Outsourcing Torture?

From yesterday's Washington Post:

A senior Justice Department official personally approved sending a Syrian-born Canadian citizen suspected of terrorist links to Syria last year after consulting with CIA officials, according to U.S. officials.

Then-Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, in his capacity as acting attorney general, signed the highly unusual order, citing national security and declaring that to send the man, Maher Arar, home to Canada would be "prejudicial to the interests of the United States," according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity. [?]

While in custody in New York, Arar said, he repeatedly pleaded with U.S. officials not to send him to Syria, a country with a record of torturing prisoners that has been well documented by the State Department, because he believed he would face such treatment.

Arar, who was released last month after an aggressive campaign by Canadian officials to free him, is back in Canada. He has described in graphic detail how he was tortured with cables and electrical cords and kept in a small cell he described as a "grave" during his 10 months in prison.

Link from the Body and Soul weblog.