In connection with the 10 year anniversary of the shameful "torture memos," peace and human rights activists in Minnesota managed to get their Congresspersons and Senators to declare torture is wrong and, in varying degrees, touch on the need for accountability.

"It was so painful, that I forgot every enjoyable moment in my life," said Maher Arar, of the beatings he suffered while held captive in Syria.

Under international law, the United States isn't supposed to transfer anyone to a country where they're likely to face torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. But in the case of Abdul Aziz Naji that's what may happen.

The new Conservative government in Great Britain announced that it will hold a "judge-led" inquiry into the role played by British officials in human rights abuses committed as part of the Global War on Terror.

Torture can't be wished away. You can't pretend it never happened. As General Patreaeus put it recently, the effects of torture are "nonbiodegradeable."

Last week the Supreme Court refused to hear my case. This eliminates any remaining hope for me of obtaining justice through the U.S. judicial system against US officials who sent me to Syria to be tortured.

The failure to give Maher Arar his day in court is another shameful episode of how our highest court and the current administration continue to protect the abusers of human rights and of the rule of law who ran amok in the Bush years.

In only looking forward on torture, not back, the Obama administration is reneging on its obligations under the Convention Against Torture, which demands both that torturers be held accountable and that victims receive remedies.

In a breathtakingly unusual move, a federal appeals court has decided to re-hear the case of the man who has arguably become the poster child for the Bush administration's rendition program.

Maher Arar, the poster boy for the program of "extraordinary rendition" has again been denied his day in court -- and Congressional efforts are floundering to reign in the Bush administration.