Congressmen extend first U.S. apology to Arar
In September 2002, Maher Arar was wrongfully detained in the U.S. on his way home to Canada after a vacation in Tunisia. He was deported to Syria, his country of birth, where he was imprisoned in a "grave-like" cell and tortured for 12 months. Mr. Arar returned to Canada in October 2003. A Commission of Inquiry was established on Feb. 5, 2004 and on Sept. 18, 2006, Justice Dennis O'Connor cleared Mr. Arar of all terrorism allegations. Sheldon Alberts CanWest Washington Correspondent Thursday, October 18, 2007 WASHINGTON - Republican and Democratic members of a U.S. congressional panel issued personal apologies to Maher Arar Thursday, and denounced the Bush administration for refusing to admit it erred in sending the Canadian software engineer to Syria on suspicion he had ties to terrorist groups. But even as lawmakers called on the U.S. government to compensate Arar, a pair of prominent Republican congressmen laid the blame for his ordeal at the doorstep of the Canadian government and the RCMP. "Let me personally give you what our government has not - an apology," Representative Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, told Arar during an emotional Capitol Hill hearing into the U.S. policy of extraordinary rendition. "We should be ashamed," said Representative Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican. The statements were the first direct expressions of regret to Arar by any American officials for the U.S. government's role in his deportation and subsequent torture in a Syrian jail in 2002 and 2003. Arar appeared before a joint hearing of House foreign affairs and judiciary committees via videoconference from Ottawa, because the Bush administration denied Congress's request to allow him to fly to Washington for the hearing. Cleared of any terrorist ties by a Canadian inquiry in 2006, Arar remains on U.S. terrorist watch lists - over the objections of the Canadian government. The Bush administration maintains it has information showing Arar is a security threat. But a senior member of Congress who this week viewed the classified U.S. dossier on Arar said there is no evidence he poses a risk - a view already expressed last year by Canada's public safety minister, Stockwell Day. "I saw all the classified information," said Representative Jerrold Nadler, a New York Democrat and chairman of the judiciary subcommittee on civil liberties. "There is nothing there that justifies denying you entry." The hearing marked the first chance for Arar to tell his story to U.S. lawmakers. Arar was detained by U.S. authorities at a New York airport in October 2002 and deported to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured for 10 months. A federal inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O'Connor found Canada had provided U.S. intelligence officials with information that erroneously named Arar a terrorist suspect. His case has become the most prominent example in the U.S. of the administration's policy of extraordinary rendition, the transfer, without legal process, of individuals from the U.S. to countries that allow more intense interrogation techniques. "Let me be clear: I am not a terrorist," Arar said. "I am not a member of al-Qaida or any other terrorist group." "I am a father, a husband and an engineer. I am also a victim of the immoral practice of extraordinary rendition." Arar expressed frustrations at Bush administration efforts to block his ongoing civil suit, which has prevented the public release of the U.S. Justice Department's security file on him. "This has the effect of a smear campaign on my already-damaged reputation," Arar said. The administration's continued insistence that Arar is a terrorist threat is a sign of its "arrogance" in the case, said Rohrabacher, a conservative Republican and staunch supporter of White House anti-terrorist policies. "Not letting you come here adds insult to injury," he said. But while Rohrabacher and another senior Republican, Representative Trent Franks of Arizona, expressed sympathy for Arar's plight, they contended his case was an isolated incident. "The story of Mr. Arar will be shown to be not a failure of U.S. rendition policy," said Franks, "but instead an anomalous failure in this particular circumstance, caused by false intelligence information from Canada." Rohrabacher defended the use of severe interrogation practices, such as waterboarding, on terrorist detainees. He said the practice, which simulates drowning and was banned by Congress in the Detainee Treatment Act of 2005, had been successfully used against Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, al-Qaida's operational commander for the 9-11 attacks. "The primary injustice that was done to you is that our government made a mistake and refuses to own up to it," said Rohrabacher. "They did not do a proper professional job." But he also stressed that the Canadians, who provided the information, "did not do a professional job." But Nadler shot back that Canada had at least accepted its culpability in the Arar case. The federal government apologized and awarded Arar a $10.5 million settlement earlier this year. "The reality is that the Canadians have owned up. It's not on the Canadians," said Nadler. Arar is currently pursuing a PhD in wireless engineering. © CanWest News Service 2007
