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Updated: 07:36 AM EDT
Innocent Man Sent to Syria and Tortured, Probe Finds
Canadian Report Faults Mounties, U.S. for Deportation
By ROB GILLIES, AP
TORONTO (Sept. 19) - The United States "very
likely" sent a Canadian software engineer to Syria, where he was
tortured, based on the false accusation by Canadian authorities that he
was suspected of links to al-Qaida, according to a new government
report.
Syrian-born Maher Arar was exonerated of all
suspicion of terrorist activity by the 2 1/2-year commission of inquiry
into his case, which urged the Canadian government to offer him
financial compensation. Arar is perhaps the world's best-known case of
extraordinary rendition -- the U.S. transfer of foreign terror suspects
to third countries without court approval.
"I am able to say categorically that there is no
evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offense or that
his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada," Justice
Dennis O'Connor said Monday in a three-volume report on the findings of
the inquiry, part of which was made public.
Arar was traveling on a Canadian passport when
he was detained at New York's Kennedy Airport on Sept. 26, 2002, on his
way home from vacation in Tunisia.
Arar said U.S. authorities sent him to Syria for interrogation as a suspected member of al-Qaida, a link he denied.
He spent nearly a year in prison in Syria and
made detailed allegations after his release in 2003 about extensive
interrogation, beatings and whippings with electrical cables.
O'Connor criticized the U.S. and recommended
that Ottawa file formal protests with both Washington and the Syrian
government over Arar's treatment.
"The American authorities who handled Mr. Arar's
case treated Mr. Arar in a most regrettable fashion," O'Connor wrote.
"They removed him to Syria against his wishes and in the face of his
statements that he would be tortured if sent there. Moreover, they
dealt with Canadian officials involved with Mr. Arar's case in a less
than forthcoming manner."
The U.S. is already under intense criticism from
human rights groups over the practice of sending suspects to countries
where they could be tortured.
U.S. and Syrian officials refused to cooperate with the Canadian inquiry.
The commission found the Royal Canadian Mounted
Police shared information about Arar with American anti-terrorist
agencies both before and after he was detained.
The RCMP asked the U.S. to put Arar on a watch
list as an "Islamic extremist individual" suspected of links to the
al-Qaida terrorist movement, the report said.
The request was issued after Arar met with
another man who was under surveillance, a meeting Arar has said was
about how to find inexpensive computer equipment.
"The RCMP had no basis for this description,
which had the potential to create serious consequences for Mr. Arar in
light of American attitudes and practices," the report said.
The RCMP described Arar as the "target" of a
domestic anti-terrorist investigation in Canada when in fact he was a
peripheral figure who had come under suspicion only because he had been
seen in the company of the man who was under surveillance, the report
found.
O'Connor said that much of the material shared
with U.S. authorities had not been double-checked to ensure its
accuracy and reliability -- a violation of the RCMP's usual rules for
divulging information to foreign agencies.
O'Connor concluded that the inaccurate
information passed by Canadian police to U.S. authorities "very likely"
led to their decision to send Arar to Syria.
"It's quite clear that the RCMP sent inaccurate
information to U.S. officials," Arar said at a news conference in
Ottawa. "I would have not have even been sent to Syria had this
information not been given to them."
"I have waited a long time to have my name
cleared. I was tortured and lost a year of my life. I will never be the
same," Arar said. "The United States must take responsibility for what
it did to me and must stop destroying more innocent lives with its
unlawful actions."
The commission concluded there was no evidence
Canadian officials participated in or agreed to the decision to send
Arar to Syria. But O'Connor recommended that in the future, information
should never be provided to a foreign country where there is a credible
risk that it will cause or contribute to the use of torture.
Most of the judge's 23 policy recommendations
centered on the RCMP and emphasized the need to improve the force's
internal policies for national security investigations and the sharing
of information with other countries.
Arar's case has been regularly featured on the
front pages of Canadian newspapers and public outcry led to the
government calling an inquiry. Canada's federal government established
the inquiry in 2004 to determine the role Canadian officials played.
O'Connor also found "troubling questions" about
the role played by Canadian officials in the cases of three other
Canadians of Arab descent -- Ahmad El Maati, Abdullah Almalki and
Muayyed Nureddin. All claim they were tortured in Syria after traveling
there on personal business, and all suspect that the RCMP, Canadian
intelligence or both collaborated with their captors.
O'Connor said he could not get to the bottom of
those cases because of the limited nature of his mandate. But he urged
the government to appoint an independent investigator -- something
short of a full-fledged public inquiry -- to look into those cases.
O'Connor sifted through thousands of pages of
documents and sat through testimony from more than 40 witnesses. He
delivered two versions of his report to the government: one classified,
the other public. But portions of even the public edition of the
long-awaited document were withheld due to security concerns.
9/19/2006 06:23:35
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