Deported Terror Suspect Details Torture in Syria (Canadian by CIA)

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A522-2003Nov4.html

A Canadian citizen who was detained last year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a suspected terrorist said Tuesday he was secretly deported to Syria and endured 10 months of torture in a Syrian prison.

Maher Arar, 33, who was released last month, said at a news conference in Ottawa that he pleaded with U.S. authorities to let him continue on to Canada, where he has lived for 15 years and has a family. But instead, he was flown under U.S. guard to Jordan and handed over to Syria, where he was born. Arar denied any connection to terrorism and said he would fight to clear his name.

U.S. officials said Tuesday that Arar was deported because he had been put on a terrorist watch list after information from "multiple international intelligence agencies" linked him to terrorist groups.

Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that the Arar case fits the profile of a covert CIA "extraordinary rendition" -- the practice of turning over low-level, suspected terrorists to foreign intelligence services, some of which are known to torture prisoners.

<snip>

Congress, which oversees the CIA, knows of only the broad authority to carry out renditions but is not informed about individual cases, according to intelligence officials.

The horror, the horror.... Isn't this the equivalent of some maniacal despot saying "Oh, I've never killed anybody. My executioner did." :(

I really would. After hearing him repeatedly bad-mouth Mr. Arar, I want the US Ambassador to explain, to the House of Commons and the Canadian people, but most of all to Mr. Arar and his family, why he said those things. If he has suspicions about Mr. Arar's background and loyalties, he should share them and provide documentation. And if it turns out to be merely his opinions, for being so unprofessional and undiplomatic as to bully a Canadian citizen and trash his reputation from on high ... before Mr. Cellucci opens his mouth to blame the FBI for passing along bad info ... I want him to resign.

This makes our condemnation of Saddam Hussein look like the pot calling the kettle black.

The way I read it we sent a suspected crook back to his country. In case you haven't noticed from past experiences, it is awfully difficult to find a country in the world that doesn't torture, maim or murder their citizens in the world today. Canada, said he was dirty.
Seems like the Canadian Gov. has been shippin their people down the river without a paddle pretty regular. That reporter woman in Iran, the fellow who spent those five years in the Saudi jail hanging upside down on a rack naked, that preacher who went to plant trees in Lebanon.
Heres a traveling tip. If your in the ME and the cops come for you, don't tell them your from Canada. Get an American pasport instead . Because three or four aircraft carriers in the gulf has a little more pull with those people then a threat from the ambassador from Ottowan.

It seems to me that this man had nothing to hide. And obtaining another passport would have produced more folly.

I re-read the article and it describes no crimes of which he has been convicted or even charged:

A Canadian citizen who was detained last year at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York as a suspected terrorist said Tuesday he was secretly deported to Syria and endured 10 months of torture in a Syrian prison.

He was suspected because he met a man who has also not been charged with a crime:

Arar said U.S. officials apparently based the terrorism accusation on his connection to Abdullah Almalki, another Syrian-born Canadian. Almalki is being detained by Syrian authorities, although no charges against him have been reported.

Are you also against the "due process" provision of the US constitution that provides protection for American citizens? Why do you think we should deny the same protection to Canadian citizens who visit our country?

The Justice Department did not have enough evidence to detain him when he landed in the United States, the official said, and "the CIA doesn't keep people in this country."

With those limitations, and with a secret presidential "finding" authorizing the CIA to place suspects in foreign hands without due process, Arar may have been one of the people whisked overseas by the CIA.

It looks like the Canadians gave the US questionable intelligence:

Arar's case has brought repeated apologies from the Canadian government, which says it is investigating what information the Royal Canadian Mounted Police gave to U.S. authorities.

I think the CIA really messed up on this one, and the Canadians too.

What kind of scary police state bullshit is this? If the guys passport and visa was in order this was a gross violation of civil rights. He should sue the US government for civil rights violations. I bet he gets a large settlement in the end.

 
Statement to the media by Maher Arar, Nov. 4, 2003. CanWest News Service : 

I am here today to tell the people of Canada what has happened to me.

There have been many allegations made about me in the media, all of them by people who refuse to be named or come forward. So before I tell you who I am and what happened to me, I will tell you who I am not.

I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of al-Qaida and I do not know any one who belongs to this group. All I know about al-Qaida is what I have seen in the media.

I have never been to Afghanistan. I have never been anywhere near Afghanistan and I do not have any desire to ever go to Afghanistan.
Now, let me tell you who I am....
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article5156.htm

The way the US treated this man and the way we made sure he suffered what he most feared is right out of Orwell's 1984. I fear that America's is so far down the fascist highway, we may never find our way back.