U.S. mishandled Arar case, admits Rice (time to cover up for lies)

U.S. mishandled Arar case, admits Rice

By Deborah Charles
1 hour, 13 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted on Wednesday the United States had mishandled the case of a Canadian who was deported to Syria and tortured, but she stopped short of an apology.

In a rare public admission of U.S. fault, Rice sounded contrite when she responded to a lawmaker's question about Maher Arar, who was arrested during a stopover in New York in 2002 and deported to Syria where he says he was tortured and imprisoned for a year.

"We do not think that this case was handled as it should have been," Rice told the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee. "We do absolutely not wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured."

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Last week U.S. lawmakers from both parties urged the Bush administration to apologize to Arar, a software engineer who is married with two children.

Rice did not apologize in the hearing and avoided directly answering a question from Massachusetts Democrat Rep. William Delahunt who asked if she knew Arar was tortured in Syria.

"You are aware of the fact that he was tortured?" Delahunt asked.

"I am aware of claims that were made," she responded.

But when asked if the United States had received any diplomatic assurances from Syria that Arar would not be tortured, Rice said her memory of the events had faded and she would have to respond later to the question.

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