Canadian Victim Testifies About US Extraordinary Rendition
A Canadian citizen detained by U.S. authorities in 2002 on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida, and sent to Syria where he was tortured, has testified for the first time before a congressional committee.
A Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Arar was detained in September 2002 at New York’s Kennedy Airport, on suspicion of having links to al-Qaida, which was responsible for the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States.
The information came from a Canadian police report describing him as well as his wife as Islamic extremists with suspected terrorist links.
Against his protests and after interrogations by U.S. officials, he was deported to Syria via Jordan, where he says he suffered severe torture for 10 months at the hands of Syria’s Military Intelligence, before his release in October 2003.
Arar was never formally accused of any crime in the United States or Canada. A two-and-a-half-year Canadian investigation cleared him of any links with terrorist organizations or activities, and ordered that he be paid more than $10 million in compensation.
Testifying by video link from Canada, because he remains barred from the United States, Arar condemned what he calls the immoral practice of rendition.
“Let me be clear, I am not a terrorist, I am not a member of al-Qaida or any other terrorist group,” he said. “I am a father, a husband, and an engineer. I am also a victim of the immoral practice of rendition.”
U.S. lawmakers offered Arar apologies and regrets, and voiced disappointment that the U.S. government has not done the same.
Democratic Congressman William Delahunt, chairs a House Judiciary subcommittee on human rights issues:
“Mr. Arar, let me personally give you what our government has not, an apology,” he said. “Let me apologize to you and the Canadian people for our government’s role in this mistake.”
While they also offered apologies, Republicans Trent Franks and Dana Rohrabacher nevertheless defended the U.S. rendition program as an effective anti-terrorism tool.
“I sincerely believe that the story of Mr. Arar will ultimately not be shown to be a failure of U.S. rendition policy, but instead an anomalous failure in the particular circumstances caused by false intelligence and information from Canada,” Franks said.
“An error in a program does not mean that program in and of itself is a wrong program,” said Rohrabacher.
In dramatic testimony, Arar described torture he was subjected to in a Syrian prison, treatment he says left him with permanent emotional scars.
“I was beaten with an electrical cable and threatened with a metal chair, [a] tire and electric shocks,” he said. “I was forced to falsely confess that I had been to Afghanistan. When I was not being beaten I was put in a waiting room so I could hear the screams of other prisoners. The cries of the women still haunt me the most.”
Arar’s principal counsel Kent Roach, of the University of Toronto, reviewed key conclusions of the Canadian investigation headed by the Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, Dennis O’Connor.
“He recognized the importance of information sharing between Canada and the United States, but stressed that that information must be accurate, precise and reliable,” said Roach. “He identified the danger of guilt by association in national security investigations, and identified the impossible position that a person is put in when they have to defend themselves against secret information that they do not know.”
Although no Bush administration officials appeared at the hearing, the administration position has been that it complies with U.S. legal obligations because foreign governments provide diplomatic assurances they do not use torture.
Congressman John Conyers, a Democrat calls this unreliable at best, and asserts that rendition violates international and U.S. law.
“It seems to me that as a nation we must not evade these important legal prohibitions by rendering suspects to countries for torture,” he said.
Expert legal witnesses agreed that diplomatic assurances from countries with a record of torture are unreliable.
Daniel Benjamin, of The Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. says rendition harms U.S. credibility.
“The issues of rendition and torture have become intertwined in the public imagination in our nation and in the minds of our friends abroad,” he said. “Abuses that have been committed in the name of the Global War on Terror trouble the conscience of those who care about America’s reputation and those who have been proud of our nation’s role as a champion of the rule of law.”
Frederick Hitz of the Center for National Security Law at the University of Virginia, says rendition should be illegal.
“I view it much as I do the executive order prohibition on political assassination,” he said. “We should not be in the business of coercive torturous interrogations, directly or indirectly.”
