solarbird | oh here's some other crap

The second circuit court of appeals has thrown out the torture lawsuit of Canadian citizen Maher Arar against the US government. Mr. Arar was tortured not directly by the US but was abused in US custody, after which he was rendered to Syria for torture at American request. PM Harper has apologised to Mr. Arar for the lack of action to protect him by his government.

The court ruled 7-4 that, "even if the government violated Arar's Constitutional rights as well as statutes banning participation in torture, he still has no right to sue for what was done to him" if someone thinks it might affect national security secrets. Mr. Obama's legal team didn't argue this case, but has been using the same secrecy-must-prevail defence in a variety of other cases, including those against the illegal domestic spying programme, and so on.

Meanwhile, an Italian court has tried and convicted 23 US agents in absentia on torture and extraordinary rendition charges. Charges against three others were rejected by the Italian judge. The US refused extradition of all those charged, so the trial is mostly symbolic, tho' I imagine all those involved should stay out of Italy and possibly the entire EU for a while.