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<DIV style="FONT: 10pt arial">----- Original Message -----
<DIV style="BACKGROUND: #e4e4e4; font-color: black"><B>From:</B> <A
title=tanstl@aol.com href="mailto:tanstl@aol.com">David Sladky</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>To:</B> <A title=undisclosed-recipients:
href="mailto:undisclosed-recipients:">undisclosed-recipients:</A> </DIV>
<DIV><B>Sent:</B> Sunday, June 27, 2010 10:52 AM</DIV>
<DIV><B>Subject:</B> Fwd: The U.S. Wins the Right to Abduct Innocent People with
Impunity</DIV></DIV>
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<DIV class=story_preview id=story_preview_mps2031632><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B><FONT size=6>The U.S. Wins the
Right to Abduct Innocent People with
Impunity</FONT></B><BR><BR><B>By Glenn Greenwal<BR><BR>July
15, 2010 "</B></FONT><A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/14/arar/index.html"
target=_blank><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B>Salon</B></FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B>" - June 14, 2010 --
The</B> Supreme Court today <A
href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2010/06/supreme-court-declines-to-rule-on-arar-rendition-suit.php"
target=_blank>denied a petition of review</A>
from Maher Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who
was abducted by the U.S. Government at a stopover at
JFK Airport when returning to Canada in 2002, held
<EM>incommunicado</EM> for two weeks, and then rendered to
Syria, where he spent the next 10 months being tortured,
even though -- as everyone acknowledges -- he was guilty of
absolutely nothing. Arar sued the U.S. Government
for what was done to him, and last November, the Second
Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of his lawsuit
on the ground that courts have no right to interfere in
these decisions of the Executive Branch. That was the
decision which the U.S. Supreme Court let stand today,
ending Arar's attempt to be compensated for what was done to
him.</FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">I've written in detail
several times about Arar's case, including in November when
the appellate court upheld dismissal of his lawsuit; <A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar"
target=_blank>see here for how extreme his treatment has
been</A> at the hands of the U.S. Government, which was most
responsible for his harrowing nightmare and then spent years
fighting to deny him any remedy for what was
done. I won't reiterate those points here, as
everything I have to say about the Supreme Court's
actions today was said in <A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar"
target=_blank>that November post</A> (read the last part of
that post, where I excerpted the court's description of
what was done to Arar). But I do want to highlight one
aspect of this episode:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Just compare how the
American and Canadian Governments responded to what everyone
agrees was this horrific injustice. The
Canadians, who cooperated with the U.S. in Arar's abduction,
<A
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE2DA1031F93AA2575AC0A9609C8B63"
target=_blank>conducted a sweeping investigation of what
happened, and then</A> <STRONG>publicly</STRONG> "issued a
scathing report that faulted Canada and the United States
for his deportation four years ago to Syria, where he was
imprisoned and tortured," and made clear he had done
absolutely nothing wrong. Then, Canada's Prime
Minister <A
href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2642839220070126"
target=_blank>personally and publicly apologized to Arar,
and announced</A> that Canada would compensate him with a
payment of $ 8.5 million.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">By stark contrast, the
U.S. Government, which played a far more active role in his
abduction and rendition to Syria, has <STRONG>never</STRONG>
apologized to Arar (though <A
href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2007/10/us-lawmakers-apologize-to-rendition.php"
target=_blank>individual members of Congress have</A>).
It has never clearly acknowledged wrongdoing (the
only time it even hinted at this was when Condoleezza Rice
<A
href="http://unambig.com/moderate-condoleeza-rice-admits-errors-with-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>called U.S. conduct in this
case "imperfect" -- you think? -- and generously
added:</A> "We do not think this case was handled as
it should have been"). In fact, it continuously did
the opposite of providing accountability: in
response to Arar's efforts to seek damages from
the U.S. Government, the U.S. raised -- under two
successive administrations -- a slew of technical
arguments to persuade American courts not to hear his case
at all, including the argument that what was done to Arar
involved "state secrets" that prevented a judicial
adjudication of his claims. The U.S. even <A
href="http://unambig.com/moderate-condoleeza-rice-admits-errors-with-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>continued to ban Arar from entering
the U.S.</A> long after it was acknowledged that he had
done nothing wrong, thus preventing him for years from
appearing before Congress or in the U.S. to talk about
what was done to him. Indeed, after the Bush
administration spent years arguing that courts were barred
from hearing Arar's case on the ground of "state
secrets," the Obama administration embraced those same
arguments and <A href="http://www.ww4report.com/node/8615"
target=_blank>then urged the Supreme Court not to hear
his appeal</A>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">As the Center for
Constitutional Rights <A
href="http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/06/14/scotus-denies-cert-for-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>pointed out today</A>:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">The Obama administration
could have settled the case, recognizing the wrongs done
to Mr. Arar as Canada has done. . . . Yet the Obama
administration chose to come to the defense of Bush
administration officials, arguing that even if they
conspired to send Maher Arar to torture, they should not
be held accountable by the
judiciary.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">So congratulations to the
U.S. for winning the right to wrongfully abduct people and
send them to their torture with total impunity. What a
ringing statement about our country's willingness to right
the wrongs it commits and to provide access to our courts to
those whose lives we devastate with our behavior. <A
href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/republicans-and-apologies.html"
target=_blank>Andrew Sullivan today referred</A> to "the
cult of the inerrant leader": the inability and
refusal of our political class to acknowledge wrongdoing,
apologize for it, and be held accountable. The Maher
Arar case is a pathological illustration of that
syndrome.</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
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<DIV
style="FONT-SIZE: 10pt; COLOR: black; FONT-FAMILY: arial,helvetica">-----Original
Message-----<BR>From: David Sladky <honda400000@aol.com><BR>Sent: Sun, Jun
20, 2010 5:12 pm<BR>Subject: The U.S. Wins the Right to Abduct Innocent People
with Impunity<BR><BR>
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<DIV class=story_preview id=story_preview_mps2031632><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B><FONT size=6>The U.S. Wins the Right
to Abduct Innocent People with
Impunity</FONT></B><BR><BR><B>By Glenn Greenwal<BR><BR>July
15, 2010 "</B></FONT><A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/06/14/arar/index.html"
target=_blank><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B>Salon</B></FONT></A><FONT
face="Times New Roman"><B>" - June 14, 2010 --
The</B> Supreme Court today <A
href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2010/06/supreme-court-declines-to-rule-on-arar-rendition-suit.php"
target=_blank>denied a petition of review</A> from Maher
Arar, the Canadian and Syrian citizen who was abducted by the
U.S. Government at a stopover at JFK Airport when
returning to Canada in 2002, held <EM>incommunicado</EM> for
two weeks, and then rendered to Syria, where he spent the next
10 months being tortured, even though -- as everyone
acknowledges -- he was guilty of absolutely
nothing. Arar sued the U.S. Government for what was
done to him, and last November, the Second Circuit Court of
Appeals upheld the dismissal of his lawsuit on the ground that
courts have no right to interfere in these decisions of the
Executive Branch. That was the decision which the U.S.
