Rendition victim still seeking justice

Thwarted by U.S. courts, a German citizen who claims he was "rendered" by the U.S. and secretly detained and tortured for four months is taking his case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. The IACHR has accepted a petition filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) on behalf of Khaled El-Masri. It asks the IACHR to declare that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's "extraordinary rendition" program violates the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, to find the U.S. responsible for violating El-Masri's rights under that declaration, and to recommend that the U.S. publicly acknowledge and apologize for its role in El-Masri's forcible disappearance, detention and torture. The U.S. government has two months to respond to the allegations of kidnapping and torture, which U.S. courts summarily rejected in 2007. The IACHR is an autonomous body created by the Organization of American States (OAS) to promote and protect human rights in the Americas. Steven Watt, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Human Rights Program, told IPS, "This petition gives the U.S. yet another opportunity to account for one of the most heinous practices of the George W. Bush administration."