The Maher Arar Saga

[Yaw]

What's this section of the board for, if not controversy?

Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who was scooped up in a New York airport while transferring flights and deported...to Syria, a country he had not seen for 17 years. He was finally released in early October after 10 months in Syrian custody, and is not back in Canada demanding an independent inquiry into what happened. Arar's full statement to the press about what happened to him can be accessed here.

Current speculation is that Canadian agencies may have helped American authorities obtain data to support their claim that Arar had terrorist ties. Specifically, Arar claims that the Americans that questioned him in New York had a copy of his Ottawa lease -- of which there are only 2 copies in existence (one for Arar and one for the developer renting the place), neither of whom ever gave the lease out. As Canada is a signatory to the UN Convention against torture, this could put Canada's intelligence community in some pretty deep trouble.

At any rate, read the statement, and feel free to comment on the appropriateness of what has been happening to "Bush's disappeared" in the past few years.

[Hilly]

What I find most troubling is that Arar is a Canadian citizen. He should have been delt with either in America, where he was first taken into custody or escorted back to Canada. There can be no excuse for allowing a Canadian citizen to be deported. I make no judgement here as to whether he was or was not involved in terrorism, but being a citizen of Canada and in the custody of America he should have never been removed from North American soil. Period.

[ck]

I think he should of been allowed back into canada and never should of gone in the first place...

[Yaw]

Continuing, there's pretty compelling evidence that not only is Canada's intelligence community in trouble over this case, but America's is far worse off. Specifically, according to the blurb from Alternet copied in below, in deporting Arar the US violated the Convention Against Torture contrary to its acknowledged legal obligations...

Maher Arar, a Canadian citizen, was deported last year from the U.S. to Syria where he was allegedly tortured and held for months in cruel, inhuman and degrading conditions. According to Amnesty International Canada, "Not only did the US government fail to seek assurances that Maher Arar would not be tortured in Syria, but, more worryingly, it appears that they may have actively engineered his transfer and bypassed certain legal guarantees, including his right to effective consular assistance and to representation in a fair proceeding."

The US government appears to have breached its own policies as well as international law in deporting Maher Arar.

Article 3 of the Convention against Torture prohibits the transfer of anyone to another state where there are "substantial grounds" for believing that person would risk being tortured. In a letter to Senator Patrick Leahy last June, Pentagon General Counsel William Haynes wrote that government policy was to "comply with all of its legal obligations in its treatment of detainees" and would not transfer anyone to a country where they may face torture and, if necessary, would seek assurances from the receiving country that torture would not be used against the transferred individual. The entry on Syria in the US State Department's latest human rights report cites "credible evidence that security forces continue to use torture". Syria was cited by President Bush in a major address on the Middle East on November 6, 2003 as a country with a "legacy of torture".

[AuntieSocial]

The Globe and Mail Article - Easter, Ashcroft to discuss Arar case

OTTAWA — The United States could lose access to Canadian antiterrorism intelligence if it uses information supplied by Ottawa to deprive Canadians of their rights, Solicitor-General Wayne Easter says.The minister said he intends to raise the case of Maher Arar -- a Canadian deported from the United States last year to Syria as a terrorist suspect -- when he meets today with U.S. Attorney-General John Ashcroft in Washington.

If there were other cases similar to this, of course, I believe it would jeopardize the [intelligence-sharing] relationship with our greatest trading partner," Mr. Easter said yesterday after a cabinet meeting.

Mr. Easter said Canada and the United States should be able to share intelligence to combat international terrorism and border crime but not at the expense of Canadians' rights.

I haven't chimed in on this thread yet because I have been sickened by this occurrence. My gut instinct (and general mistrust for the lying Bush) is that the U.S. ochestrated the deportation because they couldn't torture Arar themselves.

[AuntieSocial]

Washington Post Article - Top Justice Aide Approved Sending Suspect to Syria

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.

The U.S. immigration law used to carry out the "expedited removal" of Arar strictly prohibits sending anyone, even on national security grounds, to a country where "it is more likely than not that they will be tortured," said a U.S. official familiar with the law applied in the Arar case.

Justice Department officials would not comment on why Thompson would have signed the order if Arar said he would be tortured in Syria and if U.S. authorities had identified him to the Syrians as an al Qaeda member.

In response to questions, a Justice Department spokesman said "the removal of Mr. Arar was accomplished after interagency consultation and in full compliance with the law and with all relevant international treaties and conventions."

Imad Moustafa, the charge d'affaires at the Syrian Embassy in Washington, has denied Arar was tortured. But he said Syria had no reason to imprison Arar. He said U.S. intelligence officials told their Syrian counterparts that Arar was an al Qaeda member. Syria agreed to take him as a favor and to win goodwill of the United States, he said.

[Yaw]

Continuing the saga, Toronto Star Article -- U.S. defends deportation of Arar

U.S. officials are insisting they did nothing wrong when they deported Maher Arar to Syria where he was held captive and tortured, Solicitor General Wayne Easter said today.

After meeting U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft, Easter said he was told officials were "operating under their mandate, their laws, their national security policy" when they deported the Canadian during a flight stopover in New York.

Sure. Except Arar's lawyers seem to be up to date with this surprising revelation.

Arar, who denies any links to terrorism, has retained a Canadian lawyer and is also represented by the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York.

The centre sent a letter to Ashcroft and Easter this week, demanding to know why Arar wasn't permitted to contact his consulate for more than seven days after he was detained and why there was no lawyer present or a formal hearing conducted before he was deported.

Arar's treatment contravened the United Nations Convention Against Torture and even the U.S. Patriot Act that gave officials broad new policing and detention powers after Sept. 11, said centre lawyer Barbara Olshansky. (emphasis mine)

That's right. Ashcroft can't even be bothered to follow a law he pushed through to weaken or destroy Constitutional protections. Something's seriously wrong here.

[Yaw]

The Arar story resurfaces, this time as he, with help from the American Centre for Constitutional Rights, is to file a multi-million dollar lawsuit against John Ashcroft tomorrow (Thursday).

Arar to file lawsuit against U.S.
Multimillion dollar suit already filed against Syria

OTTAWA (CP) — A Canadian who was deported to Syria by American authorities in 2002 is to file a formal lawsuit Thursday against U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft in New York.

Maher Arar, a 33-year-old computer engineer who lives in Ottawa, will participate by telephone in a New York news conference announcing the filing.

Lawyers from the American Centre for Constitutional Rights said last year they would help Arar assemble his case.

Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, was detained by American authorities in New York in the fall of 2002 while on his way home from a visit to Tunisia. He was deported to Syria, where he says he was tortured before being released without explanation a year later.

He has filed a multimillion-dollar damage suit against Syria.

Prime Minister Paul Martin has promised that he will get to the bottom of the Arar case, saying he wants to know if Canadian authorities fed information on Arar to their American counterparts.

[Hilly]

Well it seems that Canadian authorities were aware that the United States were sending him to Syria and it would seem they did so with the Canadian governments blessings? Maybe he should be suing the Canadian Govt. as well.