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Unheard Voices

Duke conference on human rights focuses on abuses in war on terror

Canadian citizen Maher Arar, who was forcibly rendered to Syria where he was allegedly tortured, will speak by video at the Duke conference

On the evening of Dec. 17, 2001, a small jet took off from an airfield in Johnston County, southeast of Raleigh. Registered to Premier Executive Transport, the plane had been leased by the Central Intelligence Agency. Over the course of the next 24 hours, it landed in Sweden, collected two passengers who were blindfolded and bound and then headed to Cairo, where the men allegedly were tortured.

 

The story of what happened to that flight and the two men aboard it is told by British journalist and author Stephen Grey in his book, Ghost Plane: The True Story of the CIA Torture Program. Grey's book describes a secret CIA air transport system that he says sends an unknown number of individuals to be detained and tortured outside the reach of the regular justice system.

Grey is the featured speaker in an upcoming program sponsored by the Duke Human Rights Center. The conference will be held Wednesday, Sept. 26, from noon to 5:30 p.m. in Room 240 in the John Hope Franklin Center.

 

Program organizers say they were interested in having Grey come to North Carolina beacuse the nearby Johnston County location is one of the most prominent airfields allegedly used in the CIA transport system.

 

Although defenders of the covert transport system say it is a necessary tool in fighting terrorism, Grey says there is evidence that some kidnappings have targeted the innocent.

 

Another panelist at the half-day conference is Syrian native and Canadian resident Maher Arar, who was detained by U.S. officials in New York's JFK airport while returning to Canada in 2002. Unable to contact his family and friends for two weeks, Arar was deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured.

Never charged with a crime, Arar was released nearly a year later and returned to Canada. He has since filed a federal lawsuit against the U.S. government. Arar will speak at the Duke event by video because he has been banned from entering the United States.

 

At a second panel, Duke students will read from Poems from Guantánamo: The Detainees Speak, a new book featuring the poetry of Guantánamo detainees. Ariel Dorfman, a Duke literature professor and human rights advocate, wrote the book's foreword and will take part in the discussion.

 

The panels, which will include discussions with the audience, will be streamed live on the web and at the Bryan Center and the University of Ottawa.