Wonderland or Not

Dis­trac­ted by health care legis­la­tion, Afgha­nis­tan, unem­ploy­ment and local and state elec­tions, the recent deci­sion on ren­di­tion has not recei­ved the atten­tion it deserves.

Extraor­di­nary Ren­di­tion, not the well writ­ten story, or great piece of blog­ging, but the prac­tice of trans­por­ting sus­pec­ted foreign terro­rists, or others sus­pec­ted of cri­mes, to other coun­tries for inte­rro­ga­tion and impri­son­ment with the intent of inte­lli­gence gathe­ring. Not wan­ting to poop in our own yard, it’s about taking sus­pects to faci­li­ties main­tai­ned by the Uni­ted Sta­tes in more tor­ture friendly countries.

On Mon­day, rejec­ting a suit in a ren­di­tion case , a full appeals court dis­mis­sed a law­suit brought against a for­mer U.S. attor­ney gene­ral by Maher Arar. Arar, a Syrian born Cana­dian citi­zen, sought dama­ges for being unlaw­fully detai­ned by U.S. autho­ri­ties in New York and then sec­retly ship­ped to Syria, where he was impri­so­ned for a year and tortured.

Mr. Arar was detai­ned at JFK Air­port in Sep­tem­ber 2002 while chan­ging pla­nes on his way home to Canada. He was mis­ta­kenly labe­led an Isla­mic extre­mist by his own country, and then labe­led a mem­ber of Al Qaeda by the post 9/11 Bush admi­nis­tra­tion and sent, not home to Canada for inves­ti­ga­tion, but off to Syrian inte­lli­gence autho­ri­ties renow­ned for tor­ture. He was tor­tu­red, inte­rro­ga­ted and detai­ned in a tiny under­ground cell for nearly a year before the Syrian govern­ment relea­sed him, sta­ting they had found no con­nec­tion to any cri­mi­nal or terro­rist orga­ni­za­tion or activity.

Canada has sett­led with Mr Arar to the tune of almost 9 million dollars. There is really no expla­na­tion as to why the Uni­ted Sta­tes did not send him back to Canada, his home country, but ins­tead, with no inves­ti­ga­tion, on to Syria to be inte­rro­ga­ted and tor­tu­red for a year. But indeed an inno­cent man was taken away from his family, his life and his country for a year, an inno­cent man who had no recourse.

Uni­ted Sta­tes Court of Appeals for the Second Cir­cuit ruled by a vote of 7 to 4 that Con­gress could always create a civil dama­ges remedy for harms suf­fe­red through ren­di­tion. Currently there is no such remedy so Arar is plum out of luck, as you or I would be be should we find our­sel­ves in a simi­lar situ­ta­tion. In a sta­te­ment one of the four dis­sen­ters, Judge Guido Cala­bresi wrote, “I believe that when the his­tory of this dis­tin­guished court is writ­ten, today’s majo­rity deci­sion will be vie­wed with dismay.”

Arar vs Ashc­roft et al (pdf)

I can think of a stron­ger word than dis­may, but for now let’s say this dis­turbs me and I suf­fer from “dis­tres­sed disappointment”.

Iro­ni­cally, an almost con­cu­rrent deci­sion made by the Ita­lian courts sen­ten­ces 23 CIA agents in an attack on ren­di­tion .

Go Figure

Peace