Syrian/Canadian citizen denied hearing over rendition to Syria

OK, so perhaps we don't have the grounds on which to address Maher Arar's claim, (hat tip to Body and Soul) that it doesn't have the grounds on which to address his allegation that he was tortured in Syria after being rendered from New York while returning to Canada from a vacation. But really, if he's detained in the US, shouldn't he have some grounds on which to address the impropriety of his rendition to Syria and treatment in Syria? I'm not a lawyer but surely this legislation, especially given the fact that the US sent him over there and we don't know what the nature of the allegations towards him, should offer some recourse to those who are mistreated.

So here's where the evil/stupid question comes in. Was the Torture Victim Prevention Act crafted in such a way as to minimize lawsuits against the Justice Department for their heartless bullying of, well, anyone darker skinned than me, or were they so dumb that they didn't anticipate that a foreign citizen could become caught up in this jurisprudential stew of confusing and contradictory rules? I think this time the answer is evil, but on other occasions-well, considering how poorly they've managed Iraq, did they really want such chaos there? Can they tolerate the chaos that they've set off being on their hands? It's hard for me to believe that this was all planned. There were so many stories about Clinton and his concern for his legacy particularly during his second term in office. Obviously these guys don't care about theirs. I guess it's because they don't plan on ceding power. Heck what do I know?

But back to the Arar case, it's truly disgraceful that even now, the Justice Dept. (really, they need another name) claims they had hard evidence linking Mr. Arar to Al Qaeda. Well, if you had evidence, why did you not address it yourself (it's because you didn't have any evidence)? And sure, the Syrians told you that they wouldn't torture him. And according to Human Rights Watch they had a fabulous human rights record in 2001...just before Mr. Arar was arrested. So it's no wonder we trusted him to the Syrians (cough cough).