Another witness, David Cole of Georgetown University’s Law Center suggested that Congress should call for an independent investigation of the Bush administration’s rendition policy.
© 2007 Voice of America
George Bush should be made to apologize. Followed by Gonzales and Yoo. That’s a sight I would enjoy!
‘“An error in a program does not mean that program in and of itself is a wrong program,” said Rohrabacher.’
This just amazes me. What could be “right” about the rendition program? Allowing Bush to say that the US doesn’t torture?
Bush should be tried for crimes against humanity. And Cheney. And Ashcroft. And Rumsfeld. And Gonzales. And Yoo. And Perle. And Wolfowitz. And Rice.
Hell, the entire damn US administration, from the lowest clerk to the highest office should be expunged. FBI, CIA, NSA, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force. All of them. Guilty.
What happened to Mr. Arar was as grevious as any act committed by the Nazis.
And should be punished as severely.
With democracy like this, who needs nazis?
As a proud Canadian, until Bush and Cheney and the rest of the fascist hoard are tried and convicted of Crimes Against Humanity, I will never set foot in your crappy country again….nor spend another nickel on any product or service that provides money to the United States of Assassins
And I urge all other Canadians to do likewise. The next time you set foot on the fouled earth of the USA, it could be YOU getting “disappeared”
I distrust the one-rotten-apple, or one-anomalous-mistake defence of this sort of thing. There are (likely)innocent others who have been snatched away by this programme. One of the things that helps the cover up is your Patriot Act, and our Anti Terrorist Legislation. They give butt covering secrecy to a covert bureaucracy and throw out any rules of evidence and transparent court process. I try to keep track of this stuff, and I find very little about charges or about any of the kidnapped being found guilty of anything. But I sure find lots to suggest that many innocents are being wrongly treated by our governments.
So I figure it is the system, not one little mistake, that decent people should look at.
I know politicians and others natter on about our military assuring our freedom by trodding on third and fourth world peoples on the other side of the world, but when I get in trouble, I hope someone like Monia Mazigha,Mr Arar’s wife, goes to bat for my freedom and rights.
I also have to wonder, if the methods used were more efficient derivatives of Dr. Ewan Cameron’s experiments in the 1950s most recently covered in books like ‘The Shock Doctrine’ by Naomi Klein and , just how much of Mr. Arar ever left that Hell-hole.
Your citizens are also being groomed for similar treatment America. Some have already felt it. Shot with a tazer, beaten, tossed into a police car or van and waking up in a cell, then some time later being tossed back out into the world without any clue what it was for. (Control. Forced conformity to the new world order)
I’d have to wonder just whether some of the reported tazer deaths actually resulted in death, or if some of those now number among the inevitable disappeared that will be test subjects to make the process even more efficient. Get rid of these maniacs before you or someone close to you is next on ‘the list’. (There’s always a list)
zoya, I was thinking the same thing. The program in and of itself is immoral because it involves torture. That fact alone makes it a bad and ineffective program, since anyone who I have read that has been involved in intelligence gathering, says that torture is unreliable because a person will say or sign anything to get the torture to end.
There was something on this site the other day, I can’t recall if it was a post or an article, but this person was talking about how they could get more useful information from a suspect through a simple game of ping-pong. He was a WWII vet, I believe. And he mentioned how you’ve got to approach intelligence gathering from an entirely different angle.
I wonder if he’ll ever get the $10 million for the pain and suffering he went through.
One last thing that has always amazed me. We can send people to Syria to be tortured and get whatever information they obtained, yet we can’t sit down with Syria to talk about diplomatic matters aimed at peace. Syria’s our friend when they are torturing but they’re our enemy when it comes to talk of peace.
I see the Bush administration clearly as a “foreign government” that has invaded and is now occupying America, torturing innocent people, destroying our Constitutional RIGHT to habeas corpus, to offer and receive fair trials for people like Arar Mahar, to be free of illegal surveillance, to not have our lives and resources used to wage illegal imperialistic wars and kill people in the millions.
