Maher Arar
Encyclopedia
Maher Arar (born 1970) is a telecommunications engineer with dual Syria
Syria
Syria , officially the Syrian Arab Republic , is a country in Western Asia, bordering Lebanon and the Mediterranean Sea to the West, Turkey to the north, Iraq to the east, Jordan to the south, and Israel to the southwest....

n and Canadian citizenship who resides in Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. Arar's story is frequently referred to as "extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition
Extraordinary rendition is the abduction and illegal transfer of a person from one nation to another. "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States and the United Kingdom have transferred suspected terrorists to other countries in order to torture the...

" but the U.S. government insisted it was a case of deportation
Deportation
Deportation means the expulsion of a person or group of people from a place or country. Today it often refers to the expulsion of foreign nationals whereas the expulsion of nationals is called banishment, exile, or penal transportation...

.

Arar was detained during a layover at John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport
John F. Kennedy International Airport is an international airport located in the borough of Queens in New York City, about southeast of Lower Manhattan. It is the busiest international air passenger gateway to the United States, handling more international traffic than any other airport in North...

 in September 2002 on his way home to Canada from a family vacation in Tunis
Tunis
Tunis is the capital of both the Tunisian Republic and the Tunis Governorate. It is Tunisia's largest city, with a population of 728,453 as of 2004; the greater metropolitan area holds some 2,412,500 inhabitants....

. He was held without charges in solitary confinement
Solitary confinement
Solitary confinement is a special form of imprisonment in which a prisoner is isolated from any human contact, though often with the exception of members of prison staff. It is sometimes employed as a form of punishment beyond incarceration for a prisoner, and has been cited as an additional...

 in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 for nearly two weeks, questioned, and denied meaningful access to a lawyer. The US government suspected him of being a member of Al Qaeda and deported him, not to Canada, his current home, but to his native Syria, even though its government is known to use torture. He was detained in Syria for almost a year, during which time he was tortured, according to the findings of a commission of inquiry ordered by the Canadian government
Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar
The Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar was a public inquiry investigating the rendition and torture of Maher Arar released on September 18, 2006. The findings of this Commission are part of Report on the events Related to Maher Arar, also known...

, until his release to Canada. That commission publicly cleared Arar of any links to terrorism, and the government of Canada later settled out of court with Arar and awarded him a C$
Canadian dollar
The Canadian dollar is the currency of Canada. As of 2007, the Canadian dollar is the 7th most traded currency in the world. It is abbreviated with the dollar sign $, or C$ to distinguish it from other dollar-denominated currencies...

10.5 million settlement. The Syrian government now says that Arar is "completely innocent."

Despite the Canadian court ruling, the United States government has not exonerated Arar and, on the contrary, has made public statements to state their belief that Arar is affiliated with members of organizations they describe as terrorist. As of February 2009, Arar and his family remain on a watchlist
Watchlist
Watchlist or watch list can have several meanings:*Interpol Terrorism Watch List, a 24 hour, 7 days a week command center and a linkage system to identify terrorist financing lists...

. His US lawyers at the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

 are currently pursuing his case, Arar v. Ashcroft
Arar v. Ashcroft
Arar v. Ashcroft, 414 F.Supp.2d 250 , was a lawsuit brought by Maher Arar against the United States and various U.S. officials pursuant to the Torture Victim Protection Act , , and the Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of...

, which seeks compensatory damages
Damages
In law, damages is an award, typically of money, to be paid to a person as compensation for loss or injury; grammatically, it is a singular noun, not plural.- Compensatory damages :...

 on Arar’s behalf and also a declaration that the actions of the US government were illegal and violated his constitutional, civil, and international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

.

Early life

Maher Arar was born in Syria and moved to Canada with his parents at the age of 17 in 1987 to avoid mandatory military service
Conscription
Conscription is the compulsory enlistment of people in some sort of national service, most often military service. Conscription dates back to antiquity and continues in some countries to the present day under various names...

. In 1991, Arar became a Canadian citizen
Canadian nationality law
Canadian citizenship is typically obtained by birth in Canada, birth abroad when at least one parent is a Canadian citizen and was born or naturalized in Canada, or by adoption abroad by at least one Canadian citizen. It can also be granted to a permanent resident who lives in Canada for three out...

.

Arar earned a bachelor's degree in computer engineering
Computer engineering
Computer engineering, also called computer systems engineering, is a discipline that integrates several fields of electrical engineering and computer science required to develop computer systems. Computer engineers usually have training in electronic engineering, software design, and...

 from McGill University
McGill University
Mohammed Fathy is a public research university located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The university bears the name of James McGill, a prominent Montreal merchant from Glasgow, Scotland, whose bequest formed the beginning of the university...

 and a master's degree in telecommunications from the Institut National de la Recherche Scientifique
Institut national de la recherche scientifique
The Institut national de la recherche scientifique is the research-oriented branch of Université du Québec which only offer graduate studies...

 (a branch of the Université du Québec
Université du Québec
The University of Quebec is a system of ten provincially-run public universities in Quebec, Canada. Its headquarters are in Quebec City. The university coordinates university programs for more than 87,000 students. It offers more than 300 programs...

) in Montreal. While studying at McGill University, Arar met Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh is a Canadian academic best known for her efforts to free her husband Maher Arar from a Syrian prison. A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she was the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Ottawa South, a traditionally Liberal riding, in the 2004 federal election.She was born...

. Arar and Mazigh married in 1994. Ms. Mazigh has a Ph.D.
Doctor of Philosophy
Doctor of Philosophy, abbreviated as Ph.D., PhD, D.Phil., or DPhil , in English-speaking countries, is a postgraduate academic degree awarded by universities...

 in finance
Finance
"Finance" is often defined simply as the management of money or “funds” management Modern finance, however, is a family of business activity that includes the origination, marketing, and management of cash and money surrogates through a variety of capital accounts, instruments, and markets created...

 from McGill. They have two young children: Barâa and Houd.

In December 1997, Arar moved with his family to Ottawa from Montreal and listed Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki is a Syrian-Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat....

 as his "emergency contact" with his landlord. In 1999, he moved again to Boston to work for MathWorks, a job that required a considerable amount of travel within the United States. In 2001, Arar returned to Ottawa to start his own consulting company, Simcomms Inc. At the time of his rendition, Arar was employed in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer.

Royal Canadian Mounted Police Project A-O Canada and connection with Arar's rendition

On September 22, 2001, Jack Hooper
Jack Hooper
Jack Hooper is the former deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who became well known mainly for his role in some of Canada’s most sensitive and controversial spy-service scandals, including CSIS’s involvement in the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer father of two...

, the director general of the Toronto region of Canadian Security Intelligence Service
Canadian Security Intelligence Service
The Canadian Security Intelligence Service is Canada's national intelligence service. It is responsible for collecting, analyzing, reporting and disseminating intelligence on threats to Canada's national security, and conducting operations, covert and overt, within Canada and abroad.Its...

 (CSIS), chaired a meeting of members of CSIS, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Royal Canadian Mounted Police
The Royal Canadian Mounted Police , literally ‘Royal Gendarmerie of Canada’; colloquially known as The Mounties, and internally as ‘The Force’) is the national police force of Canada, and one of the most recognized of its kind in the world. It is unique in the world as a national, federal,...

 (RCMP) and the Ontario Provincial Police
Ontario Provincial Police
The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...

, Toronto Police Force, and Peel Regional Police
Peel Regional Police
Peel Regional Police provides police services for Peel Region in Ontario, Canada. It is the second largest municipal police service in Ontario after the Toronto Police Service and third largest municipal force in Canada with 1,900 uniformed members and close to 800 support staff.Peel Region...

 Force. On September 24, 2001, the RCMP's "O" Division in Toronto created a joint force investigative team called Project O Canada
Project O Canada
Founded in 2001, Project O Canada was a Toronto-based anti-terrorism investigation by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Created in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks, subdivisions of the project named A-O Canada and C-O Canada were based in Ottawa and Montreal, RCMP Divisions A and C...

 to handle national security investigations. The Toronto team included RCMP investigators and members of the Ontario, Peel, and Toronto police forces.

On October, 2001, Inspector Garry Clement, officer of the RCMP "A" Division in Ottawa, told RCMP Inspector Michel Cabana that Toronto's Project O Canada needed a team in Ottawa to help with its investigations of an Ottawa man named Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki is a Syrian-Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat....

