May 16, 2011, New York – Today, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Brennan Center for Justice and 24 other groups and individuals urged the Department of Justice (DOJ) to  ask the relevant Inspector Generals to undertake a joint investigation into the Executive’s use of extraordinary rendition pursuant to  the state secrets policy it announced on September 23, 2009 in a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder. The letter arrives after the Supreme Court’s decision today in which it declined to hear Mohamed et al. v Jeppesen DataPlan, Inc., a case regarding the government’s use of the state secrets privilege to defeat a lawsuit challenging the post-9/11 extraordinary rendition program. 

 

The groups discussed Arar v. Ashcroft, a Center for Constitutional Rights case in which Canadian citizen Maher Arar, challenged U.S. officials for abuse of the law and rendering him to Syria, where he was tortured and detained for a year without charge. Though the Canadian government exonerated Mr. Arar, acknowledged its role in what happened to him and compensated him, the United States Supreme Court denied Mr. Arar’s petition for certiorari seeking review of the Second Circuit’s en banc decision affirming dismissal of his complaint last year. For more information on the case, visit CCR's legal case page.

 

To read the letter, click the PDF link below.