Whether the case is heard or, as in the past, quashed for 'national security reasons,' at least the Brits are having a go at what the U.S. has (at least to my knowledge) not:
One of the most controversial claims of rendition involving
the UK is being
heard by the Supreme Court.
Ex-Libyan dissident Abdul Hakim Belhaj says MI6 helped to
arrange his and his wife's rendition - saying they were covertly taken from Thailand
to Libya.
The case, involving allegations against ex-Foreign Secretary
Jack Straw and an ex-MI6 chief, prompted an unprecedented battle over whether
it can even begin.
The Supreme Court is to decide whether the couple can sue
the UK
government....
Mr Belhaj, a former Islamist fighter who opposed the Libyan
dictator Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, says he was seized by US forces alongside his
wife, Fatima Boudchar, in 2004 as they tried to fly from Asia
to the UK to
seek asylum.
The couple were taken from Thailand
to Libya - and
they were immediately imprisoned.
Keeping a good name and inviolate status after perpetrating vile acts ... what a lot of energy, personal or political, that takes.
I don't know how this stuff works anymore. Things keep changing. But the run up to court for these things are usually resolved by the assertion that it was legal at the time because it was sanctioned by somebody endowed with the authority to step over the usual laws.
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