. In response, Project A-O Canada was created. Garry Clement told Michel Cabana that the team would be working closely with the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 and the Central Intelligence Agency
Central Intelligence Agency
The Central Intelligence Agency is a civilian intelligence agency of the United States government. It is an executive agency and reports directly to the Director of National Intelligence, responsible for providing national security intelligence assessment to senior United States policymakers...

 (CIA). Later on, the Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar
Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar
The Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar was a public inquiry investigating the rendition and torture of Maher Arar released on September 18, 2006. The findings of this Commission are part of Report on the events Related to Maher Arar, also known...

 revealed that there were no clear directions to RCMP officers regarding how to share information with the FBI and the CIA. Richard Proulx - RCMP Officer and then Assistant RCMP commissioner, was the official singled out in the report for failing to provide these clear directions.

The A-O Canada team included investigators and members from: the RCMP commercial crimes unit, "A" Divisions IPOC unit; the RCMP National Security Investigations Branch (NSIS), CSIS, the Ottawa Police, Gatineau Police, Hull
Hull, Quebec
Hull is the central and oldest part of the city of Gatineau, Quebec, Canada. It is located on the west bank of the Gatineau River and the north shore of the Ottawa River, directly opposite Ottawa. As part of the Canadian National Capital Region, it contains offices for twenty thousand...

 Police and Ontario Provincial Police
Ontario Provincial Police
The Ontario Provincial Police is the Provincial Police service for the province of Ontario, Canada.-Overview:The OPP is the the largest deployed police force in Ontario, and the second largest in Canada. The service is responsible for providing policing services throughout the province in areas...

; the Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec
Sûreté du Québec or SQ is the provincial police force for the Canadian province of Québec...

; the Canada Border Services Agency
Canada Border Services Agency
The Canada Border Services Agency is a federal law enforcement agency that is responsible for border enforcement, immigration enforcement and customs services....

; and the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency
Canada Customs and Revenue Agency was a department of the government of Canada and existed from November 1, 1999 until December 12, 2003. It was created from the merging of the Department of National Revenue with Canada Customs....

, and the support of lawyers from the Canadian Justice Department
Department of Justice (Canada)
The purpose of the Department of Justice is to ensure that the Canadian justice system is fair, accessible and efficient. The Department also represents the Canadian government in legal matters...

.

After he had moved back to Ottawa, Arar had a meeting with Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki is a Syrian-Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat....

 on October 12, 2001. Almalki, an Ottawa engineer, was also born in Syria and had moved to Canada in the same year as Arar. They met at the Mango Café, a popular shawarma
Shawarma
Shawarma is a Levantine Arab sandwich-like wrap of shaved lamb, goat, chicken, turkey, beef, or mixed meats. The meat is placed on a spit, and may be grilled for as long as a day. It is eaten with pita bread, tabbouleh, fattoush, taboon bread, tomato and cucumber. Toppings include tahini, hummus,...

 restaurant in a strip mall and talked about doctors and bought a print cartridge together.

At the time their movements were under close scrutiny by teams of Project A-O Canada. Before Project A-O Canada was created, CSIS had been monitoring Almalki at least since 1998 with respect to his relationship with Ahmed Khadr, an Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...

ian-born Canadian and alleged senior associate of Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Laden
Osama bin Mohammed bin Awad bin Laden was the founder of the militant Islamist organization Al-Qaeda, the jihadist organization responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets...

. CSIS was also concerned with Almalki's electronic components export business that he operated with his wife. Almalki, however, was purely a person of interest
Person of interest
"Person of interest" is a phrase used by law enforcement when announcing the name of someone involved in a criminal investigation who has not been arrested or formally accused of a crime. The phrase was adopted by the media and widely disseminated, thus most law enforcement agencies have picked up...

 and was not, in fact, the target of the investigation. Nonetheless, Almalki's meeting with Arar appears to have prompted a wider investigation, with Arar also becoming a "person of interest."

While testifying at the Guantanamo military commission
Guantanamo military commission
The Guantanamo military commissions are military tribunals created by the Military Commissions Act of 2006 for prosecuting detainees held in the United States Guantanamo Bay detainment camps.- History :...

 for accused terrorist Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr
Omar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...

, FBI agent Robert Fuller
Robert Fuller (FBI)
Robert Fuller is an agent with the Federal Bureau of Investigation who has worked in counter-terrorism. He has questioned suspected terrorists, been a handler of informants in the U.S., and testified in both federal court and Guantanamo military commission trials.-September 11 attacks:The 9/11...

 testified that Khadr had identified Maher Arar as among the al-Qaeda militants he met while in Afghanistan. On October 7, 2002, Mr. Fuller went to Bagram Air Base
Bagram Air Base
Bagram Airfield, also referred to as Bagram Air Base, is a militarized airport and housing complex that is located next to the ancient city of Bagram, southeast of Charikar in Parwan province of Afghanistan. The base is run by a US Army division headed by a major general. A large part of the base,...

 in Afghanistan
Afghanistan
Afghanistan , officially the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located in the centre of Asia, forming South Asia, Central Asia and the Middle East. With a population of about 29 million, it has an area of , making it the 42nd most populous and 41st largest nation in the world...

 and showed Canadian teenager Omar Khadr
Omar Khadr
Omar Ahmed Khadr is a Canadian child soldier and one of the juveniles held at the Guantanamo Bay detention camp. He was convicted of five charges under the United States Military Commissions Act of 2009 including murder in violation of the law of war and providing material support for terrorism,...

 a black-and-white photograph of Arar obtained from the FBI office in Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...

, and demanded to know if he recognised him. Khadr initially stated that he did not recognise Arar. Upon cross-examination, Mr. Fuller clarified his testimony saying that at first Mr. Khadr could not identify Mr. Arar. Then after giving him a couple minutes Khadr "stated he felt he had seen" Maher Arar at a Kabul
Kabul
Kabul , spelt Caubul in some classic literatures, is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. It is also the capital of the Kabul Province, located in the eastern section of Afghanistan...

 safehouse run by Abu Musab al-Suri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi
Abu Musab al-Zarqawi ; October 30, 1966 – June 7, 2006), born Ahmad Fadeel al-Nazal al-Khalayleh was a Jordanian militant Islamist who ran a paramilitary training camp in Afghanistan...

. The validity of Omar Khadr's possible sighting has been seriously questioned due to the time frame of the alleged sighting which was sometime during September or October 2001. Mr. Arar was known to be in North America during this time frame and under surveillance by the RCMP. Khadr's lawyer told Canadian media that Khadr, claiming to be under torture at Bagram Theater Internment Facility
Bagram Theater Internment Facility
The Parwan Detention Facility , also called the Bagram Theater Internment Facility, is a United States-run prison located next to Bagram Airfield in the Parwan Province of Afghanistan.It was formerly known as the Bagram Collection Point...

, simply told his captors whatever he thought they wanted to hear. Lawyers and advocates familiar with the case immediately dismissed the allegations.

Information gathered from the United States interrogation of Omar Khadr conflicts with the information gathered previously from the RCMP. Mr. Michael Edelson stated in public testimony given during the Arar Inquiry that RCMP officials from Project AO Canada had shown pictures of Mr. Arar to Mr. Khadr in either July or August 2002 and that Mr. Khadr denied ever seeing Maher Arar.

Within a sworn affidavit, Mr. Khadr stated he was visited by three individuals claiming to be Canadians at Guantanamo Bay in March 2003. During their three day visit, he was shown "approximately 20 pictures of various people" and asked about several people "such as my father and Arar". At which time he told them "what [he] knew".

Arrested in 2002, Arward Al-Bousha gave up the name of Arar as a possible militant, after he himself had been fingered in a confession given by Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki is a Syrian-Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat....

 allegedly to stop his own torture.

Arar's rendition

On September 26, 2002, during a stopover in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

 en route from a family vacation in Tunisia to Montreal, Arar was detained by the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS). The INS was acting upon information supplied by the RCMP. When it became clear he was going to be deported, Arar requested he be deported to Canada; though he had not visited Syria since his move to Canada, he retained Syrian citizenship as Syria does not permit the renunciation of citizenship. Canadian (initially) and United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 officials have labelled his transfer to Syria as a deportation, but critics have called the removal an example of rendition
Rendition (law)
In law, rendition is a "surrender" or "handing over" of persons or property, particularly from one jurisdiction to another. For criminal suspects, extradition is the most common type of rendition. Rendition can also be seen as the act of handing over, after the request for extradition has taken...

 for torture by proxy, as the Syrian government is infamous for its torture
Torture
Torture is the act of inflicting severe pain as a means of punishment, revenge, forcing information or a confession, or simply as an act of cruelty. Throughout history, torture has often been used as a method of political re-education, interrogation, punishment, and coercion...

 of detainees. Despite the recent public rhetoric, at the time of Arar's deportation, Syria was working closely with the United States government in their "War on Terror
War on Terror
The War on Terror is a term commonly applied to an international military campaign led by the United States and the United Kingdom with the support of other North Atlantic Treaty Organisation as well as non-NATO countries...

