Justice?

Yesterday, the US Supreme Court refused to hear an appeal of Canadian citizen Maher Arar who was seized at Kennedy airport by American authorities 2002 and rendered to Syria for interrogation under torture. He was held and tortured for a year, then was released back to Canada. Arar has been trying to gain a remedy in American court for years, but the Obama Administration following the diktat of the Bush/Cheney Regime, fought the Arar petition and were successful.

Arar has been fully exonerated in Canada, received an apology and a substantial monetary award from the Canadian government, Syria has claimed they could find no evidence of terrorist ties, yet American authorities deny and resist any responsibility or accountability for what happened to Arar.

By refusing to hear the case, the Supreme Court has essentially institutionalized the lawlessness of the executive branch that enabled the seizure and rendition of Arar in the first place. Whatever the Government's policies on the matter of rendition, it doesn't matter, because the court refuses to intervene. "Do what thou wilt," is their motto.

Congress could conceivably change the law, but why bother when stonewalling is so effective?

Justice? Not in this country. Won't happen. Can't happen. And Arar is not the only victim, not by an order of magnitude.

Contrast that with David Cameron's straightforward and abject apology to the People of Britain and Northern Ireland, and to the survivors of the victims of the Bloody Sunday Bogside Massacre by British troops in Derry on January 30, 1972.

Yes, it's been almost 40 years since the massacre, in which 13 Catholic protestors were shot down in cold blood triggering immense passive and active resistance to British rule and a campaign of mutual bloodshed that went on for decades.

There was an inquiry immediately after the massacre that essentially whitewashed what happened. Another inquiry was begun in 1998, with a report due in 2009, but because of elections, it was delayed until today, June 15, 2010. Promptly, as it was released, Prime Minister David Cameron spoke in the House of Commons:



As so many have said: "I never thought I'd live to see the day."

Justice?

[Added later: Remains to be seen. The Brits are notorious for playing games with lives and emotions, especially of the Irish, but by no means exclusively so. And speaking of which, I was discussing Cameron's apology yesterday, and for the life of me, I could not help becoming verklempt over the whole thing. It was a surprising -- and completely spontaneous -- reaction to... what? Cameron's acknowledgment of British wrongdoing in Ireland? Memories of what happened so long ago? Knowledge of the suffering and bloodshed that followed on the Massacre? Or is it broader than that? As discussion continued, the pervasiveness of massacre as a means of Statecraft came into focus. The Bogside Massacre was just one small incident though it led to many others in the ongoing rounds of vengeance. Once on the cycle of revenge, it is very -- VERY -- hard to get off it. The best plan is not to start down that path. We are living in the midst of way too much of a vengeance cycle again. And ultimately, it was that realization that got to me. I kept saying I hoped that what Cameron did would become a model for so many of those intent on keeping us on this wheel of death. That's all.]


And still my question remains for the Legalists and Formalists out there:

Was Justice done in the case of Sir Thomas More?