Why won’t U.S. courts let Maher Arar sue?

Many Canadians know their government paid Maher Arar $10.5 million in compensation for him being shipped from New Jersey to Syria, where he was held and tortured, based on false information passed from Canadian security services to the Americans. But what about the U.S. authorities who actually sent him to a grave-sized cell? U.S. courts have not allowed him to offer proof that he was wronged. They say his case is too wrapped up in national security secrets. In this essay, one of Arar’s lawyers offers a detailed argument in favour of his client’s right to seek justice.

New York Review of Books