Not a Cent

In Congress:

December 13: The House passed the Intelligence Appropriations Act, which includes a provision requiring the CIA to adhere to the Army Field Manual's prohibition on the use of torture. The vote was 222-199.

In the Courts:

The Maher Arar Case

An innocent Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, is fighting to keep his civil rights action against the United States alive.  In 2002, the United States government took Mr. Arar into custody at JKF Airport in New York and sent him to Jordan and Syria, where he was detained for some ten months.  Mr. Arar brought an action for violation of his constitutional rights, based on his wrongful detention and claimed torture.  The 2nd US Court of Appeals will consider whether to reinstate Mr. Arar's case, which was dismissed by a lower court ostensibly because it involved issues of national security and foreign policy. 

Counsel for the government argued that Constitutional protections do not apply to Mr. Arar because the injury to him occurred outside the United States.  Under this tortured logic (pun intended), the government can actively send an innocent person to a foreign country, subject him or her to torture, and then claim immunity.  What happened to Mr. Arar is exactly what Not a Cent is fighting to stop.

To read more about the Arar case, click the following link.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/LAC.20071110.ARAR10/TPStory/National