The infection spreads...

Law professor Elaine Cassel, writing in Counterpunch, tells of an American citizen named Ahmad Abu Ali who last June was preparing to return home to Virginia from Saudi Arabia, where he is a student. Instead, he was detained by Saudi authorities for "interrogation" about his supposed involvement in a plot to aid Kashmir rebels. His detention was at the request of the United States.

We have no way of knowing what, if anything, Ali did that might be illegal under our broad and far-reaching anti-terrorist laws. That is beside the point at this time. What is the point, however, is that an American citizen can't come home, and the U.S. government is working with a foreign country to keep him locked up without a charge, without an attorney, without a trial, and with no hope of returning home. Because the U.S. set up his "detention," he has none of the protections normally afforded to a U.S. citizen who may be imprisoned in a foreign country, such as access to help from the State Department and consular personnel.

Maher Arar is by no means alone.

Addendum: Cassel's valuable Civil Liberties Watch site is worth checking out.