[ql06] CRIMINAL: Extraordinary Rendition aka Torture
- From: Stephen Kennedy <2srk@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: ql06@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Thu, 06 Nov 2003 17:52:43 -0500
There was a article in the Star today about Canadian citizen Maher Arar's
extradition from the US to Syria for torture. The US government claims it
proceeded with the extradition based on information from the RCMP. Seems
the RCMP provided the US Heimland Sicherheitsdienst (oops, I mean Homeland
Security) with a copy of Arar's lease. The lease seemed to establish some
sort of connection between Arar and an Islamist extremist group, which he
denies. There were only two copies of the lease: Arar's copy and the real
estate agent's. Both parties deny ever giving it to anyone else. The RCMP
had no warrant to conduct a search against Arar. So how did the lease come
into their hands? The RCMP is not commenting for now, but Parliament is
starting to make noises about an inquiry.
Here's an article that explains why Arar would be deported by US agents to
Syria: a country now part of the "Axis of Evil."
November 6, 2003
They Can Take You Away & Tell No One
The Case of Maher Arar
By ELAINE CASSEL
Tuesday night, I happened upon a special two-hour version of a Canadian
news program, "As It Happens." I heard the voice of Canadian citizen, Maher
Arar, 33, p<http://www.counterpunch.org/arar11062003.html>roviding
outrageous details of his capture by the US last fall and his shipment to
Syria for the purposes of "interrogation." Arar was returning from visiting
family in Tunisia. He was on his way back to Canada, by way of New York
City, when he was detained at New York's John F. Kennedy International
Airport. Reason for detention: "suspected terrorist." He was flown under
U.S. guard to Jordan, where he was handed over to Syrian authorities. He
was imprisoned in Syria for 10 months, in what seems to be the equivalent
of the "hole" in U.S. prisons (solitary confinement, darkness). He says he
was physically tortured, but the Syrian ambassador to the U.S., speaking on
the program, denied that much of the story. He agreed that they did the
questioning at the request of the U.S. government, an oddity in itself,
since Syria has been deemed a "terrorist" state and Bush has made it clear
that after it settles its score in Iraq, it is turning its sights on
ferreting out "terrorism" in the Syrian government.
The ambassador conceded that they took Arar in order to get "information"
about Arar's alleged "terrorist" activities. Ten months of "interrogation"
turned up no hint that he was a "terrorist" and he was returned to Canada,
against the wishes of the Bush administration.
Further details of Arar's "detention" were reported in the November 5
Washington Post. Apparently, Arar's treatment came at the behest of the
CIA. Anonymous officials of the CIA said that Arar fit the bill of a covert
"extraordinary rendition"-the practice of turning over "low-level,
suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are
known to torture prisoners." The practice is so secret that no other
details are or ever will be available to the public or Congress (as if
Congress would do anything useful, anyway). Additional information in the
Washington Post article indicated that "renditions" used to take place on
U.S. soil, but since the CIA is loathe to actually physically torture
"detainees,"since the early 1990's the CIA and the FBI arrange for the
person to be sent to countries who will do the torturing for them.
Your Friendly Neighborhood Cop as Ashcroft's Agent
The same edition of the Post contains a small story, hidden inside (Arar's
story appeared on the front page, below the fold), about a new directive
from Attorney General John Ashcroft putting in place the procedures by
which the FBI will share its surveillance results with state and local law
enforcement. A provision of the USA Patriot Act broke down the "wall"
between law enforcement and surveillance activities, so that we now have,
in effect, our own version of KGB, or secret police. Of course, the
regulations are not available for you and me to see, but this much is
certain: If the FBI is watching you or any organization (or website) that
it suspects is a threat to "national security or public safety," it can
tell your local cops what it knows about you and your organization and put
them on your trail. You could then be targeted for preemptive detention
under the material witness law (where you can be held indefinitely in
prison to answer prosecutors' questions if and when they feel like talking
to you), targeted for violating some minor criminal law or administrative
infraction (better clean up those overdue parking tickets), or charged with
aiding and abetting terrorism for knowing someone on the government's many
suspicious persons lists.
What befell Mahar Arar could be your, my fate. What is to stop the FBI from
throwing a blanket over your head, putting you on a plane to Jordan with
U.S. Marshals as your escort, and dumping you in Syria to be tortured? Not
a damn thing as I can see it.
Keep in mind, that your family and friends won't know about any of this,
you won't have any access to an attorney and, if and when you are released
and in the slim chance return home, you won't have any redress against the
federal government. For the government will deny that it ever happened.
The Algerian Waiter
Shortly after September 11, Mohamed K. Bellahouel, a 34-year-old Algerian
immigrant, a waiter living in Miami, was one of the more than 1,200 Arab
and Muslim men rounded up for "questioning" by the FBI. He was deemed
"suspicious" because he was said to have waited on two of September 11
hijackers, and might have even been seen going to a movie with one of them.
He was subsequently arrested in Florida on a material witness warrant,
imprisoned for more than five months, and charged with a minor visa
violation. He was brought to Alexandria, Virginia to give testimony before
the grand jury investigating Zacarias Moussaoui.
He filed a writ of habeas corpus, which became moot when immigration
authorities finally released him on bail ( immigration authorities are
still trying to deport him for violating terms of a student visa), but the
federal courts sealed all records of the case. The case never even appeared
on the courts' docket lists. Bellahouel, news, and civil liberties
organizations appealed the orders of secrecy surrounding the case. Both a
Florida federal district judge and the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled
that the secrecy surrounding the case violated the First Amendment. The
government appealed the case to the Supreme Court, yet the government has
refused to file any briefs. On November 4, the Court ordered Solicitor
General Theodore Olson to file briefs explaining the government's
determination to keep the case secret. That would suggest that the Supreme
Court wants to know what's going on, except that it gave Olson no deadline
to get back to them and they won't consider whether to take the case or not
until Olson does so. I guess the Court, for whatever reasons, wants to
appear to care about liberty when in fact it does not. (Earlier this term,
it refused to hear an appeal of a lower court's order that deportation
hearings could be conducted in secret, as hundreds were done post September
11).
So, there you have it. Secrecy, secrecy, and secrecy. Detentions, arrests,
and tortures. A friend this week asked if I thought the new Iraqi
constitution would be better than ours-or what we have left of it. I
replied that it would likely be the same sham that ours has become. It is
obvious that we live in a police state, and our freedom to speak, travel,
to be free from arrest except on probable cause of having committed a
crime, to have the right to counsel, to have judicial review of our
treatment by our government-these guarantees are the exception, no longer
the rule. It's too late to whine about it now, and with few courts to run
to, not a damn thing we can do about it except be prepared to pay with our
lives if John Ashcroft, George Bush, or George Tenet sets their sights on us.
Elaine Cassel practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia,
teachers law and psychology, and follows the Bush regime's dismantling of
the Constitution at <http://babelogue.citypages.com:8080/ecassel/>Civil
Liberties Watch.
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