Mr. Cellucci also questioned sending a dual Canadian-Syrian citizen off to a dungeon-like cell in Damascus without notifying Canadian authorities. An agreement since signed between Washington and Ottawa will prevent it from happening again, he said.
"Part of the unfairness was that we took a Canadian citizen, shipped him to a third country without consulting with Canada," Mr. Cellucci told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from Calgary.
Now just by acknowledging that there are some limits to the President's unfettered discretion to do anything in the name of fighting terror (even for reasons of comity rather than human rights), Cellucci goes against everything his former boss seems to stand for. But it gets better:
Often criticized during his ambassadorship for his outspoken "megaphone diplomacy," Mr. Cellucci openly acknowledged Washington got it wrong when it alleged deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction — even though he says such weapons were the "major reason for going in."
"We're not always right, and on that particular one it looks like we weren't right, although we know at some point in the past he did have these weapons," Mr. Cellucci said.
And while the book is highly critical of former prime minister Jean Chrétien's decision to keep Canada out of war in Iraq — saying Mr. Chrétien showed "indecision, mixed signals and confusion" instead of leadership — Mr. Cellucci said Wednesday he understands why Canadians applaud the decision.
Of particular interest is the fact that Cellucci's biggest criticism is Canada's lack of a strong stand rather than its ultimate position - and he acknowledges that we were right in the end. Which seems to provide all the more reinforcement for the idea that the biggest error the Liberals have made is to try to have it both ways rather than to clearly explain why the U.S. sometimes deserves to be opposed.
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