International

Stop “rendition”

Even if US authorities had solid evidence that Maher Arar was a terrorist– which I doubt– nobody has a right to feel comfortable that they sent him to Syria knowing he would be tortured there.

Arar, 33, spent 10 months in a Syrian prison, where he said he was beaten with an electric cable, forced to sign confessions that he had been to Afghanistan and kept in a cell he called a grave. U.S. officials have said that Arar, who was arrested on Sept. 26, 2002, was seized as part of a secret procedure known as “rendition,” in which terrorism suspects are turned over to foreign countries known to torture people in their custody.

Ah yes, our good friends in Syria, who are pleased to torture alleged terrorists while providing aid and comfort to real terrorists.

I’m pleased that “rendition” (who picked that lovely word and why?) is no longer a secret procedure. It should stop being any kind of procedure.