". In November 2003, Cofer Black
Cofer Black
Joseph Cofer Black is an American counter-terrorism expert and consultant. He had a 28-year career in the Directorate of Operations at the Central Intelligence Agency, culminating in his appointment as Director of the CIA's Counterterrorist Center in June 1999...

, then counterterrorism coordinator at the US State Department and former director of counterterrorism at the CIA, was quoted as saying "The Syrian government has provided some very useful assistance on al Qaeda in the past." In September 2002, the George W. Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...

 opposed the enactment of the "Syria Accountability Act" citing effectiveness of current sanctions and the ongoing diplomacy in the region. In addition, the administration noted the cooperation and support by Syria in fighting al-Qaida as a reason for its opposition to the "Syria Accountability Act".

US interrogation

US officials repeatedly questioned Arar about his connection to certain members of al-Qaeda. His interrogators also claimed that Arar was an associate of Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki
Abdullah Almalki is a Syrian-Canadian engineer who was imprisoned and tortured for two years in a Syrian jail after Canadian officials falsely indicated to the Syrian authorities and other countries that he was a terrorist threat....

, the Syrian-born Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

 man whom they suspected of having links to al-Qaeda, and they therefore suspected Arar of being an al-Qaeda member himself. When Arar protested that he only had a casual relationship with Almalki, having once worked with Almalki's brother at an Ottawa high-tech firm, the officials produced a copy of Arar's 1997 rental lease which Almalki had co-signed. The fact that US officials had a Canadian document in their possession was later widely interpreted as evidence of the participation by Canadian authorities in Arar's detention.

Arar's requests for a lawyer were dismissed on the basis that he was not a US citizen
United States nationality law
Article I, section 8, clause 4 of the United States Constitution expressly gives the United States Congress the power to establish a uniform rule of naturalization. The Immigration and Naturalization Act sets forth the legal requirements for the acquisition of, and divestiture from, citizenship of...

, therefore he did not have the right to receive counsel. Despite his denials, he remained in US custody for two weeks and eventually was put on a small jet which first landed in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....

 and then in Amman
Amman
Amman is the capital of Jordan. It is the country's political, cultural and commercial centre and one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world. The Greater Amman area has a population of 2,842,629 as of 2010. The population of Amman is expected to jump from 2.8 million to almost...

, Jordan
Jordan
Jordan , officially the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan , Al-Mamlaka al-Urduniyya al-Hashemiyya) is a kingdom on the East Bank of the River Jordan. The country borders Saudi Arabia to the east and south-east, Iraq to the north-east, Syria to the north and the West Bank and Israel to the west, sharing...

.

Arar's imprisonment in Syria

Once in Amman, Arar claims he was blindfolded, shackled and put in a van. “They made me bend my head down in the back seat,” Mr. Arar recalled. “Then these men started beating me. Every time I tried to talk, they beat me."

Arar was transferred to a prison, where he claims he was beaten for several hours and forced to falsely confess that he had attended an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. “I was willing to do anything to stop the torture,” he says.

Arar described his cell as a three-foot by six-foot “grave” with no light and plenty of rats. During the more than 10 months he was imprisoned and held in solitary confinement, he was beaten regularly with shredded cables. Through the walls of his cell, Mr. Arar could hear the screams of other prisoners who were also being tortured. The Syrian government shared the results of its investigation with the United States. Arar believes that his torturers were given a dossier of specific questions by United States interrogators, noting that he was asked identical questions both in the United States and in Syria.

While he had been imprisoned, Arar's wife Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh
Monia Mazigh is a Canadian academic best known for her efforts to free her husband Maher Arar from a Syrian prison. A resident of Ottawa, Ontario, she was the New Democratic Party candidate for the riding of Ottawa South, a traditionally Liberal riding, in the 2004 federal election.She was born...

 had been conducting an active campaign in Canada to secure his release. Upon his release in October 2003, Syria announced they could find no terrorist links. Syrian official Imad Moustapha stated that "We tried to find anything. We couldn’t". Syrian authorities also deny that they tortured Arar.

Arar's return to Canada

Arar was released on October 5, 2003, 374 days after his removal to Syria. He returned to Canada, reuniting with his wife and children.

The couple moved to Kamloops, in British Columbia
British Columbia
British Columbia is the westernmost of Canada's provinces and is known for its natural beauty, as reflected in its Latin motto, Splendor sine occasu . Its name was chosen by Queen Victoria in 1858...

, where his wife Monia accepted a job as professor at Thompson Rivers University
Thompson Rivers University
Thompson Rivers University is a comprehensive university located in Kamloops, British Columbia, Canada. It offers students a broad range of courses, career streams, and the ability to ladder credits from diploma programs into full degrees...

. The couple later moved back to Ottawa
Ottawa
Ottawa is the capital of Canada, the second largest city in the Province of Ontario, and the fourth largest city in the country. The city is located on the south bank of the Ottawa River in the eastern portion of Southern Ontario...

.

Back in Canada, Arar claimed that he had been tortured in Syria and sought to clear his name, embarking on legal challenges both in Canada and in the United States as well as a public education campaign.

Arar received a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the University of Ottawa
University of Ottawa
The University of Ottawa is a bilingual, research-intensive, non-denominational, international university in Ottawa, Ontario. It is one of the oldest universities in Canada. It was originally established as the College of Bytown in 1848 by the Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate...

 in 2010.

Canadian government response

The rendition of Maher Arar has received much attention and scrutiny in Canada, both in the media and in the government.

Initial media controversy

Arar's case reached new heights of controversy after reporter Juliet O'Neill
Juliet O'Neill
Juliet O'Neill is a Canadian journalist who was the subject of controversy when the Royal Canadian Mounted Police raided her house, in an attempt to find the source of an alleged internal leak giving her access to privileged documents related to the Maher Arar case.In 1996 O'Neill was awarded a...

 wrote an article in the Ottawa Citizen
Ottawa Citizen
The Ottawa Citizen is an English-language daily newspaper owned by Postmedia Network in Ottawa, Canada. According to the Canadian Newspaper Association, the paper had a 2008 weekly circulation of 900,197.- History :...

on November 8, 2003, containing information leaked to her from an unknown security source, possibly within the RCMP. The secret documents provided by her source suggested Arar was a trained member of an al-Qaeda terrorist cell. The RCMP later raided O'Neill's house pursuant to a sealed search warrant
Search warrant
A search warrant is a court order issued by a Magistrate, judge or Supreme Court Official that authorizes law enforcement officers to conduct a search of a person or location for evidence of a crime and to confiscate evidence if it is found....

s it had obtained to investigate the leak. The raid was widely denounced in the media.

In November 2004, Ontario Superior Court Judge Lynn Ratushny ruled that the sealing of the search warrants was unacceptable, although Justice of the Peace
Justice of the Peace
A justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...

 Richard Sculthorpe had given approval after the RCMP invoked the Security of Information Act
Security of Information Act
In Canada, the Security of Information Act is part of the Canadian Anti-Terrorism Act which received Royal Assent on December 18, 2001 and came into effect on December 24, 2001. This Act renamed and replaced Official Secrets Act 1981...

. Justice Ratushny stated that the sealing of the search violated guarantees of a free press
Freedom of the press
Freedom of the press or freedom of the media is the freedom of communication and expression through vehicles including various electronic media and published materials...

, freedom of expression and the public's right to an open court system. She ordered that a redact
Redact
Redact may refer to:* Redacted, a 2007 film* Redaction, a form of editing in which multiple sources are combined and subjected to minor alteration to create a definitive and coherent work...

ed copy be released to the public. All materials that were seized were subsequently ordered returned to O'Neill after Ontario Superior Court Judge Ratushny struck down Section 4 of the Security of Information Act, ruling that it was "unconstitutionally vague" and broad and an infringement of freedom of expression. In May 2008, the RCMP closed the investigation, labeled Operation Soya, without concluding who leaked the false information.

