A new Web site called Republicans for Ignatieff makes things much easier for those who don't have the time or the inclination to read what the Canadian Liberal leader wrote in the post-9/11 period.

It's a slick spoof designed to highlight Ignatieff's right-wing leanings.

The site includes videotaped clips of Ignatieff expressing support for targeted assassinations and preventive detention.

Earlier this year, I interviewed retired political scientist Denis Smith, author of Ignatieff's World Updated: Iggy Goes to Ottawa (James Lorimer & Company Ltd., $19.95).

Smith exhaustively researched what Michael Ignatieff wrote over the past 20 years, and his book includes some disturbing revelations.

Here's just one of the quotes that Smith unearthed:

"Permissible duress might include forms of sleep deprivation that do not result in lasting harm to mental or physical health, together with disinformation and disorientation (like keeping prisoners in hoods) that would produce stress," Ignatieff wrote in his book The Lesser Evil: Political Ethics in an Age of Terror (Penguin Canada, 2004).

So far, Ignatieff has avoided much scrutiny in the mainstream media on his pronouncements justifying Bush administration tactics in the post-9/11 era.

However with former U.S. vice president Dick Cheney coming under increasing fire for his support for targeted assassinations, can criticism of Ignatieff, a former director of the Carr Center for Human Rights at Harvard University, be very far behind?

The federal Liberals chose Ignatieff as their leader in haste. The biggest beneficiaries could turn out to be the federal NDP and Bloc Quebecois, whose natural supporters won't take too kindly to what they see on the Republicans for Ignatieff site.