Malevolent or simply incompetent?

That is the question we're asking in Canada these days as the results of the Maher Arar inquiry are released. The findings indicate the the RCMP and the CSIS - Canada's national police force and national security agency, respectively - made a horrible mess of this situation, had no evidence to support their claims, and were, shall we say, creative in the defence of their actions.

Mr. Arar was detained by American security personnel in New York, while he was returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia, and was then sent to Syria for "extraordinary rendition," which is a polite term for sending people to foreign nations wherein they could be tortured without legal recourse or consequence.