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November 06, 2003
Torture, Detection, Treatment, and Accountability The Washington Post reported Tuesday that a Canadian citizen "was detained last year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a suspected terrorist...he was secretly deported to Syria and endured 10 months of torture in a Syrian prison." What's most troubling about this is that the Canadian claims that he was flown to Jordan and handed over to the Syrians under U.S. Guard. It's also scary to hear the U.S. government justify the practice: "Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Arar case fits the profile of a covert CIA "extraordinary rendition" -- the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners." [...] "Renditions are a legitimate option for dealing with suspected terrorists, intelligence officials argue. The U.S. government officially rejects the assertion that it knowingly sends suspects abroad to be tortured, but officials admit they sometimes do that. "The temptation is to have these folks in other hands because they have different standards," one official said. "Someone might be able to get information we can't from detainees," said another." Meanwhile, doctors are trying to detect and treat victims of torture. The Lancet reports on the Istanbul Protocol, "a manual for the effective investigation and documentation of torture, adopted by the United Nations in 2000. The protocol is a set of step-by-step guidelines that offer a straightforward means of gathering evidence that will stand up in a court of law. It can be a very effective way of achieving justice for the victims of torture, but outside a few select settings, it is hardly used."
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