Ah, yes. "National security." That magical incantation by which all standards of transparency and humanitarian law can be summarily dismissed. This time applied in the case of Maher Arar [2], a Canadian citizen who was "renditioned" by US authorities to Syria to be tortured—the same Syria, incidentally, which the US is seeking to destabilize [3] (and will doubtless use its grisly human rights record as propaganda ammo in the service of this effort)! The irony is starting to make us a little dizzy these days... From the Canadian Press [4], Feb. 17:
WASHINGTON -- A U.S. judge has dismissed Maher Arar's lawsuit claiming U.S. officials deported him to Syria to be tortured.
Judge David Trager ruled yesterday he can't review the decision of U.S. authorities because it's a matter of national security and foreign relations.
The Center for Constitutional Rights launched the lawsuit on Arar's behalf in January 2004. Arar claimed his rights under the U.S. Constitution were violated, saying he was tortured during a 13-day detention at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport in 2002 and during his 10 months in a Syrian jail.
See our last posts on the torture scandal [5] and Arar's case [6].
