In other news, a federal appeals court has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Maher Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian citizen who was seized by US officials at Kennedy Airport in New York and rendered to Syria, where he was tortured, interrogated and detained in a tiny underground cell for nearly a year. The appeals court ruled that Arar was never technically inside the United States so his claims could not be heard in federal courts. Judge Robert Sack issued a scathing dissent and said the argument that Arar was never in the United States was a “legal fiction.” In a statement, Arar described the court’s decision as outrageous. He said, “It basically legitimizes what was done to me, and permits the government to use immigration law as a disguise to send people to torture without regard for due process.”