How far you have fallen, oh Babylon...

[Sassy]

Glenn Greenwald
Tuesday, Nov 3, 2009 04:04 PST
A court decision that reflects what type of country the U.S. is
Even when government officials purposely subject an innocent person to brutal torture, they enjoy full immunity.
By Glenn Greenwald

It's not often that an appellate court decision reflects so vividly what a country has become, but such is the case with yesterday's ruling by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Arar v. Ashcroft (.pdf).  Maher Arar is both a Canadian and Syrian citizen of Syrian descent.  A telecommunications engineer and graduate of Montreal's McGill University, he has lived in Canada since he's 17 years old.  In 2002, he was returning home to Canada from vacation when, on a stopover at JFK Airport, he was (a) detained by U.S. officials, (b) accused of being a Terrorist, (c) held for two weeks incommunicado and without access to counsel while he was abusively interrogated, and then (d) was "rendered" -- despite his pleas that he would be tortured -- to Syria, to be interrogated and tortured.  He remained in Syria for the next 10 months under the most brutal and inhumane conditions imaginable, where he was repeatedly tortured.  Everyone acknowledges that Arar was never involved with Terrorism and was guilty of nothing.  con't at link below

://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/11/03/arar/index.html

[Windpower]

I heard him interviewed on the radio


a very sad thing indeed

[ScottA]

You have only those rights you can enforce. The government knows this and will do whatever it wants since it has more power than you do. The law is irrelevent. Welcome to Amerika comrade.