Courts Begin to Reconsider Whether Torture Victims May Seek Legal Redress

http://washingtonindependent.com/view/experts-predict-slew

Experts Predict Slew of Torture Suits
Courts Begin to Reconsider Whether Torture Victims May Seek Legal Redress

Illustration by: Matt Mahurin
By Daphne Eviatar 08/20/2008


Last week, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals announced that its full court would reconsider the disturbing case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen arrested by U.S. authorities at JFK airport in 2002 and forcibly extradited to Syria for interrogation. As U.S. officials surely expected, Arar was questioned under torture for the next year in a Syrian prison. He was eventually released without charge.

One of the first known victims of the Bush administration's secret "extraordinary rendition" policy, Arar sued U.S. authorities in 2004 for conspiring in his torture. A three-judge panel dismissed the case in January, saying that as an alien deported by immigration authorities, he had no right to bring a claim. But as more such cases are being filed, it appears the courts are beginning to reconsider. The entire Second Circuit court -- all 22 judges -- last week announced sua sponte that it would take a second look at Arar's case. Meanwhile, similar cases filed by former detainees apparently tortured under the direction of U.S. officials could be headed to the Supreme Court.

Legal experts predict that many more such cases could be filed -- as the hundreds of prisoners abused and then released from U.S. detention centers around the world begin seeking redress from Washington. The Detainee Abuse and Accountability Project, an independent non-governmental organization, has already documented more than 330 cases in which “U.S. military and civilian personnel are credibly alleged to have abused or killed detainees” in detention centers at Guantanamo Bay, Iraq and Afghanistan.

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Some lawyers predict that U.S. officials are more likely to be held accountable outside the United States. “I would be very surprised," said Aceves, "if the government officials that were involved in drafting the torture memos, that played a role in the policies in Abu Ghraib and elsewhere, were not very cautious about their foreign travel.”

After all, Gen. Augusto Pinochet of Chile was arrested while traveling in Britain in 1998 on a warrant issued by a Spanish judge under the theory of universal jurisdiction. That set a precedent that may now be causing some U.S. officials to watch their step. “I can’t imagine that John Yoo, for example, would not be thinking about that and consulting with his own counsel before he travels anywhere," said Aceves, referring to the attorney who wrote one of the administration's torture memos.

Pinochet must be on Donald Rumsfeld's mind, too, given that lawyers have already tried to prosecute the former defense secretary in Germany, France, Argentina and Sweden.

forget the government the people would just as soon kill them. Bill O'Reilly could have a bash.

So, if enough victims speak up, then a prosecution of a crime might be considered? How WHITE of them!

Give them hell and ulcers, Maher!

going anywhere in the future and neither will the Dick.