Last week, upon Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s formal apology to Maher Arar and the Canadian Government’s multi-million dollar settlement of his Canadian lawsuit, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) once again questioned “why, even if there were reasons to consider [Mr. Arar] suspicious, the U.S. Government shipped him to Syria where he was tortured, instead of to Canada for investigation or prosecution. I look forward to hearing the Justice Department’s answer to that question next week.â€? So does Mr. Arar, the Syrian-born Canadian telecommunications engineer who was detained at JFK in September 2002 and rendered to Syria where he was interrogated and tortured, and detained for nearly a year.

The U.S. Government has not only been stonewalling efforts to get at the truth of what happened to Mr. Arar, but has pro-actively sought to undermine his efforts to attain justice. The United States invoked the “state secrets� privilege in an effort to derail a lawsuit brought on Mr. Arar’s behalf by the Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR) in the United States more than three years ago, claiming that the reason Mr. Arar was sent to Syria instead of Canada is a “state secret.� Upon release of the September 2006 Canadian Commission Report, which found that there was absolutely no connection between Mr. Arar and terrorism, Attorney General Alberto Gonzales denied that Mr. Arar was rendered to Syria – calling it a “deportation.� Gonzales further claimed that “we were not responsible for his removal to Syria� and that he was not aware that Mr. Arar had been tortured in Syria – claims that were later “clarified.�

The U.S. Government is continuing its campaign to harm Mr. Arar’s reputation and undermine his claims. In response to the Canadian Government’s settlement negotiations with Mr. Arar in December 2006, the United States Ambassador to Canada, David Wilkins, announced that Mr. Arar was on a U.S. government “watch list� based on information from “a variety of sources.� Canadian officials pushed for answers as to why Maher Arar is on such a list, whereupon Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff and Attorney General Gonzales showed Canada all materials in its possession regarding Mr. Arar. Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day carried out that review and stated that there is “nothing new� in the file and no reason for Mr. Arar to remain on the watch list. In response, Ambassador Wilkins stated bluntly that it was “presumptuous� for Minister Day to say who the United States should and should not admit. Canada has responded equally strongly, with Prime Minister Harper stating that he “will not drop this matter.�

As Senator Leahy further pointed out, the watch list issue is merely another attempt by the Bush administration to divert attention from the real issue: “The reason the Arar case is such a sore point and such an offense to American values is that he was sent to Syria, on the Bush administration’s orders, where he was tortured.�

For the past four years, U.S. officials have sought to put off the moment when they will have to come forward and accept responsibility for sending an innocent man to be tortured. A combination of the efforts in Congress of Senator Leahy and Representatives Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.), continued diplomatic pressure from Canada, CCR’s litigation currently pending in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals and calls for justice for Maher Arar by American citizens who, like Senator Leahy, see the extraordinary rendition program as a stain on America’s reputation, will force the day when those who conceived of and implemented the extraordinary rendition program will be held accountable – and Maher Arar will be vindicated.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 31st, 2007 at 11:21 am and is filed under Politics, Foreign Policy, Civil Rights, Homeland Security .