What the hell’s wrong with Congressional Democrats? They don’t even fight Bush’s destruction of Constitutional America, but instead pretend that everything is just hunky-dory, politics as usual, and apologies will make everything all better. Will they use Mahar’s testimony of rendition and torture as an article of impeachment for Bush? Of course not. It’s off the table.
Syria - Torturers of conveniance one day, scapegoat for Hezbollah in Lebanon the next, target for Israeli-American airstrikes the day after.
Oh, and you’ll be getting to know these on American soil very soon should you choose to protest what will soon come for you once Blackwater is your new National Guard.
http://www.raytheon.com/products/silent_guardian/
Searing pain over your entire body from up to 250 meters away and you can’t do anything about it. ‘Shock Doctrine’ indeed. (OBEY CITIZEN AND THE PAIN WILL STOP)
Good luck.
Democratic congressman William Delahunt: “Mr. Arar…let me apologise to you and to the Canadian people for our government’s role in this MISTAKE.”
Is it a MISTAKE? or a CRIME? or ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS?
If the US totures innocent people, it is considered as a MISTAKE. But if some country like Iran or Russia does the same, it is a CRIME OR ABUSE OF HUMAN RIGHTS. When does the US (and the west)come out of this FOLLY?
This folly is exhibited by the statement of Daniel Benjamin: “Abuses that have been committed in the name of Global war on terror trouble the conscience of…those who have been proud of our nation’s role as a champion of the rule of the law.”
If that statement is correct, then what about the “JEWELS OF CIA”? What about the role of the US in extraditing forcefully the president of Haiti Aristide to Central African Republic? What about the US involvement in Iran in 1950s and in Chili, Philippines, Nicaragua, Palestine……
What about the US assassination attempts on Fidel Castro?
It is good to think about these US crimes around the world before making such “self-righteous” statements. This “US stink” seems to be very pleasing to people like Benjamin.
Stinger 28: Oh, so you have seen the Microwave Area Denial system is use too? A’int it great? Even works through most residential walls.
Don’t kid youself for a second that these babies are meant for foriegn urban combat roles. All bets are that these systems are for domestic use.
Paul said:
“With democracy like this, who needs nazis?”
“All democracies turn into dictatorships - but not by coup. The people give their democracy to a dictator, whether it’s Julius Caesar or Napoleon or Adolf Hitler. Ultimately, the general population goes along with the idea… That’s the issue that I’ve been exploring: How did the Republic turn into the Empire … and how does a democracy become a dictatorship?
Star Wars fimmaker George Lucas
Only representative democracy turns into dictatorship. Direct democracy lasts forever. See http://www.ni4d.us/
This is chilling to say the least. Dude, where’s my country?? Not only do I want it back like say yesterday, I want people to be held accountable. I watched a few minutes of CSPAN this morning. I couldn’t believe my ears listening to another morally challenged republican defending this despicable program by making comparisons to other govt programs like Medicare, who according to him also make mistakes, that in fact cost lives. I just couldn’t even believe the crap coming out of his mouth.
I have to play the devils advocate here.
There is a reason that the US has to fear foreign born people in their own country. We live in the information age.
[quote]There is a reason that the US has to fear foreign born people in their own country.[/quote]
I wholeheartedly agree. Just look at the ungodly mess they’ve created in the past few centuries. I sure do hope that you get those border walls completed quickly.
My stupid kid sister (Canadian) still thinks its safe to vacation down there every winter. What’s worse, she’s married to a ‘frog’ with a very distinct ‘foreign’ accent. If they’re lucky(?), maybe they’ll get renditioned to France.
gandhi October 19th, 2007 3:57 pm
Democratic congressman William Delahunt: “Mr. Arar…let me apologise to you and to the Canadian people for our government’s role in this MISTAKE.
