Keith Olbermann discusses FISA with John Dean

On Feb. 9, as the U.S. Senate prepared to give legal immunity to telecoms that went along with the White House's warrantless surveillance of American citizens, former White House Counsel John Dean discussed the issue with Keith Olbermann.

Keith Olbermann was one of our guest speakers at the ACLU of Massachusetts Bill of Rights Dinner 2007, and John Dean will be one of our speakers at our next Bill of Rights Dinner, on May 28, 2008.

Rendition: See the Movie, End the Practice

Michael Mukasey, our new Attorney General-in-waiting, just told the Senate Judiciary Committee that he doesn't know what waterboarding is. He also doesn't seem clear about what constitutes torture.

Someone should give him a ticket to see the new movie Rendition. The film has its dramatic flaws. But it also forces viewers to confront some critical and unsavory facts about how the US is fighting the "war on terror."

This is what it is like to have someone you love simply disappear at the whim of the US government. This is what waterboarding looks like. This is what it looks like to torture someone with electricity. Just imagine what that feels like. Wouldn't you say anything at all to make it stop?

It is my hope that the movie will awaken audiences to the crucial importance of the rule of law. Our standing in the world and our traction in the "war on terror" have been gravely undermined by the immoral, illegal and counterproductive practice of kidnapping victims and torturing them in CIA "dark sites" or outsourcing their torture to other countries.

The 9/11 Commission had it right when it said it was in our national interest to "offer an example of moral leadership in the world, commit to treat people humanely, abide by the rule of law, and be generous and caring to our neighbors."

What is the law we should abide by – not simply abandon when the executive branch and its legal advisors see fit?

For a start, there is the Constitution, whose "checks and balances" are threatened by the secrecy and lack of any kind of accountability surrounding "extraordinary rendition." Then there is the Convention Against Torture, which the US ratified in 1994.

Four years later, in the Foreign Affairs Reform and Restructuring Act, Congress declared that it cannot be the policy of the US to "expel, extradite and otherwise effect the involuntary return of any person to a country in which there are substantial grounds for believing the person would be in danger of being subjected to torture, regardless of whether the person is physically present in the United States."

Tell that to the scores of innocent victims who have been kidnapped and "disappeared" into torture cells on flimsy evidence or no evidence at all. Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, had Massachusetts friends, neighbors and colleagues when he lived in Framingham from 1999-2001 and worked at MathWorks in Natick.

In 2002, he was taken from JFK Airport in New York by US operatives and soon found himself in an underground dungeon in Syria, where he was tortured into making false confessions. After a year he was released and a thorough investigation by the Canadian government exonerated him of any connection with terrorism. The Canadians gave him an official apology and more than $10 million in compensation.

What did the US government do? It insisted that the case he brought to clear his name be thrown out of federal court on "state secrets" grounds. And it refused to take him off its "no fly list."

It took until October 18th for Arar to hear any kind of regret from US lawmakers. On that day, he was beamed into a Capitol Hill hearing by videoconference to tell his story and Rep. Bill Delahunt and a few other Members of Congress gave him their heartfelt personal apologies.

The Canadian media was all over the story. If it was reported in the US media, I missed it.

As the years have gone by, we have learned that Arar is one of scores of innocent victims of our "extraordinary rendition" policy. People have been seized from the streets, bound, blindfolded, and rendered on "torture flights" for knowing one of the wrong people or being from the wrong country.

We would do well to heed the words of Khaled El-Masri. This German car salesman and father of six was kidnapped and tortured in a case of mistaken identity. After his lawsuit against the US government was also thrown out on "state secret" grounds, he said:

"This is not democracy. In my opinion, this is how you establish a dictatorial regime. Freedom and justice are disrespected, as are basic morals and values. And if you don't keep quiet after you are abused, you are considered a threat to international or national security."

Extraordinary rendition puts more than our basic values and morals at risk. It also threatens national security.

To see how, you need look no further than the case of another rendition victim, Ibn al-Sheikh al-Libi. Under torture he gave what former Secretary of State Rumsfeld called "bulletproof" evidence of a connection between al Qaeda and Iraq, even as the Department of Defense's own intelligence agency was concluding that he was giving unreliable information.

From the rendition of al-Libi, it was a short road to the disastrous invasion of Iraq and Abu Ghraib. Regrettably, the road from Abu Ghraib has not seen us returning to the rule of law, and to those values we say our nation stands for. Instead, our use of torture, our secret prisons, and Guantanamo have all continued to offer propaganda victories to Al Qaeda.

The result? Eighty-four percent of the nation's top foreign-policy, intelligence and national security experts across the political spectrum contend that the US is losing the "war on terror," according to Foreign Policy magazine's recent Terrorism Index. More than 90 percent said the world is growing more dangerous for Americans. And a Pew global survey shows in key "war on terror" countries – Egypt, Jordan, Pakistan, and Turkey – our nation's approval rating ranges from 21 percent to 9 percent.

A key aim of terrorists is to deprive its opponents of legitimacy. There is no doubt that policies like "extraordinary rendition" help their recruitment efforts. We can only get back lost ground by returning to the rule of law.

As a move in the right direction, Congress should immediately pass Rep. Edward Markey's "Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act." And then it should make sure it is enforced.

It is time for Americans to stand up against a deplorable practice that is so at odds with our stated principles, and is making us less safe, not more.

Nancy Murray
Director of Education
ACLU of Massachusetts

Blog: Romney says he'll protect country from ACLU

Everyone chafing under the Bill of Rights, take heart: the National Review quotes former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney saying he'll make sure the future of the country isn't defined by the ACLU.