Garvie Report

On September 25, 2004, the results of an internal RCMP investigation by RCMP Chief Superintendent Brian Garvie were published. Though the version released to the public was censored, the Garvie Report documented several instances of impropriety by the RCMP in the Arar case. Among its revelations were that the RCMP was responsible for giving American authorities sensitive information on Arar with no attached provisos about how this information might be used. Also, Richard Roy, the RCMP liaison officer with the Department of Foreign Affairs, may have known of the plan of removing Arar to Syria but did not contact his supervisors. Additionally, Deputy RCMP Commissioner
Commissioner of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police
Commissioner is the highest rank of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police , and of its predecessor agencies, the North-West Mounted Police and the Royal Northwest Mounted Police . The Commissioner reports directly to the Minister of Public Safety.The Commissioner of RCMP is the Principal Commander of...

 Garry Loeppky lobbied hard, in the spring of 2003, to convince his government (then led by Liberal
Liberal Party of Canada
The Liberal Party of Canada , colloquially known as the Grits, is the oldest federally registered party in Canada. In the conventional political spectrum, the party sits between the centre and the centre-left. Historically the Liberal Party has positioned itself to the left of the Conservative...

 Prime Minister Jean Chrétien
Jean Chrétien
Joseph Jacques Jean Chrétien , known commonly as Jean Chrétien is a former Canadian politician who was the 20th Prime Minister of Canada. He served in the position for over ten years, from November 4, 1993 to December 12, 2003....

) not to claim in a letter to Syria, that it "had no evidence Arar was involved in any terrorist activities" because Arar "remained a person of great interest."

In response to the Garvie Report, Arar said that the report was "just the starting point to find out the truth about what happened to me" and that it "exposes the fact that the government was misleading the public when they said Canada had nothing to do with sending me to Syria."

Canadian Commission of Inquiry

On February 5, 2004, the Canadian government established the "Commission of Inquiry into the Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Maher Arar" to investigate and report on the actions of Canadian officials. The United States refused to participate in the inquiry and, until January 2007, refused to share its own evidence with Canadian officials.

On June 14, 2005, Franco Pillarella
Franco Pillarella
Franco D. Pillarella is a Canadian career diplomat and the current Canadian ambassador to Romania, Bulgaria, and Moldova. He is currently famous chiefly for his testimony into the deportation and imprisonment of Maher Arar, which occurred during his tenure as Canadian ambassador to Syria.- Early...

, Canadian ambassador to Syria at the time of Arar's removal, said that at the time he had no reason to believe Arar had been badly treated, and in general had no reason to conclusively believe that Syria engaged in routine torture. These statements prompted widespread incredulity in the Canadian media, and a former Canadian UN ambassador responded to Pillarella asserting that Syria's human rights abuses were well known and well documented by many sources.

On September 14, 2005, the O'Connor commission concluded public hearings after testimony from 85 witnesses. Maher Arar did not testify before the commission. The U.S. ambassador at the time of the incident, Paul Cellucci
Paul Cellucci
Argeo Paul Cellucci is an American politician and diplomat who served as the 69th Governor of Massachusetts and US Ambassador to Canada.-Early life and career:...

, refused to testify.

On October 27, 2005, Professor Stephen Toope
Stephen Toope
Stephen J. Toope, is the President and Vice-Chancellor of the University of British Columbia. He assumed the presidential post on July 1, 2006 for a term of five years...

, a fact-finder appointed by the Arar inquiry released a report saying that he believed Arar was tortured in Syria. He said that Arar had recovered well physically but was still suffering from psychological problems caused by his mistreatment, as well as anxiety caused by the Commission of Inquiry process itself.

On September 18, 2006, the Canadian Commission of Inquiry, led by Dennis O'Connor
Dennis O'Connor (judge)
Dennis R. O'Connor is the current Associate Chief Justice of Ontario and sits on the Court of Appeal for Ontario.O'Connor attended Osgoode Hall Law School of York University in Toronto. He practised law from 1973 until 1976. From 1976 to 1980 he became a teacher at the University of Western Ontario...

, Associate Chief Justice of Ontario, issued its report. The final report exonerates Arar and categorically states that there is no evidence linking Arar to terrorist activity, stating “there is no evidence to indicate that Mr. Arar has committed any offence or that his activities constitute a threat to the security of Canada.” The Commission also found no evidence that Canadian officials acquiesced in the U.S. decision to detain and remove Mr. Arar to Syria, but that it is very likely that the U.S. relied on inaccurate and unfair information about Mr. Arar that was provided by Canadian officials. The report also confirms that he was tortured while in Syria. O'Connor cleared Arar of terrorism allegations, and found the actions of Canadian officials likely led to his being deported by U.S. authorities to Syria

On August 9, 2007, an addendum to the final report containing previously undisclosed portions was released. The final report was released with certain portions blacked out for reasons of national security by the Canadian government. Under the rules for the Inquiry, the decision to release the remaining portions of the final report were to be decided within the Canadian courts. In July 2007, the Federal Court ruled that portions of the previously removed text could be released.

Canadian government apology and settlement

On January 26, 2007, after months of negotiations between the Canadian government and Arar's Canadian legal counsel
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...

, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a formal apology to Arar on behalf of the Canadian government and announced that Arar would receive C$10.5 million settlement for his ordeal and an additional one million for legal costs
Law of costs
Costs is a term of art in civil litigation in English law , and in other Commonwealth jurisdictions. After judgment has been given, the judge has the power to order who will pay the lawyers' fees and other disbursements of the parties...

.

On January 26, 2007, Harper released a copy of a letter sent to Arar, apologizing "for any role Canadian officials may have played in what happened to Mr. Arar, Monia Mazigh and their family in 2002 and 2003."

RCMP apology

On September 28, 2006, RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli, COM is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who was the Commissioner of the RCMP from 2 September 2000 to 15 December 2006. Zaccardelli's departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the Maher Arar Affair...

 issued a carefully worded public apology to Arar and his family during the House of Commons committee on public safety and national security:
Mr. Arar, I wish to take this opportunity to express publicly to you and to your wife and to your children how truly sorry I am for whatever part the actions of the RCMP may have contributed to the terrible injustices that you experienced and the pain that you and your family endured.


Arar thanked Commissioner Zaccardelli for his apology but lamented the lack of concrete disciplinary action against those individuals whose actions led to his detention and subsequent torture. Zaccardelli later resigned as RCMP commissioner because of this case.

Aftermath

In Canada, Arar's ordeal has raised numerous questions that have yet to be answered. Canadian authorities have been unable to discover who leaked sensitive government documents to O'Neill. Those who were involved in the case in the RCMP have not been reprimanded by the government for their mistakes. In fact, several have received promotions.

As of December 2006, the only person held accountable in Canada has been RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli, who actually resigned over contradictions in his testimony to the House of Commons Committee on Public Safety and National Security. The contradictions were with respect to what he knew at the time and what he told government ministers.

Several Conservative party members, including Canadian Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day and Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, apparently assumed Arar's guilt, labeling him a terrorist. Other commentators have suggested that the settlement reached by the Harper government was designed to embarrass the Liberals, on whose watch Arar was allegedly deported and tortured.

Arar's attempts for legal redress

Maher Arar on return to Canada brought lawsuits against Syria, Canada, the United States and Jordan.

Syria and Jordan lawsuits

Arar attempted to sue both the Syrian government and the Jordanian government in Canadian courts but both cases were dismissed on the basis that the Canadian courts had no jurisdiction.

United States lawsuit

In January 2004, Arar announced that he would be suing then-Attorney General of the United States John Ashcroft
John Ashcroft
John David Ashcroft is a United States politician who served as the 79th United States Attorney General, from 2001 until 2005, appointed by President George W. Bush. Ashcroft previously served as the 50th Governor of Missouri and a U.S...

 over his treatment.

The Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

 brought the suit Arar v. Ashcroft against former Attorney General John Ashcroft, FBI Director
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

 Robert Mueller
Robert Mueller
Robert Swan Mueller III is the 6th and current Director of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation .-Early life:...

, and then-Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge
Tom Ridge
Thomas Joseph "Tom" Ridge is an American politician who served as a member of the United States House of Representatives , the 43rd Governor of Pennsylvania , Assistant to the President for Homeland Security , and the first United States Secretary of Homeland Security...

, as well as numerous U.S. immigration officials. It charges the defendants violated Arar's constitutional right to due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...

; his right to choose a country of removal other than one in which he would be tortured, as guaranteed under the Torture Victims Protection Act; and his rights under international law.

