The Torturers Win

[Guest guest]

February 20, 2006

Op-Ed Columnist

 

The Torturers Win

 

By BOB HERBERT

 

Justice? Surely you jest.

 

Terrible things were done to Maher Arar, and his extreme suffering was set

in motion by the United States government. With the awful facts of his case

carefully documented, he tried to sue for damages. But last week a federal judge

waved the facts aside and told Mr. Arar, in effect, to get lost.

 

We're in a new world now and the all-powerful U.S. government apparently has

free rein to ruin innocent lives without even a nod in the direction of due

process or fair play. Mr. Arar, a Canadian citizen who, according to all

evidence, has led an exemplary life, was seized and shackled by U.S. authorities

at Kennedy Airport in 2002, and then shipped off to Syria, his native country,

where he was held in a dungeon for the better part of a year. He was

tormented physically and psychologically, and at times tortured.

 

The underground cell was tiny, about the size of a grave. According to court

papers, " The cell was damp and cold, contained very little light and was

infested with rats, which would enter the cell through a small aperture in the

ceiling. Cats would urinate on Arar through the aperture, and sanitary

facilities were nonexistent. "

 

Mr. Arar's captors beat him savagely with an electrical cable. He was

allowed to bathe in cold water once a week. He lost 40 pounds while in

captivity.

 

This is a quintessential example of the reprehensible practice of

extraordinary rendition, in which the U.S. government kidnaps individuals —

presumably

terror suspects — and sends them off to regimes that are skilled in the fine

art of torture. In terms of vile behavior, rendition stands shoulder to

shoulder with contract killing.

 

If the United States is going to torture people, we might as well do it

ourselves. Outsourcing torture does not make it any more acceptable.

 

Mr. Arar's case became a world-class embarrassment when even Syria's torture

professionals could elicit no evidence that he was in any way involved in

terrorism. After 10 months, he was released. No charges were ever filed against

him.

 

Mr. Arar is a 35-year-old software engineer who lives in Ottawa with his

wife and their two young children. He's never been in any kind of trouble.

Commenting on the case in a local newspaper, a former Canadian official dryly

observed that " accidents will happen " in the war on terror. The Center for

Constitutional Rights in New York filed a lawsuit on Mr. Arar's behalf, seeking

damages from the U.S. government for his ordeal. The government said the case

could not even be dealt with because the litigation would involve the revelation

of state secrets.

 

In other words, it wouldn't matter how hideously or egregiously Mr. Arar had

been treated, or how illegally or disgustingly the government had behaved.

The case would have to be dropped. Inquiries into this 21st-century Inquisition

cannot be tolerated. Its activities must remain secret at all costs.

 

In a ruling that basically gave the green light to government barbarism,

U.S. District Judge David Trager dismissed Mr. Arar's lawsuit last Thursday.

Judge Trager wrote in his opinion that " Arar's claim that he faced a likelihood

of torture in Syria is supported by U.S. State Department reports on Syria's

human rights practices. "

 

But in dismissing the suit, he said that the foreign policy and national

security issues raised by the government were " compelling " and that such matters

were the purview of the executive branch and Congress, not the courts.

 

He also said that " the need for secrecy can hardly be doubted. "

 

Under that reasoning, of course, the government could literally get away

with murder. With its bad actions cloaked in court-sanctioned secrecy, no one

wou

ld be the wiser.

 

As an example of the kind of foreign policy problems that might arise if Mr.

Arar were given his day in court, Judge Trager wrote:

 

" One need not have much imagination to contemplate the negative effect on

our relations with Canada if discovery were to proceed in this case and were it

to turn out that certain high Canadian officials had, despite public denials,

acquiesced in Arar's removal to Syria. "

 

Oh yes, by all means, we need the federal courts to fully protect the right

of public officials to lie to their constituents.

 

" It's a shocking decision, " said Michael Ratner, president of the Center for

Constitutional Rights. " It's really saying that an individual who is sent

overseas for the purpose of being tortured has no claim in a U.S. court. "

 

If kidnapping and torturing an innocent man is O.K., what's not O.K.?

 

 

 

 

 

The fight to take back America from the far right starts now.

 

 

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Jimi Hendrix

 

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