them think there was) Dehumanization we see about isis etc is being replicated in war on terror (said it was only used for bad apples )