Supreme Court let stand today, ending Arar's attempt to be
compensated for what was done to him.</FONT>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">I've written in detail
several times about Arar's case, including in November when
the appellate court upheld dismissal of his lawsuit; <A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar"
target=_blank>see here for how extreme his treatment has
been</A> at the hands of the U.S. Government, which was most
responsible for his harrowing nightmare and then spent years
fighting to deny him any remedy for what was
done. I won't reiterate those points here, as
everything I have to say about the Supreme Court's
actions today was said in <A
href="http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2009/11/03/arar"
target=_blank>that November post</A> (read the last part of
that post, where I excerpted the court's description of
what was done to Arar). But I do want to highlight one
aspect of this episode:</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">Just compare how the
American and Canadian Governments responded to what everyone
agrees was this horrific injustice. The Canadians,
who cooperated with the U.S. in Arar's abduction, <A
href="http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9F0DE2DA1031F93AA2575AC0A9609C8B63"
target=_blank>conducted a sweeping investigation of what
happened, and then</A> <STRONG>publicly</STRONG> "issued a
scathing report that faulted Canada and the United States for
his deportation four years ago to Syria, where he was
imprisoned and tortured," and made clear he had done
absolutely nothing wrong. Then, Canada's Prime Minister
<A href="http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2642839220070126"
target=_blank>personally and publicly apologized to Arar, and
announced</A> that Canada would compensate him with a payment
of $ 8.5 million.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">By stark contrast, the U.S.
Government, which played a far more active role in his
abduction and rendition to Syria, has <STRONG>never</STRONG>
apologized to Arar (though <A
href="http://jurist.org/paperchase/2007/10/us-lawmakers-apologize-to-rendition.php"
target=_blank>individual members of Congress have</A>).
It has never clearly acknowledged wrongdoing (the
only time it even hinted at this was when Condoleezza Rice <A
href="http://unambig.com/moderate-condoleeza-rice-admits-errors-with-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>called U.S. conduct in this
case "imperfect" -- you think? -- and generously
added:</A> "We do not think this case was handled as it
should have been"). In fact, it continuously did the
opposite of providing accountability: in response
to Arar's efforts to seek damages from the U.S.
Government, the U.S. raised -- under two successive
administrations -- a slew of technical arguments to
persuade American courts not to hear his case at all,
including the argument that what was done to Arar involved
"state secrets" that prevented a judicial adjudication of his
claims. The U.S. even <A
href="http://unambig.com/moderate-condoleeza-rice-admits-errors-with-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>continued to ban Arar from entering
the U.S.</A> long after it was acknowledged that he had
done nothing wrong, thus preventing him for years from
appearing before Congress or in the U.S. to talk about
what was done to him. Indeed, after the Bush
administration spent years arguing that courts were barred
from hearing Arar's case on the ground of "state
secrets," the Obama administration embraced those same
arguments and <A href="http://www.ww4report.com/node/8615"
target=_blank>then urged the Supreme Court not to hear
his appeal</A>.</FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">As the Center for
Constitutional Rights <A
href="http://emptywheel.firedoglake.com/2010/06/14/scotus-denies-cert-for-maher-arar/"
target=_blank>pointed out today</A>:</FONT></DIV>
<BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">The Obama administration
could have settled the case, recognizing the wrongs done to
Mr. Arar as Canada has done. . . . Yet the Obama
administration chose to come to the defense of Bush
administration officials, arguing that even if they
conspired to send Maher Arar to torture, they should not be
held accountable by the judiciary.</FONT></DIV></BLOCKQUOTE>
<DIV><FONT face="Times New Roman">So congratulations to the
U.S. for winning the right to wrongfully abduct people and
send them to their torture with total impunity. What a
ringing statement about our country's willingness to right the
wrongs it commits and to provide access to our courts to those
whose lives we devastate with our behavior. <A
href="http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2010/06/republicans-and-apologies.html"
target=_blank>Andrew Sullivan today referred</A> to "the cult
of the inerrant leader": the inability and refusal of
our political class to acknowledge wrongdoing, apologize for
it, and be held accountable. The Maher Arar case is a
pathological illustration of that
syndrome.</FONT></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV></TD></TR></TBODY></TABLE></CENTER></DIV>
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