Khaled el-Masri deserves a chance to try his case on the merits

A US District Court judge in Virginia (Judge TS Ellis), dismissed a case recently that I believe deserves far more attention than it has so far gotten. Check the American news networks in vain for mention of the case brought by the German citizen Khaled el-Masri. CNN’s top headlines for today include stories about Jimmy Hoffa, a dog that fell off of a cliff, and protests against the release of the movie version of The Da Vinci Code. While these topics are surely important enough to shed light on the times in which we live (insert slight eye-roll here), the case of Mr. el-Masri is one which surely is in need of scrutiny.

Mr. el-Masri alleges that he was kidnapped in 2003 by the CIA, flown to Afghanistan, and tortured in a secret prison. No criminal charges were brought against Khaled el-Masri, and he was not accused of participating in any terrorist activities. If true, his allegations are surely quite serious.

Perhaps the penultimate right in any democratic system is the right to seek redress of your grievances from the government which has harmed you in some way. This is not a right which is granted exclusively to citizens, but one which our courts have long recognized as extending to any and all persons in the world who have been harmed by U.S. actions.

Khaled el-Masri sought to take the United States up on its offer to seek redress by suing the United States’ CIA director (and some other officials) demanding an apology. That’s right. He just wanted somebody to say that they were sorry.

The District Court judge dismissed the case saying that national security trumped Mr. el-Masri’s right to seek redress for his alleged grievances. It is one thing for the government to assert that national security is a reason to avoid making public the results of suits, to avoid paying on judgments against it, or for similar reasons. To assert that national security will be compromised if a man, innocently taken hostage against his will and tortured (Mr. el-Masri’s allegations), is allowed to demand recognition that our country was at fault for his suffering is surely a claim that can only be bought by the most credulous. Just how would national security be harmed, exactly? By letting terrorists know that they too could bring suit in U.S. courts? Please.

Mr. el-Masri did not even get a chance to prove his case on the merits. No matter that he still might fail to show that the events he alleges actually occurred, somehow giving him the chance to prove wrongdoing on the part of the United States demeans and impacts my safety, I guess. That was the executive's argument, anyway.

The only reason I can think of to quiet mention of this case in the United States is to further shield the current administration from accountability. Who’d have guessed it? The very man who promised to bring integrity back to the white house has overseen unprecedented power grabs by the executive of both legislative and judicial power, witnessed and participated in knowing violations of the foundational document for U.S. law, waged a series of wars in which international and domestic laws were abridged with impunity, and now seeks to eliminate the most cardinal right of democratic peoples around the world. Fantastic.

If he weren’t still wildly popular with large segments of the right, I’d almost hazard a guess that W. and his gang were Democratic plants in the Republican party to ensure that Democratic party has a shot at winning elections again. To see his political machinations at work in the judicial branch is truly tragic. When will people learn that 'my country - right or wrong' is not a sign of patriotism? It is a sign of fascism.