===================
Good point gandhi. It never ceases to amaze me how a false sense of “patriotism” clouds so many people’s judgment. Rendition and torture are crimes, not mistakes. Shame on US Government, shame on US Congress.
What happened to Mahar Arar was about as much of mistake as, oh… GUANTANIMO BAY!! OR ABU GRAHAB!!
Grow up, put on your big girl panties, and deal with this monsterous adminstration!
To see the spineless dems, oooing and ahhhing and oh this is terrible to the afflicted sufferers of bushcon’s nazi tactics turns my stomach.
They are just waiting it out, waiting for their super majority, for their shot AT ALL OF THAT POWER…. to come, surely, in 08.
Meanwhile they are the butt puppets of bushcon, and a shameful lot, turning away from what should be a righteous outrage, and a constant stream of indictments, grand jury appointments, special prosecutors and trials.
America does not want “hearings.”
We want justice -
Namoses: The Joshua quote… very good. Exactly what a Babylonian war god would have his front man say.
I don’t get this story. EO’d to Syria? I thought Syria was an enemy rather than a coconspirator.
Stinger28 and Galen, I’m sorry to say your suspicions are quite valid. Being near some of university personnel who work on various aspects of the systems, many of them have said they regret participating. At first, it was presented as a way to replace land-mines in denial of movement sectors, and then as a nonlethal frontline device; however, in the last two years program handlers have asked them to consider data on permeability and effectiveness with large concrete and iron imbued structures. Some walked away.
Within two years, if we haven’t already had some test cases, we will see the devices used in Iraq. Smaller devices will be used in riot control in the states when the lethality probabilities are worked out.
I agree about trying for war crimes, but how do we prepare for the move to Qattar by all these nazis. How to prevent W from pardoning them all. Worse than that, if W (etc) is impeached, does that bar further proceedings by virtue of double jeopardy?
Bobpomeroy: Mr. Arar was tagged as a ‘person of interest’, abducted during a flight change-over in New York, sent to Syria, tortured by the Syrian government at the request of the USA, and held without charge for TWO YEARS! It was only thru the efforts of his wife that he was even aknowledged to be in Syrian custody, and how he had wound up there. If not for her and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mr. Arar would still no doubt be being tortured.
Syria is a major buyer of American weapons and military hardware. And they are close to the major Mideast oil players. But Syria also plays a dangerous game of balance between the West and Islam.
Syria is a whipping boy. Useful as long as they toe the Western line, but a target if they get uppity…
Thanks Galen. I know about the crime itself, I just don’t get why he was sent to Syria.
What I just learned and which shocks hell out of me, is that Ft Huachuca, where they train the non-torturers, is just 25 miles away. Me with my long hair and bumper stickers must make quite an impression over there.
This whole thing is just so evil and sick.
Bobpomeroy: Syria is where he was born. They spoke the language. And they were trying desperately at the time not to join Bush’s ‘Axis of Evil’ target list. And Syria has done wet work for them in the past. Or at least for the CIA.
The key issue in understanding the supporters of the US program is what kind of “mistake” they think happened. Was the mistake that we trusted Syrian claims not to torture people? Or that we trusted Canadian claims that he was a terrorist?
Senator Franks makes his position very clear: “I sincerely believe that the story of Mr. Arar will ultimately not be shown to be a failure of U.S. rendition policy, but instead an anomalous failure in the particular circumstances caused by false intelligence and information from Canada,”
That is, Senator Franks supports torture. He identifies the source of the “mistake” as information from Canada, not false promises from Syria. If this information had been correct, and Arar had sent money to an organization that the US deems a “terrorist” organization, then in the mind of Senator Franks, there would be no mistake, only a legitimate US policy of sending individuals overseas to be tortured.
Then Senator Franks should have his testicles wired for 110 volts AC and see how he likes it. Or suffer hypothermic conditions. Or be water-boarded. Or forced to stand absolutely still in a ’stress position’ for hours on end, threatened with death if he moves. Or have a trained attack dog lunge at him while he’s stripped naked and hooded.
