Will it stay buried?

Predictably, the U.S. administration wants to bury the facts on Maher Arar's rendition. And a judge is about to decide whether or not they'll be able to do just that:

Justice Department attorney Mary Mason said at a federal court hearing that the lawsuit filed by software engineer Maher Arar could force the government to reveal classified information, which supposedly linked Arar to al-Qaida and justified sending him to Syria instead of Canada...

The case is believed to be the first challenging the government's policy of extraordinary rendition, in which terror suspects are transferred to third countries without court approval...

Seeking to dismiss the case Tuesday, Justice Department attorneys argued that Arar was deported because the U.S. had classified evidence linking him to al-Qaida and the discretion to decide where he would be sent.

The government has submitted the classified evidence to U.S. District Judge David Trager, who is overseeing the lawsuit.

The most interesting part of this case is that the evidence is at least being made available to the judge. At the very least, the court will get the opportunity to take a look at the evidence, and perhaps to conclude that there never was any justification for the U.S.' belief.

Mind you, there would be more legitimacy to the process if Arar or his lawyer received any opportunity to answer the evidence. But any conclusion contrary to the U.S.' position will be extremely powerful when the other side isn't even being presented - and even a favourable ruling will be a powerful statement of the lengths to which Bushco has gone to try to hide its actions.