The suit charges that Arar's Fifth Amendment
Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution
The Fifth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which is part of the Bill of Rights, protects against abuse of government authority in a legal procedure. Its guarantees stem from English common law which traces back to the Magna Carta in 1215...

 due process
Due process
Due process is the legal code that the state must venerate all of the legal rights that are owed to a person under the principle. Due process balances the power of the state law of the land and thus protects individual persons from it...

 rights were violated when he was confined without access to an attorney or the court system, both domestically before being rendered, and while detained by the Syrian government, whose actions were complicit with the US. Additionally, the Attorney General and INS officials who carried out his deportation also likely violated his right to due process by recklessly subjecting him to torture at the hands of a foreign government that they had every reason to believe would carry out abusive interrogation.

Further, Arar filed a claim under the Torture Victims Protection Act, adopted by the United States Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....

 in 1992, which allows a victim of torture by an individual of a foreign government to bring suit against that actor in a US court. Arar's claim under the Act against Ashcroft and the INS directors is based upon their complicity in bringing about the torture he suffered. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York
The United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York is the federal district court whose jurisdiction comprises the entirety of Long Island and Staten Island...

.

In the case, Arar is seeking compensatory and punitive damages
Punitive damages
Punitive damages or exemplary damages are damages intended to reform or deter the defendant and others from engaging in conduct similar to that which formed the basis of the lawsuit...

 and a declaration that the actions of the US government were illegal and violated his constitutional, civil, and international human rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

.

A year after the case was filed, the US government invoked the rarely-used “State Secrets Privilege
State Secrets Privilege
The state secrets privilege is an evidentiary rule created by United States legal precedent. Application of the privilege results in exclusion of evidence from a legal case based solely on affidavits submitted by the government stating that court proceedings might disclose sensitive information...

” in a motion to dismiss
Motion (legal)
In law, a motion is a procedural device to bring a limited, contested issue before a court for decision. A motion may be thought of as a request to the judge to make a decision about the case. Motions may be made at any point in administrative, criminal or civil proceedings, although that right is...

 the suit. The government claimed that to go forward in an open court would jeopardize the United States' intelligence, foreign policy, and national security interests. Specifically, the government's invocation of the state secrets privilege asserted that disclosure of “the basis for the rejection of plaintiff’s designation of Canada as the country to which plaintiff wished to be removed”, “the basis for the decision to exclude plaintiff from this country”, and “the considerations involved in the decision to remove him to Syria” would damage national security interests.

On February 16, 2006, Brooklyn
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...

 District Court Judge David Trager dismissed Arar's lawsuit against members of the George W. Bush administration
George W. Bush administration
The presidency of George W. Bush began on January 20, 2001, when he was inaugurated as the 43rd President of the United States of America. The oldest son of former president George H. W. Bush, George W...

, basing his decision on national security grounds.

CCR attorneys appealed the case to the Second Circuit
United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit is one of the thirteen United States Courts of Appeals...

 Court of Appeals which subsequently upheld the dismissal.

On August 13, 2008, reports appeared in the press that the US Court of Appeals Second Circuit had agreed to rehear the case, "en banc
En banc
En banc, in banc, in banco or in bank is a French term used to refer to the hearing of a legal case where all judges of a court will hear the case , rather than a panel of them. It is often used for unusually complex cases or cases considered to be of greater importance...

". On December 9, 2008, oral arguments were heard by the entire twelve member appeals court. In a 7-4 decision dated November 2, 2009, the 2nd Circuit United States Court of Appeals upheld the ruling by the district court. In dismissing Arar's claim, Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs wrote "Our ruling does not preclude judicial review and oversight in this context. But if a civil remedy in damages is to be created for harms suffered in the context of extraordinary rendition, it must be created by Congress, which alone has the institutional competence to set parameters, delineate safe harbors, and specify relief. If Congress chooses to legislate on this subject, then judicial review of such legislation would be available". Following the court's decision Maher Arar made the following statement,

“After seven years of pain and hard struggle it was my hope that the court system would listen to my plea and act as an independent body from the executive branch. Unfortunately, this recent decision and decisions taken on other similar cases, prove that the court system in the United States has become more or less a tool that the executive branch can easily manipulate through unfounded allegations and fear mongering. If anything, this decision is a loss to all Americans and to the rule of law.”


The Center for Constitutional Rights, who represents Maher Arar, petitioned the U.S. Supreme Court on February 1, 2010 to hear the Arar Case.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear Mr. Arar's case.

U.S. government response

Throughout the Bush administration's term, it continued to maintain that Arar's rendition to Syria was legal and well within its right. The government has not publicly acknowledged that Arar was tortured in Syria.

Former U.S. Attorney General Gonzales's response to the Arar inquiry

On September 19, 2006, then-U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales denied any wrongdoing on the part of the U.S. in Arar's rendition to Syria.
During a press conference Gonzales said:

"Well, we were not responsible for his removal to Syria, I'm not aware that he was tortured, and I haven't read the Commission report. Mr. Arar was deported under our immigration laws
Nationality law
Nationality law is the branch of law concerned with the questions of nationality and citizenship, and how these statuses are acquired, transmitted, or lost. By custom, a state has the right to determine who its nationals and citizens are. Such determinations are usually made by custom, statutory...

. He was initially detained because his name appeared on terrorist lists, and he was deported according to our laws.

"Some people have characterized his removal as a rendition. That is not what happened here. It was a deportation. And even if it were a rendition, we understand as a government what our obligations are with respect to anyone who is rendered by this government to another country, and that is that we seek to satisfy ourselves that they will not be tortured. And we do that in every case. And if in fact he had been rendered to Syria, we would have sought those same kind of assurances, as we do in every case."


On September 20, 2006, Charles Miller
Charles Miller
-Sportsmen:*Charlie Miller , Major League Baseball player*Charlie Miller , Major League Baseball player*Charlie Miller , Scottish footballer...

, a Department of Justice
United States Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice , is the United States federal executive department responsible for the enforcement of the law and administration of justice, equivalent to the justice or interior ministries of other countries.The Department is led by the Attorney General, who is nominated...

 spokesman, said Gonzales had merely been trying to clarify that deportations were no longer the responsibility of the Department of Justice, but were now the responsibility of the Department of Homeland Security
United States Department of Homeland Security
The United States Department of Homeland Security is a cabinet department of the United States federal government, created in response to the September 11 attacks, and with the primary responsibilities of protecting the territory of the United States and protectorates from and responding to...

.

Watchlist issue

Despite the inquiry's exoneration of Arar, the United States has also refused to remove Arar from its watchlist. Stockwell Day
Stockwell Day
Stockwell Burt Day, Jr., PC, MP is a former Canadian politician, and a member of the Conservative Party of Canada. He is a former cabinet minister in Alberta, and a former leader of the Canadian Alliance. Day was MP for the riding of Okanagan—Coquihalla in British Columbia and the president of...

 was invited to look at the evidence in the United States' possession in January 2007. In his opinion, the administration is unjustified in continuing to bar Arar from entering the United States. Reportedly, the United States continues to refuse to remove Arar from the watchlist because of "his personal associations and travel history".

Following Day's efforts to remove Arar from the watchlist, U.S. Ambassador to Canada David Wilkins
David Wilkins
David Horton Wilkins is an American attorney and a former U. S. Ambassador to Canada during the administration of President George W. Bush. Prior to the appointment, he practiced law for 30 years while serving in the South Carolina House of Representatives for 25 of those years. He was speaker of...

 chided Canada for questioning whom the United States can and cannot allow into their country. Notwithstanding, Prime Minister
Prime minister
A prime minister is the most senior minister of cabinet in the executive branch of government in a parliamentary system. In many systems, the prime minister selects and may dismiss other members of the cabinet, and allocates posts to members within the government. In most systems, the prime...

 Stephen Harper
Stephen Harper
Stephen Joseph Harper is the 22nd and current Prime Minister of Canada and leader of the Conservative Party. Harper became prime minister when his party formed a minority government after the 2006 federal election...

 has vowed to continue to press the United States on this matter. On January 26, 2007, Harper rebuked Wilkins with respect to the Canadian government's efforts to remove him from the U.S. watch list, stating, "Canada has every right to go to bat for one of its citizens when the government believes a Canadian is being unfairly treated."

