Maher Arar Launched Firstever Challenge

[Commie Girl]

The full interview can be read/heard at Democracy Now (http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=05/08/10/1346251)

Canadian torture victim Maher Arar is the first person to mount a civil suit challenging the U.S. government policy of extraordinary rendition. Now his attorneys are fighting the Justice Department's motion to dismiss the case. We speak with David Cole, the lead lawyer for Maher Arar.

Attorneys for Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, made their first public appearance in a Brooklyn Federal Court yesterday in Arar's closely watched civil lawsuit against several U.S. officials. Among them: former Attorney General John Ashcroft and former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge. In his lawsuit, Arar accuses the U.S. government of violating the Torture Victim Protection Act and his Fifth Amendment right to due process. His attorneys appeared in court yesterday to argue against the Justice Department's motion to dismiss Arar's case.
In October 2002, Arar was detained at JFK airport by US officials while on a stopover in New York. He was then jailed and secretly deported to Syria. He was held for almost a year without charge in an underground cell not much larger than a grave, where he was tortured. The Center for Constitutional Rights launched Arar's lawsuit last January alleging that Ashcroft, Ridge and other officials in the Bush administration knew Arar would be tortured when he was deported. Arar alleges he was a victim of the US government's "extraordinary rendition" policy of sending people to countries that routinely use torture, instead of holding them in the US where they have certain rights under the constitution.

The US government is attempting to have Arar's lawsuit dismissed. Invoking the rarely used "state secrets privilege" the Justice Department claims that any release of information on Arar could jeopardize "intelligence, foreign policy and national security interests of the United States." Last year, Time Magazine in Canada named him the country's newsmaker of the year.


What do you think the likelyhood of Arar succeeding?

[Decolonize The Left]

I don't know how well this "state secrets privilege" will stand up. This appears to be a very solid case. On the other hand, in regards to how conservative many of the judges are, this might be dismissed. That would be an outrage. Hopefully there will be some protests.

Right now I can't say for sure. But my hopes are with Arar in his pursuit of justice.

-- August

[Commie Girl]

WTF??


UPDATE:

Flyers passing through U.S. have few rights, Arar judge told

A senior lawyer for the U.S. government has told a judge hearing a lawsuit over Maher Arar's deportation to Syria that foreign citizens passing through American airports have almost no rights.

At most, Mary Mason told a hearing in Brooklyn, N.Y., passengers would have the right not to be subjected to "gross physical abuse."

The policy has implications for Canadians who head for international destinations via big American airports in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and other major centres.

Mason said the U.S. government is interpreting its powers in such a way that passengers never intending to enter the U.S. connecting to international flights at U.S. airports must prove they are no threat and could be allowed to enter the country.

If passengers are deemed to be inadmissible, they have no constitutional rights even if later taken to an American prison. Mason told Judge David Trager that's because they are deemed to be still outside the U.S., from a legal point of view.

"Someone who's inadmissible is in the same category as the people that the CIA snatches and grabs from other countries," said Barbara Olshansky, a lawyer for the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights, which is suing a number of U.S. officials on Arar's behalf.

"You are fair game for however executive branch wants to treat you."

Mason said the interpretation means travellers can be detained without charge, denied the right to consult a lawyer, and even refused necessities such as food and sleep.

That's what happened to Arar, a Canadian-Syrian citizen who was stopped while trying to board a connecting flight in New York in 2002 and accused of having terrorist connections.

The Ottawa engineer was detained, not allowed to speak to a lawyer or the Canadian consul, and eventually deported through Jordan to Syria, where he claimed he was tortured while being held in prison for a year.

At most, Mason told the judge, a foreign passenger detained while travelling through a U.S. airport might have a limited right to protection from "gross physical abuse."

But in a motion filed this week, the U.S. Justice Department argues that even if torture does occur, U.S. officials can't be sued under the Torture Victims Protection Act because it only applies to foreign individuals committing or allowing torture.

The department wants the Arar lawsuit dismissed on that basis.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to discuss the case or what the new interpretation could mean for Canadians travelling through the United States.

However, department spokeswoman Cynthia Magnuson issued this short statement: "The United States does not practise torture, export torture or condone torture."

In legal briefs written by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Justice Department has defined torture to mean "pain consistent with major organ failure or death."

[Decolonize The Left]

Well, Arar is fucked now. This is total and complete bullshit. And more importantly, why the fuck doesn't the public hear about this shit??? This would cause so many people rise up, and yet, not a peep from anyone.
Man that sucks..

-- August