As he was returning from a family vacation in Tunisia, a young Canadian man was seized by U.S. authorities as he changed planes at Kennedy Airport in New York. Maher Arar was not charged with a crime nor even told what was happening, but instead he was taken from his family, placed in handcuffs and leg irons by plainclothes officials and transferred to an executive jet which flew him to Washington, continued to Portland, Maine, stopped in Rome, Italy, and then landed in Amman, Jordan. Eventually Mr. Arar was moved to Syria, where he was tortured for more than a year before being released.
The Bush administration has said that Mr. Arar's name appeared on "a list" and, since torture is illegal in the U.S., they simply had him kidnapped and moved to a foreign country where a "confession" could more easily be tortured out of him. The problem is, after lending their best efforts, our torturers concluded that we'd nabbed the wrong guy, and so we set Mr. Arar free.
Not surprisingly, Mr. Arar is suing the U.S. government. But the Bush administration has moved to have Arar's case thrown out of court arguing that if our government is forced to testify it would have to reveal details about our on-going program of "rendition" (that's what it's called when we kidnap people and wisk them to countries willing to torture them for us) and thereby undermine the George W. Bush's War on Terror. Besides, our government is arguing, Mr. Arar's name was on the list because of things Canada told us about him ... things which, of course, the Bush administration cannot reveal because to do so would undermine George W. Bush's War on Terror.
The New Yorker - Outsourcing Torture: The secret history of America’s “extraordinary rendition” program.
The Star (Toronto) - U.S. claims Arar suit a risk to national security
New York Times - Torture, American Style
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