On October 20, 2007, The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail
The Globe and Mail is a nationally distributed Canadian newspaper, based in Toronto and printed in six cities across the country. With a weekly readership of approximately 1 million, it is Canada's largest-circulation national newspaper and second-largest daily newspaper after the Toronto Star...

reported that it had seen classified American documents revealing evidence on which the United States acted: "Maher Arar's denials that he ever went to Afghanistan are contradicted by a man convicted of immigration fraud and a self-confessed mujahedeen instructor who says he spotted him there in the early 1990s...." The newspaper stated that the informant, Mohamed Kamal Elzahabi, also faced charges of lying to the Federal Bureau of Investigation
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation is an agency of the United States Department of Justice that serves as both a federal criminal investigative body and an internal intelligence agency . The FBI has investigative jurisdiction over violations of more than 200 categories of federal crime...

, and that "his credibility is very much at issue." It added that, even crediting his description of his acquaintance with Arar, "the encounter appears to have been, at most, fleeting."

U.S. Congressional hearings and testimony

Meanwhile, in the United States, Senator Patrick Leahy
Patrick Leahy
Patrick Joseph Leahy is the senior United States Senator from Vermont and member of the Democratic Party. He is the first and only elected Democratic United States Senator in Vermont's history. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy is the second most senior U.S. Senator,...

, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee
United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary
The United States Senate Committee on the Judiciary is a standing committee of the United States Senate, of the United States Congress. The Judiciary Committee, with 18 members, is charged with conducting hearings prior to the Senate votes on confirmation of federal judges nominated by the...

, has threatened to hold extensive hearings into Arar's case. Leahy has lambasted the US's removal of Arar to Syria as absurd and outrageous, noting that instead of sending Arar a "couple of hundred miles to Canada and turned over to the Canadian authorities... he was sent thousands of miles away to Syria." Senator Leahy spoke at length on the matter, calling the case "a black mark" on the United States: "We knew damn well, if he went to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held. He'd be investigated. We also knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured."

Former Attorney General
Attorney General
In most common law jurisdictions, the attorney general, or attorney-general, is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions he or she may also have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.The term is used to refer to any person...

 Alberto Gonzales
Alberto Gonzales
Alberto R. Gonzales was the 80th Attorney General of the United States. Gonzales was appointed to the post in February 2005 by President George W. Bush. Gonzales was the first Hispanic Attorney General in U.S. history and the highest-ranking Hispanic government official ever...

 noted that the United States had assurances from Syria that Arar would not be tortured. This was dismissed by Leahy, remarking that the United States got "assurances from a country that we also say, now, we can't talk to them because we can't take their word for anything?" The Senator was alluding to the Bush administration's policy of refraining from talking to Iran and Syria. Syria is on the U.S. State Department's list of states that sponsor terrorism.

On October 18, 2007, Arar spoke via video-link before the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight, and the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Civil Liberties at a hearing that is examining his case and the practice of rendition. In his statement to the committee, he detailed his experiences and expressed his hope that his case will not be repeated. “I now understand how fragile our human rights and freedoms are, and how easily they can be taken from us by the very same governments and institutions that have sworn to protect us. I also know that the only way I will ever be able to move on in my life and have a future is if I can find out why this happened to me, and help prevent it from happening to others.

Members of Congress took the opportunity to personally apologize to Arar. Bill Delahunt, a Massachusetts Democrat, commented on the United States government’s inaction, saying, “Let me personally give you what our government has not: an apology”. “Let me apologize to you and the Canadian people”, he continued, “for our government's role in a mistake.”
Dana Rohrabacher, a California Republican, agreed that lawmakers “should be ashamed” of the case, but defended the practice of rendition, claiming that it has “protected the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of American lives.” Michigan Democrat John Conyers took the opportunity to challenge rendition, and stated that his “intention” is “for high level administration officials responsible for the Arar decision to come before these panels and tell the American people the truth about what happened.” “This government is sending people to other countries to be tortured,” Conyers said.

On October 24, 2007, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, while testifying in Washington before the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee, admitted that the US communication with the Canadian government was not handled properly. "We have told the Canadian government we do not think this was handled particularly well in terms of our own relationship and we will try to do better in the future," Rice said while testifying before the House of Representatives foreign affairs committee.

On June 5, 2008, a joint hearing entitled "U.S. Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Report OIG-08-18: The Removal of a Canadian Citizen to Syria" was held by the Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties and the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight. In his opening remarks DHS Inspector General Skinner noted that his office had reopened their investigation into the Arar case based upon "recently
received additional classified information that could be germane to [their] findings"video. A redacted copy of the Department of Homeland Security report was released. An redacted addendum to the initial DHS OIG report was released in March 2010. The follow-up report focused on whether the State Department was involved in the discussions concerning the removal of Maher Arar to Syria. Although no follow-up recommendations were made the follow-up report showed that only a brief courtesy call was made by the Deputy Attorney General to the Deputy Secretary of State with no discussion on assurances that Mr. Arar would not be tortured. Also interviewed was the former Legal Advisor to the Department of State who "told [DHS OIG] that normally his office would have been involved in a similar removal matter. However, he reaffirmed that he was unaware of DOS involvement in Mr. Arar's removal." Further explaining previous reports stating that Mr. Arar removal to Canada would be prejudicial to the United States, the removal decision was made on the "belief that Mr. Arar was a dangerous person and the porous nature of the Canadian/US border will allow Mr. Arar easy access to the United States."

On June 10, 2008, a hearing about diplomatic assurances was held by the Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversightvideo. In his opening statement Rep. Bill Delahunt
Bill Delahunt
William D. Delahunt is a former U.S. Representative for , serving from 1997 to 2011. He is a member of the Democratic Party. Delahunt did not seek re-election in 2010, and left Congress in January 2011. He was replaced by Norfolk County District Attorney Bill Keating...

 cited the case of Maher Arar and the ambiguousness of assurance received from Syria. It appears that when Mr. Arar was removed, the State Department was not consulted when assurances that Mr. Arar would not be tortured were obtained. The sole witness was John B. Bellinger III, the legal advisor of the U.S. State Department (previously White House Senior Associate Counsel to the President and Legal Adviser to the National Security Council). Mr. Bellinger has previously spoken on the Arar case.

In a letter dated June 10, 2008, US Representatives John Conyers, Jr., Jerrold Nadler, and Bill Delahunt requested of the Attorney General the appointment of a "special counsel to investigate and prosecute any violation of federal criminal laws related to the removal of Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, to Syria." Responding in a letter to Representatives Conyers, Nadler, and Delahunt, Attorney General Michael Mukasey said that he does not believes it warrants a special prosecutor at this time. During the House Committee on the Judiciary oversight hearing Representative Delahunt questioned the Attorney General about his letter and the issue of assurances. When questioned the Attorney General stated that a classified briefing on the assurances from Syria was offered to Rep. Conyers, Nadler, and Delahunt. Rep. Delahunt choose not to attend giving the reason of his concern for inadvertently disclosing classified information in public setting. In addition, the Attorney General stated that "sending [Mr. Arar] to Canada could have posed a danger to [the United States]" and sending "him to Syria was safer given those assurances".

Dispute over Canadian involvement in his rendition

After Arar's release, the controversy continued over his treatment by the U.S. and over the role that Canadian police and government officials may have played in his removal and interrogation. The United States claimed that the RCMP had provided them with a list of suspicious persons that included Arar.
It was also discovered that Canadian consular officials knew that Arar was in custody in the United States but did not believe that he would be removed. The Canadian government maintains that the decision to remove Arar to Syria was made by American officials alone.

Canadian officials apparently told U.S. officials Arar was no longer a resident of Canada. The New York Times reported, "In July 2002, the Mounted Police learned that Mr. Arar and his family
were in Tunisia, and incorrectly concluded that they had left Canada
permanently."

At a summit meeting
Summit (meeting)
A summit meeting is a meeting of heads of state or government, usually with considerable media exposure, tight security and a prearranged agenda.Notable summit meetings include those of Franklin D...

 in Monterrey, Mexico
Monterrey
Monterrey , is the capital city of the northeastern state of Nuevo León in the country of Mexico. The city is anchor to the third-largest metropolitan area in Mexico and is ranked as the ninth-largest city in the nation. Monterrey serves as a commercial center in the north of the country and is the...

, on January 13, 2004, former Canadian Prime Minister
Prime Minister of Canada
The Prime Minister of Canada is the primary minister of the Crown, chairman of the Cabinet, and thus head of government for Canada, charged with advising the Canadian monarch or viceroy on the exercise of the executive powers vested in them by the constitution...

 Paul Martin
Paul Martin
Paul Edgar Philippe Martin, PC , also known as Paul Martin, Jr. is a Canadian politician who was the 21st Prime Minister of Canada, as well as leader of the Liberal Party of Canada....

 and U.S. President
President of the United States
The President of the United States of America is the head of state and head of government of the United States. The president leads the executive branch of the federal government and is the commander-in-chief of the United States Armed Forces....