All of these techniques are not considered torture by the US. But they are used by the US.
Do you want them used on you? Do you think it would be torture?
Senator Franks apology isn’t worth the shit that dribbled out of his mouth.
Mr. Robinson will you please STOP saying Mr. Arar was deported. Deportation is a legal process with recourse to legal counsel, whereas Mr. Arar was snatched by US administration thugs and RENDITIONED. This happened on a trip from Tunisia back to Canada when making a connecting flight at NYC. Canada is where he had lived since age 17, I believe, and where he worked as a telecommunications engineer.
He was renditioned to Syria for torture by your stinking government with no legal process and no evidence simply because Canada’s stinking RCMP couldn’t find enough (any?)evidence to arrest him.
The USA told Canada to jail Arar with no evidence and when Canada refused the US despatched Arar to Syria for torture so that a confession could be extracted. All three countries are a disgrace but Canada has made restitution and an apology and given the head of the RCMP the heave-ho when the latter slimebag tried a cover up. To quash any lawsuit or due process the current US administration is raising the usual bogie of “national security” and, of course, keeping Arar’s name on the no-fly list even though he is off the Canadian one and all cross Canadian flights travel extensively through US airspace. Make sense?
Senator Franks is RIGHT!!!!
The failure is on the part of RCMP, CSIS, DND and every other Cdn. organization that decides to violate the Charter Rights (equivalent of US Constitutional Rights) of Canadians to share information on our citizens with the US. It IS A CANADIAN FAILURE!
While Arar was in Syria, the Canadian Prime Minister at the time, Jean Chretien, refused to allow Cdn. troops to take part in Iraq. If we doubted the US administration on that front, why weren’t we similarly skeptical of US requests for information on our citizens? The answer is simple and chilling: Canada is no less xenophobic (when it comes to Muslims/Arabs) than Americans.
We have denied young girls phys ed and sport because they have worn a head tie… I used to wear a head tie under a football helmet, no one ever said anything. We have argued that women wearing the hijab must remove it to vote…but anyone wearing a hat can vote without removing it.
Perhaps the single greatest proof that Arar did not subscribe to the extreme brand of Islam practiced by terrorist groups: his wife, Moniah Mazigh, ran for Parliament a few years back (under the progressive NDP). She was running in my riding, Ottawa South, and yes, I voted for her.
Paulitics: From a fellow Canuck - Dead on. All prime minsiters since and including Chretien, should be charged with being accessories to committing Crimes against Humanity.
The Wizard of Oz (America)
We are really good at slicing these monsters apart aren’t we?
Meanwhile, the man behind the curtain who is pulling the levers, smirks just like his ferocious Bush Ape monster did. He knows his creation is only good for a couple of shows before the assembled audience realizes there is something wrong with it and grows tired of it.
But fear not! The CEO behind the curtain has an endless supply of these mechanical puppets for us to attack; he but just needs to reach down and lift another one up out of Pandora’s box for us. How about a Hillary monster or a Thompson submachine gun monster?
“Torture is not torture if it saves lives!” thunders the fearsome Wizard through the microphone.
“War is peace!”, “Ignorance is Knowledge!”, “Freedom is Slavery!”
[pauses for effect, belches fire out the mouth followed by Arms moving dangerously about like something is actually going on.]
Suddenly Common Dreams sniffs out that the wizard CEO is really operating at a control panel off to the side.
“PAY NO ATTENTION TO THE MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!!!!” it demands through the PA system.
Are we going to Boycott and Strike the curtain down?
Or are we going to keep fighting the mechanical monsters?
The choice is ours.
Hey CanuckChuck why don’t you just cool your jets? This happened a long time ago, and while I can appreciate Mr. Arar’s very continuing memory of his experience and why it is still vivid in his recanting, whats with you?
