The rule of law: In a democracy, does it apply to everyone, including the highest in the land?
Lawyers for Maher Arar argue that it should. Arar is the Canadian citizen who was “rendered” to Syria by the Bush administration when he was passing through New York’s Kennedy airport in September 2002. He’s been seeking redress from the US government in a New York courtroom, for the foul torture he was subjected to as a result of that rendering.
(The term “rendering” is used for when slaughter-houses boil down excess animal products to make tallow, glue, etc. For that that reason I find it approproately distasteful as the word for what happens to the phsyical bodies of people treated in this atrocious way by the US authorities and their partners-in-torture in other countries.)
In that same article from the Toronto Star about Arar’s case, Justice Department lawyer Mary Mason tried to argue that what happened to Arar was no big deal– because “198 aliens have been sent to Syria in the past five years, 46 of them during the same year Arar was sent back to his country of birth.”
And that is an argument???
Arar is not testifying directly in the case because he is not allowed into the US. He is seeking a monetary settlement from the Bush administration. But, his lawyer says, more importantly, he wants a U.S. court to declare that what was done to him was wrong and “will never happen again.”
Good for the Toronto Star covering the story. Bad for the US MSM that hasn’t been. Hat-tip to a good friend for sending it to me.
9 thoughts on “What is ‘the rule of law’?”
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The Canadian press has, indeed, been covering the Arar case. Arar and his wife (who ran for parliament in the last election) are to be commended for their insistence that there be a public inquiry. As the Canadian ambassador to the US said, there are any number of issues that appear in the US news for a day or so that, in Canada, would bring down the government. If only the Bush administration were subject to that level of accountability. Thanks for including this case in your blog, Helena.
Lufkin, Texas editorial:
“We understand that the newly renamed “war on terror” calls for special measures. But holding people without charges or access to an attorney and shipping them off to be tortured runs counter to all we hold dear. It is, frankly, un-American.”
Well, maybe not in this day and age – America seems to be redefining itself, frankly. Where is the idealistic younger generation? Where is the student protest of the 60s?
Do the voices of elderly – oops, mature – Quakers really count for anything against the tactics of the far-right Republican machine?
I mean, excuse my ignorance, but aren’t the Democratic Party now just Republicans in sheep’s clothing? Where’s the organised opposition?
Looks like a one party state to me.
in the final analysis, the public – not the Democrats or Republicans – will have the final say as to where to strike the balance between preserving our civil liberties and keeping us safe…This just happens to be the hottest issue in the UK post June 7.
If only Mohammed Atta had been rendered to Egypt just as Mr. Arar was to Syria…
If the Syrians run a torture system that is the bigger problem to scream about, not that the US sent a Syrian subject back to Syria just as the US sends Mexicans back to Mexico every hour of every day.
Q.
How timely, the Brits just rendered Abu Qatada to Jordan, from AP:
He has been described by British officials as bin Laden’s “spiritual ambassador in Europe” and allegedly was an inspiration for Sept. 11 hijacker Mohamed Atta.
The detentions were another indication of the dramatic impact that last month’s terror bombings have had in a country where radical Muslims had found something of a haven. Prime Minister Tony Blair announced plans last week to get tough with religious extremists.
Abu Qatada spent three years in a high security British prison without being charged under anti-terror powers introduced after the Sept. 11 attacks, but he was released in March after Britain’s highest court ruled the legislation breached human rights.
He was swiftly re-arrested under new anti-terror measures that allow suspects to be electronically tagged, kept under curfew, denied the use of telephones or the Internet and barred from meeting outsiders, even if no charges are filed.
Home Secretary Charles Clarke gave the 10 foreigners detained Thursday a “notice of intention to deport,” the Home Office said.
“The circumstances of our national security have changed, it is vital that we act against those who threaten it,” Clarke said in a statement. The detainees have five business days to appeal their deportations.
I believe this site and this writer are one of the strongest things in the USA right now. In other words you are not just wrong, John, your words could not be more wrong.
Your approach is: “Where’s the organised opposition? Looks like a one party state to me.” You don’t think of yourself as organised, still less as an organiser.
You take your complaint, of course, to the strongest available character, which is Helena.
It’s a back-handed compliment.
I’m glad everything’s working now, Helena. Long live the Quakers!
Dear Quest,
Try at least to get your facts straight. Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen. The US did not send a Syrian “subject” back to Syria, they sent a Canadian citizen to Syria, and they sent him there specifically to have him tortured. If that does not bother you, then there isn’t much hope.
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