 George W. Bush
George W. Bush
George Walker Bush is an American politician who served as the 43rd President of the United States, from 2001 to 2009. Before that, he was the 46th Governor of Texas, having served from 1995 to 2000....

 reached an agreement, sometimes referred to as the Monterrey Accord, which obliged the United States to notify Canada before deporting a Canadian citizen to a third country. However, according to a news story in the Toronto Globe and Mail, Stephen Yale-Loehr, lawyer and adjunct professor
Professor
A professor is a scholarly teacher; the precise meaning of the term varies by country. Literally, professor derives from Latin as a "person who professes" being usually an expert in arts or sciences; a teacher of high rank...

 of immigration and asylum law at Cornell University
Cornell University
Cornell University is an Ivy League university located in Ithaca, New York, United States. It is a private land-grant university, receiving annual funding from the State of New York for certain educational missions...

 told the Arar inquiry "the Canada-U.S. agreement struck... to prevent a recurrence of the Arar affair is ineffective and legally unenforceable."

In 2007, as part of the investigation into government foreknowledge, it was revealed that CSIS chief Jack Hooper
Jack Hooper
Jack Hooper is the former deputy director of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service who became well known mainly for his role in some of Canada’s most sensitive and controversial spy-service scandals, including CSIS’s involvement in the case of Maher Arar, a Canadian engineer father of two...

 had sent a memo on October 10, 2002 that included the reference "I think the United States would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him", which was the first conclusive evidence that CSIS, and not just the RCMP, knew that a Canadian was going to be tortured at the request of the United States. A year later, Hooper contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade
Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade (Canada)
The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade , more commonly known as Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada, is a department in the Government of Canada which has responsibility for foreign policy and diplomacy, as well as import/export and international trade policies.On June...

 to tell them that it was not in Canada's interests to demand that the United States return Maher Arar.

In September,2008, former RCMP commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli
Giuliano Zaccardelli, COM is a former Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer who was the Commissioner of the RCMP from 2 September 2000 to 15 December 2006. Zaccardelli's departure from the RCMP was linked to the force's involvement in the Maher Arar Affair...

, now with Interpol, said that the White House "threw away the rule book" after 9/11 and that the RCMP was led to believe that Arar would be sent back to Canada from New York.http://ca.news.yahoo.com/s/capress/080902/national/arar_zaccardelli Zaccardelli told the CBC that U.S. authorities said that they didn't have enough evidence to lay charges against Arar and wanted to know whether Arar would be arrested if he returned to Canada. "The discussion was: 'If we let him go and he comes to Canada, can you arrest him or detain him?' And we keep reaffirming, 'No we can't'," Zaccardelli said.

The RCMP set up surveillance team to watch Arar upon his return: "We are waiting in Montreal for the plane to arrive with Mr. Arar getting off the plane. The plane arrives. Mr. Arar never got off." Zaccardelli said.

Canada's formal protest to the U.S. government

During a telephone conversation on October 6, 2006, Harper notified President Bush that Canada intended to lodge a formal protest over U.S. treatment of Arar. The notification was later followed by a letter of protest
Letter of Protest
A letter of protest or diplomatic note is a diplomatic document presented by one state's foreign ministry to another state.A letter of protest is written in a highly formal manner, intended to be both courteous and critical at the same time...

 sent from Canadian Minister of Foreign Affairs
Minister of Foreign Affairs (Canada)
The Minister of Foreign Affairs is the Minister of the Crown in the Canadian Cabinet who is responsible for overseeing the federal government's international relations section of Foreign Affairs and International Trade Canada....

 Peter MacKay
Peter MacKay
Peter Gordon MacKay, PC, QC, MP is a lawyer and politician from Nova Scotia, Canada. He is the Member of Parliament for Central Nova and currently serves as Minister of National Defence in the Cabinet of Canada....

 to U.S. Secretary of State
United States Secretary of State
The United States Secretary of State is the head of the United States Department of State, concerned with foreign affairs. The Secretary is a member of the Cabinet and the highest-ranking cabinet secretary both in line of succession and order of precedence...

 Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

. Harper told reporters that Canada wants "the United States government [to] come clean with its version of events, to acknowledge... the deficiencies and inappropriate conduct that occurred in this case, particularly vis-à-vis its relationship with the Canadian government." In particular, Canada wants United States assurances, said Harper, that "these kinds of incidents will not be repeated in the future."

U.S. embassy statements

Robert H. Tuttle
Robert H. Tuttle
Robert Holmes Tuttle is a former United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom. He held the post from July 2005 to February 2009.A California native, he was nominated to be Ambassador by U.S. President George W. Bush...

, the US ambassador to Britain
United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom
The office of United States Ambassador to the United Kingdom was traditionally, and still is very much so today due to the Special Relationship, the most prestigious position in the United States Foreign Service...

 told the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...

 on December 22, 2005:

"I don't think there is any evidence that there have been any renditions carried out in the country of Syria. There is no evidence of that. And I think we have to take what the secretary Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice
Condoleezza Rice is an American political scientist and diplomat. She served as the 66th United States Secretary of State, and was the second person to hold that office in the administration of President George W. Bush...

 says at face value. It is something very important, it is done very carefully and she has said we do not authorise, condone torture in any way, shape or form."


This statement was amended the very next day by a U.S. embassy spokeswoman who stated that the embassy

"recognised that there had been a media report of a rendition to Syria but reiterated that the United States is not in a position to comment on specific allegations of intelligence activities that appear in the press".

Response to the Arar case by President Obama's administration

Little has been said publicly about Maher Arar by President Obama's new administration. In an interview with Neil Macdonald of CBC, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated that it is the opinion of those who have reviewed Mr. Arar's case that "his status should not now be changed." When questioned about the validity of Canada's findings in all matters relating to Mr. Arar, Secretary Napolitano clarified saying "his status at least for admission to the United States purposes should not be changed." The Obama administration recently modified the government's standard for using the state secrets claim. It is unknown how the changes will affect Mr. Arar's case against the United States in which the government lawyers had invoked the state secrets privilege. The new standard took effect on October 1, 2009.

Awards and accolades

TIME magazine
Time
Time is a part of the measuring system used to sequence events, to compare the durations of events and the intervals between them, and to quantify rates of change such as the motions of objects....

 chose Arar as "Canadian Newsmaker of the Year
Canadian Newsmaker of the Year (Time)
The Canadian Newsmaker of the Year is a designation awarded by the Canadian edition of Time magazine. It comes with a written piece reflecting the magazine's staff's opinion on which Canadian or Canadians have had the most impact on the news, either positively or negatively...

" for 2004. On October 18, 2006, Arar and the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

 were honoured with the Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies
Institute for Policy Studies is a left-wing think tank based in Washington, D.C..It has been directed by John Cavanagh since 1998- History :...

 Letelier-Moffitt
Orlando Letelier
Marcos Orlando Letelier del Solar was a Chilean economist, Socialist politician and diplomat during the presidency of Socialist President Salvador Allende...

 Human Rights
Human rights
Human rights are "commonly understood as inalienable fundamental rights to which a person is inherently entitled simply because she or he is a human being." Human rights are thus conceived as universal and egalitarian . These rights may exist as natural rights or as legal rights, in both national...

 Award, in recognition of the struggle to clear his name and draw attention to American abuses of human rights in dealing with terrorist suspects. Arar, along with Sergeant Patrick Tower, was chosen a co-Nation Builder by The Globe and Mail for 2006. In April 2007, TIME magazine named Arar to the TIME 100, its annual listing of 100 influential people in the world. Arar's entry, at No. 58 in the Heroes & Pioneers category, was written by US Senator
United States Senate
The United States Senate is the upper house of the bicameral legislature of the United States, and together with the United States House of Representatives comprises the United States Congress. The composition and powers of the Senate are established in Article One of the U.S. Constitution. Each...

 Patrick Leahy
Patrick Leahy
Patrick Joseph Leahy is the senior United States Senator from Vermont and member of the Democratic Party. He is the first and only elected Democratic United States Senator in Vermont's history. He is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee. Leahy is the second most senior U.S. Senator,...

 and says his case "stands as a sad example of how we have been too willing to sacrifice our core principles to overarching government power in the name of security, when doing so only undermines the principles we stand for and makes us less safe." The US would not allow him entry to attend Time's recognition event.

