Remember When Everyone Thought Torture was Evil?

The case of Maher Arar is making some headlines in the US. Arar is a
canadian man picked up by the US during a layover at JFK on his way
back from vacation in Tunisia. Arar was, without evidence, shipped off
to Syria to be tortured under a program known as 'extraordinary
rendition'. Democracy Now! has Arar's ordeal in his own words:

Really,
I mean, when I arrived there, I just couldn't believe it. I thought
first it was a dream. I was crying all the time. I was disoriented. I
wished I had something in my hand to kill myself, because I knew I was
going to be tortured, and this was my preoccupation. That's all I was
thinking about when I was on the plane. And I arrived there. I was
crying all the time. So, one of them started questioning me, and the
others were taking notes. And the first day it was mainly routine
questions, between 8 to 12.