It seems to me that the whole dismal horror story of Mr Arar’s torture is, after these many years winding down to where we don’t need such a song and dance anymore.
As to the article well done it is about time Mr Arar got some attention from the USA, he is an engineer, I imagine its a pain in the butt not getting into the US for professional conferences and such. Hopefully the USA will right their wrong and let him back into the country also some additional compensation would be a good idea(adjusted for the falling greenback of course).
And Trent Franks can kiss my behind.
Hey don’t you guys read? The reason Canada is not in Iraq is because Canada was not wanted in Iraq. Chretian took credit for standing up to the US, most Canucks believed him but it just ain’t so.
White Rose: Care to give a reference that supports your opinion?
I wonder why he was let go. Do terrorists let anyone go? If the government was involved would they really allow him to leave. Unanswered questions.
Also, no one is going to admit to wrong doing-billions would have to be paid out in lawsuits.
For anyone who wants to read about what happened to Arar check Wiki for a summary.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar
There is also the $20 million Canadian enquiry that exonerated him that you can download as a PDF.
For anyone who wants to read about renditions, Stephen Gray has an amazingly detailed and exhaustive piece of detective work compiled in an excellent book called Ghost Plane. This book has a chapter on Arar, describes the Syrian prison where he was tortured and has chapters on others who were renditioned -some of whom were also completely innocent. This book is full of references, flight plans and interviews with officials and is quite neutral.
http://www.ghostplane.net/AboutTheBook
The real problem is the extreme fear gripping our superpower. Fear leads to anger leads to hate leads to suffering. All that because of a false flag operation carried out on 9/11/2001 by elements of the US gov. Hitler set fire to the Reichtag, GWB sent military planes into 2 towers wired in advance for controlled demolition. There was no plane in the pentagon. See “in plane site” at www.uscivilflags.org.
When in intense fear we look to a savior. GWB will be president for life. It happened in so many countries why not in USA who are so fearful they have given up their freedoms.??
CanuckChuck (from Canada) said:
“I will never set foot in your crappy country again….nor spend another nickel on any product or service that provides money to the United States . . .”
I’m an American and over the years have been to Canada many times, and never felt I had to worry about how I would be treated by the Canadian government. I was always treated fairly by the government and police there.
It is the responsibility of Americans (especially me) to make our nation conform to international humanitarian laws, and to our own Bill of Rights. I feel we have to earn the trust and respect of CanuckChuck and other citizens of Canada and other nations whose citizens we have mistreated. That means trying our own officials for their crimes, restoring the rule of law, increasing our adherance to laws, apologizing for our crimes, and paying reparations to Mr. Arar and others we have harmed.
CanuckChuck, I’m sorry for what my country did to Mr. Arar and will do what I can (along with many other progressives) to remedy the criminality of our government.
the only reason anybody is taking any notice of this fellow is because he is wearing a tie and a suit and can speak english.
“actually had the nerve to ask him whether he would approve of waterboarding if it would prevent a terrorist attack that could kill his children!”
A loaded question and thus a logical fallacy. A false or questionable presupposition that waterboarding will prevent a terrorist attack. A very flimsy premise as information obtained through torture is generally considered very unreliable. Torture is very good for extracting confessions though. Almost anyone can be guaranteed to admit to anything.
Recent events have precipitated some more information from those in the USA who deem Mr.Arar a threat to aviation security and national security.
http://tinyurl.com/26qypl
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20071019.Arar20/BNStory/International/home
Even if the redition program never made a mistake and always picked up only those associated with terror, the program is immoral, wrong and ineffective. The idea that torture gets you reliable information is just plan wrong. This is something that Trent Franks and Dana Rohrabacher apparently do not understand.
white rose, i would also like to see that reference.
Haven’t you heard, “We don’t torture.”
Adolf Hitler to the parents of Anne Frank: “Mr. and Mrs. Frank, let me apologize to you and to the Jewish people for our government’s role in this mistake.”