In 2011, Arar endorsed the Canadian ship to Gaza, part of the Freedom Flotilla II
Freedom Flotilla II
"Freedom Flotilla II – Stay Human" was a flotilla that planned to break the maritime blockade of the Gaza Strip by Israel by sailing to Gaza on 5 July 2011. Ultimately, the sailing did not take place....

 which aims to end the Israeli blockade imposed on the 1.6 million Palestinian civilians living in the Gaza Strip
Gaza Strip
thumb|Gaza city skylineThe Gaza Strip lies on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea. The Strip borders Egypt on the southwest and Israel on the south, east and north. It is about long, and between 6 and 12 kilometres wide, with a total area of...

.

In print

The case of Maher Arar has been referenced in several books. Jimmy Carter
Jimmy Carter
James Earl "Jimmy" Carter, Jr. is an American politician who served as the 39th President of the United States and was the recipient of the 2002 Nobel Peace Prize, the only U.S. President to have received the Prize after leaving office...

, former President of the United States, discusses Arar sympathetically in his bestselling 2005 book Our Endangered Values: America's Moral Crisis (ISBN 978-0-7432-8501-8). Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman
Amy Goodman is an American progressive broadcast journalist, syndicated columnist, investigative reporter and author. Goodman is the host of Democracy Now!, an independent global news program broadcast daily on radio, television and the internet.-Early life:Goodman was born in Bay Shore, New York...

, host of the radio program Democracy Now!
Democracy Now!
Democracy Now! and its staff have received several journalism awards, including the Gracie Award from American Women in Radio & Television; the George Polk Award for its 1998 radio documentary Drilling and Killing: Chevron and Nigeria's Oil Dictatorship, on the Chevron Corporation and the deaths of...

, and her brother David Goodman
David Goodman
David Goodman may refer to:* David Goodman , member of the Ohio Senate* David Goodman , Australian Paralympian* David A. Goodman, American writer and producer* David G. Goodman, American Japanologist* David S...

 write about Arar in their 2006 book, Static (ISBN 978-1-4013-0914-5). Dark Days: The Story of Four Canadians Tortured in the Name of Fighting Terror, by Kerry Pither (ISBN 978-0-670-06853-1), discusses the investigations of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati, Muayyed Nureddin, and Maher Arar by Canadian Security forces, and includes a foreword by Maher Arar. Ms. Pither lays out how similar the ordeals of each four men are, all imprisoned by Syria, tortured and questioned, and released without charge. The Arar case was also discussed in Jane Mayer's The Dark Side: The Inside Story of How The War on Terror Turned into a War on American Ideals (ISBN 978-0-385-52639-5 in hardcover, ISBN 978-1-921372-50-6 in softcover).

Hope & Despair. My Struggle to Free My Husband, Maher Arar (ISBN 978-0-7710-5758-8), published November 4, 2008, tells of Monia Mazigh's struggle to free her husband Maher Arar.

In fiction

The movie Rendition
Rendition (film)
Rendition is a 2007 drama film directed by Gavin Hood and starring Reese Witherspoon, Meryl Streep, Peter Sarsgaard, Alan Arkin, Jake Gyllenhaal and Omar Metwally. It centers on the controversial CIA practice of extraordinary rendition, and is based on the true story of Khalid El-Masri who was...

is loosely based on Arar. The British film Extraordinary Rendition
Extraordinary Rendition (film)
Extraordinary Rendition is a 2007 drama film directed by Jim Threapleton and starring Omar Berdouni and Andy Serkis. The film was premiered at the Locarno Film Festival, Switzerland on 8 August 2007, and at the Edinburgh Film Festival on 21 August 2007, but is still awaiting a full commercial release...

directed by Jim Threapleton
Jim Threapleton
James Edward "Jim" Threapleton . Threapleton has worked as an assistant director on many films, including Hideous Kinky....

 was also inspired by Maher Arar. In addition, Mr. Arar consulted with the Omar Berdouni
Omar Berdouni
Omar Berdouni is a Moroccan actor now residing in London.After attending the American School of Tangier, he moved to London and graduated from the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in 2003. He has starred in a number of feature films including The Hamburg Cell, United 93, "The Situation", The...

 who played Zaafir, the main character, who was abducted by a case of CIA extraordinary rendition.

PRISM Magazine

In January 2010 Maher Arar began publishing the online magazine PRISM. PRISM is focused on "in-depth coverage and analysis of national security related issues." Listed as a contributor is Gar Pardy, former head of the Canadian Consular Services who testified at the Arar Inquiry.

Activism for US Accountability

Several human rights organizations are directing activism efforts demanding U.S accountability for its involvement in Arar’s rendition and presumed subsequent torture. Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International USA
Amnesty International USA is one of many country sections that make up Amnesty International worldwide.Amnesty International is an organization of more than 2.2 million supporters, activists and volunteers in over 150 countries, with complete independence from government, corporate or national...

 is leading the “I Apologize” campaign. The campaign is aimed at an official U.S. public apology to Arar, compensation for “all economically assessable damage caused by the U.S.’s detention and transfer of [Arar] to face torture in Syria,” and “full accountability for the many human rights violations committed by or on behalf of the U.S. government in the name of countering terrorism.” The campaign includes an online petition directed at President Obama and members of the U.S. Congress, paper airplane petitions that will be delivered to President Obama in 2012, and public events to increase awareness of the case and to collect petition signatures. In July 2011, Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Its headquarters are in New York City and it has offices in Berlin, Beirut, Brussels, Chicago, Geneva, Johannesburg, London, Los Angeles, Moscow, Paris, San Francisco, Tokyo,...

 released a report highlighting violations of U.S. and international law committed by Bush administration officials in their counterterrorism efforts, including the rendition of Arar. The report recommends the initiation of a criminal investigation into the U.S. government’s detention practices and interrogation methods since September 11, 2011 and the fulfillment of the U.S. obligation under the Convention against Torture to ensure that victims of torture obtain redress. Other organizations that have supported U.S. accountability for Arar’s case include the Campaign for Liberty, the Center for Constitutional Rights
Center for Constitutional Rights
Al Odah v. United States:Al Odah is the latest in a series of habeas corpus petitions on behalf of people imprisoned at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The case challenges the Military Commissions system’s suitability as a habeas corpus substitute and the legality, in general, of detention at...

, September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows
September Eleventh Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, also known as 9/11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows or simply Peaceful Tomorrows, is an anti-war organization for survivors of the September 11, 2001 attacks and friends and family members of the victims.It aims to develop and advocate nonviolent...

, the Alliance for Justice
Alliance for Justice
Alliance for Justice is a national association of environmental, civil rights, mental health, women's, children's and consumer advocacy organizations in the USA....

, Appeal for Justice, the Bill of Rights Defense Committee
Bill of Rights Defense Committee
The Bill of Rights Defense Committee is a national grassroots organization that educates and mobilizes people from all walks of life to defend the Constitution in their local communities all across the country...

, the Center for Justice and Accountability
Center for Justice and Accountability
The Center for Justice and Accountability is a non-profit international human rights organization based in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1998, CJA represents survivors of torture and other grave human rights abuses in cases against individual rights violators before U.S. and Spanish courts...

, the Center for Victims of Torture
Center for Victims of Torture
The Center for Victims of Torture is a private, non-profit organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Minnesota that provides victims of politically motivated torture with medical, psychological, and social services both in the Twin Cities and abroad....

, Human Rights Advocates, the International Justice Network
International Justice Network
The International Justice Network is a non-profit organization dedicated to protection of human rights and the rule of law throughout the world...

, amongst others.

Ten Years after 9/11 Reflections

As the ten year anniversary of September 11, 2001 approaches, several reflections have talked about the case of Maher Arar. In a recent Globe and Mail interview, Sonia Verma asked former Office of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge about the relationship between the U.S. Government and Muslims living in America with reference to Maher Arar.

Sonia Verma: What about the relationship between the American government and American Muslims? Of course you’re aware of Maher Arar, who said he was tortured in Syria after being deported there by American authorities.


Tom Ridge: I’m familiar with his claims. I’m not familiar with how accurate they are. This is a global scourge. It’s really a case of first impression for everybody. As secretary of homeland security after 9/11, I dare say America was confronted with a set of challenges it had never seen before and we acted with what we thought was in the best interest for securing America. We also looked back at what we did and made some adjustments. I’ll just leave it at that. We can kill bin Laden and eliminate a lot of these other extremists, but that whole belief system is out there. It doesn’t take too many people to buy in to it to cause enormous damage.

General


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