Appeals Court Rules Canadian Tortured After Rendition Cannot Sue United States

Source: Air America

Appeals Court Rules Canadian Tortured After Rendition Cannot Sue United States

By Associated Press

NEW YORK (AP) — A Canadian engineer cannot sue the United States after being mistaken for a terrorist when he was changing planes in New York a year after the 2001 terrorist attacks, a federal appeals court ruled Monday.

The judges of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals voted 7-4 to uphold a decision by a lower court judge dismissing a lawsuit brought by Maher Arar, a Syrian-born man who was detained as he tried to switch planes in 2002.

Arar sued the U.S. government and top Justice Department officials, saying the United States purposely sent him to Syria to be tortured days after he was picked up at John F. Kennedy International Airport on a false tip from Canada that he had ties to Islamic extremists. The lawsuit said Arar was allowed to see a lawyer only once despite his repeated efforts to receive representation.

Syria has denied he was tortured. The Canadian government agreed to pay him almost $10 million after acknowledging it had passed bad information to U.S. authorities.
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US Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantanamo case

AFP

US Supreme Court refuses to hear Guantanamo case AFP/File – A view of the US Supreme Court in Washington, DC. The US Supreme Court refused Monday to consider the …
2 hrs 51 mins ago

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Supreme Court refused Monday to consider the case of a Yemeni detainee held at Guantanamo Bay despite a lower court order for his release.

Without giving an explanation, the Supreme Court said it would not take up the case of Yasin Muhammed Basardh, who was ruled innocent of terrorism charges by a US court some six months ago but remains incarcerated at Guantanamo.

Basardh's lawyers sought to attach his case to that of a group of seven Chinese ethnic Uighur prisoners at Guantanamo, who are asking the court to order their release into the United States.

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