Stinger said,
OBEY CITIZEN AND THE PAIN WILL STOP!
The Borg: Resistance is futile…
With a braindead congress and press media, the arts are the last bastion of expression. Protest lit is out there and it may be our last best hope.
God Bless Maher Arar
RE: Mistake - it matters whether implimenting rendition was a mistake or just what happened to Arar.
johnwyclif says: There are (likely)innocent others who have been snatched away by this programme.
Me: You mean like Abdullah Almalki,Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati (Canada)? Every country has a few names that come to mind, it is just American victims of rendition we don’t know much about.
For the record, Maher Arar has never in his life ever been to Afghanistan.
stinger says: I also have to wonder, if the methods used were more efficient derivatives of Dr. Ewan Cameron’s experiments in the 1950s most recently covered in books like ‘The Shock Doctrine’ by Naomi Klein
Me: Some of Ewan Cameron’s experiments were used later as torture. Naomi Klien’s grandfather-in-law sat in parliament with the husband of one of the women Ewan Cameron victimized, in fact, they were both NDP MPs, so this story is well known. Scroll down to “David Orlikow” husband of Val (Velma)Orlikow (who sought treatment for post partem depression):
http://www.gov.mb.ca/legislature/hansard/4th-36th/vol_071b/h071b_9.html
Galen says: t was only thru the efforts of his wife that he was even aknowledged to be in Syrian custody, and how he had wound up there. If not for her and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), Mr. Arar would still no doubt be being tortured.
Monia Mazigh was able to remain persistent while keeping her cool, and not many of us would have been able to do that while in her shoes. Monia credits the Liberal MP in her riding and the NDP for helping her bring her case to the forefront and keep it in the public eye. Harper, when approached by Monia concerning her husband, told her to “get a life.”
There was also this other guy (a taxi driver), forget his name, who drove a fare across the border soon after 9/11 and was picked up by the Americans. His ex-wife wanted to know what happened to him and, when the government tried to tell her that he was probably skipping out on child support, she insisted that he would never do that. The guy had no other relatives in Canada other than his ex-wife and daughter. How many of you would like to depend on an ex-spouse to get you released from rendition?
cromerovich, white rose is referring to the latest relevations by Jean Cretien in his new book that just came out. Until the book came out, what you say was the prevailing view.
You were also right about it not being a deportation. The US sort of insisted that Syria interrogate Maher Arar - they had little interest in doing so because they did not consider him a real threat.
Also, the amount Arar got was no where near 20 million, think that it was closer to 12 with Arar getting 10 and the lawyers 2.
kalia, not only can Maher Arar speak english, he can also speak french and arabic.
And not only is Maher Arar and Monia Mazigh on the terror watch list but so is his young daughter and son. The son is not even in kindergarten yet - but he is a threat to American security!
CTV.CA oct 13, 2007, In the memoirs, Chretien also talks about his decision to keep Canada out of the U.S.led invasion of Iraq. He says Washington had put tremendous pressure on him to join the coalition.
But he said the evidence that he was presented with was so flimsy, it would not have passed muster with a local magistrate, let alone an international leader considering taking his country to war.
Nothing like the moral clarity of the GOP to expose how evil the US federal government is. Ooops…sorry about the torturing..but you see…it wasn’t our fault. All we did was send you to be tortured without bothering to see if you were really a terrorist. Not our fault…blame your own government.
Geee sorry officer, I really didn’t mean to blow that guys head off. But my neighbor down the street told me he was a serial killer. How was I to know my neighbor is mentally ill?
“An error in a program does not mean that program in and of itself is a wrong program,” said Rohrabacher.
RE: “An error in a program does not mean that program in and of itself is a wrong program,”
I think Stephen Harper said something similar about scrapping Security Certificates.
This just in - Condi admits that the US mishandled the Arar case!
http://thomhartmann.org/eve/forums/a/tpc/f/4851097651/m/5891053582