On Tuesday, November 4, 2003, Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, described how on September 26, 2002, he was seized by American agents at a New York airport, denied access to an attorney, and deported to Syria. There he was tortured for many months as a suspected terrorist. This innocent man -- a man with no criminal record, a husband, a father of two young children, and a respected professional -- was systematically abused and degraded. Mr. Arar was kept for months in a minuscule dark three-by-six-foot cell that resembled a grave more than a room. He was beaten regularly for hours with a shredded cable, subjected to threats and extreme psychological torture, forced to sign false confessions, and denied his fundamental rights as a human being. Indeed, it is forbidden even to treat an animal in this way. Yet this was done with the complicity and perhaps at the behest of the United States government, in the name of our security.

This outrageous tale violates fundamental American values. But the case of Maher Arar is far from unique. It is, in fact, but the tip of an iceberg -- an iceberg of horror. Even worse tortures are regularly inflicted on prisoners from other countries.

With no national debate, and with the silent complicity of almost every organ of mainstream U.S. media, the executive branch of the government of the United States has in recent years adopted secret counterterrorist policies that violate both the Constitution of the United States and international covenants to which the United States subscribes.

The fundamental concept of American government -- the establishment of checks and balances by distributing governmental powers among the executive, legislative, and judicial branches -- has been abandoned in the name of fighting a "war on terror." Two historical facts -- that the United States as a matter of national policy engaged in very similar practices for several generations during the Cold War, and that a vast military-industrial complex created to wage this war has intussuscepted itself in a thousand ways into the very fabric of our society -- have made it all the easier in the aftermath of September 11 to foist the vague, neo-Orwellian concept of a "war on terror" upon an indoctrinated and terrified citizenry.

Our greatest source of security as a nation is to remain true to our fundamental values, as embodied in the Constitution of the United States. We live in a deeply divided society, but respect for and allegiance to constitutional institutions, traditions, and principles is shared by almost all our citizens. To accept the subversion of these principles and traditions is a recipe for disaster.

People for Peace, Justice, and Healing calls for a thorough and public inquiry into the case of Maher Arar and the secret policy of "extraordinary renditions." The United States should repudiate this policy in the name of the fundamental American values of liberty and justice for all.

Return to main page.

Suggestions? Click here to write the webmaster.

To subscribe to our mailing list, please email tacomapjh-subscribe@yahoogroups.com

Last updated: November 8, 2003