U.S. citizen in Saudi Arabia may have right to challenge detention

[Inland]

http://www.boston.com/dailynews/351/wash/U_S_citizen_in_Saudi_Arabia_ma:.shtml
A federal judge ruled Thursday that an American held in Saudi Arabia for suspected links to terrorism might be able to challenge his detention in a U.S. court because there is ''considerable'' evidence U.S. officials were behind the arrest.

The family of Ahmed Abu Ali, who grew up in Falls Church, Va., claims U.S. officials want to keep him in Saudi Arabia so he can be tortured for information.

U.S. District Judge John Bates did not rule on the legitimacy of the claims, but said there is ''at least some circumstantial evidence that Abu Ali has been tortured during interrogations with the knowledge of the United States.''

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''U.S. officials should not be free to avoid the limits of the law simply by making side arrangements with foreign governments to lock up people at our behest,'' said Georgetown University law professor David Cole, a frequent critic of Bush administration counterterrorism policies.

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In his decision, Bates rejected the U.S. government's position that an American court could never have jurisdiction over the plight of a U.S. citizen held captive in a foreign country.

Relying on the Guantanamo ruling, Bates said such a declaration is too sweeping and would allow the government ''to deliver a United States citizen to a foreign country to avoid constitutional scrutiny, or ... work through the intermediary of a foreign country to detain a United States citizen abroad.''


(This is an amazing set of allegations--that the USG asked the Saudi government to imprison, without trial and pretty much permanently, an American citizen. Oh, and he may have been tortured, too, at our request. Bush vs. America, where he only asks a medieval monarchy to imprison or torture Americans because he can't.)

[ScrewyRabbit]

1. This is so f***ing outrageous

He's a US citizen.