Arar #2

Here you go, the fruits of my first googling. I do an awful lot of quoting--to make it clear what are my words and what are not, I have tried to italicize the text of all quotations.

1. The transcript of Arar's November 4 statement to the media is probably the best place to start. Not surprisingly, it is graphic.

2. The SF Chronicle editorial on the government's basis for suspecting Arar is disputed. Anonymous U.S. and Canadian intelligence officials told The Canadian Post in December that they were "100% sure" that Arar had been at an Al Qaeda training camp in Afghanistan. Here is a CTV summary of the allegations.

Excerpts: "The officials allege Arar travelled to Pakistan in the early 1990's, then entered Afghanistan to train at the al Qaeda base known as the Khaldun camp." ("Graduates" of that camp were involved in the 1993 WTC bombing and the 1998 embassy bombings.) "Arar, 33, says he confessed to travelling to Afghanistan only after being tortured in Syria. He now insists he's never been to that country and that he's not a member of al Qaeda."

"He now insists" might imply that Arar has changed his story--but in his initial statement he denies connection with Al Qaeda, denies ever going to Afghanistan, and says that they tortured a confession out of him. I believe this was before the allegations by the anonymous intelligence officers; here is is the relevant quotation.

Then on the third day, the interrogation lasted about 18 hours. They beat me from time to time and make me wait in the waiting room for one to two hours before resuming the interrogation.

While in the waiting room I heard a lot of people screaming. They wanted me to say I went to Afghanistan. This was a surprise to me.

They had not asked about this in the United States. They kept beating me so I had to falsely confess and told them I did go to Afghanistan. I was ready to confess to anything if it would stop the torture. They wanted me to say I went to a training camp.

Pyle (the author of the SF Chronicle editorial) does not give sources for the explanation for Arar's presence on the watch list. My guess is that they come from these passages in Arar's statement:

They said they wanted to know why I did not want to go back to Syria. I told them I would be tortured there. I told them I had not done my military service; I am a Sunni Muslim; my mother’s cousin had been accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was put in prison for nine years.

and

They asked me about Abdullah Almalki, and I told them I worked with his brother at high-tech firms in Ottawa, and that the Almalki family had come from Syria about the same time as mine. I told them I did not know Abdullah well, but had seen him a few times and I described the times I could remember.

I told them I had a casual relationship with him.

They were so rude with me, yelling at me that I had a selective memory. Then they pulled out a copy of my rental lease from 1997. I could not believe they had this.

I was completely shocked. They pointed out that Abdullah had signed the lease as a witness. I had completely forgotten that he had signed it for me -- when we moved to Ottawa in 1997, we needed someone to witness our lease, and I phoned Abdullah’s brother, and he could not come, so he sent Abdullah.

3. A few Canadian documents on the case have recently been declassified. (Globe and Mail, January 9.) There seems to be a lot of confusion about who knew what when, but I found this to be the most interesting excerpt:

An Oct. 23, 2002, memo prepared by the Privy Council Office for ministers says: “Syrian authorities are investigating the suggestion by U.S. authorities that he has a connection to al-Qaeda.”

There is no mention in the memo of RCMP* involvement in the case. On the contrary, the document indicates that Canadian officials believed Mr. Arar was innocent. “Once he is cleared of such charges, we will seek his return to Canada.”

4. This is an Amnesty International document registering concern about Arar's disappearance in October of 2002 (less than a month after he was stopped at Kennedy.

5. I did not quite do justice to the American papers, which have written some good articles on this case.

*RCMP = Royal Canadian Mounted Police--yep, the mounties.

Comments

[dutchmarbel]

I followed a lot of the story via "damn foreigner" : http://www.damnforeigner.com/archives/cat_maher_arar.html

[Katherine]

Thanks. If anyone else has particular sources to recommend or questions they'd like answered, I'd be most appreciative.

[Harley]

Read both posts. God how awful. Calling for impeachment is obviously overheated. But it would be nice if the Prez would go on the record re this, if only to explain it, condemn it, etc.

Hey, he's got a chummy press conference with Vincente Fox today. Pity no one will ask him about it.

[john]

http://www.4carloancalculator.com

mortgage calculator, online calculator, auto loan calculator, car loan calculator, car payment calculator, automobile loan, mortgage rate calculator, loan payment calculator, free mortgage calculator, auto payment calculator, interest only loan calculator, interest only calculator, percentage calculator, loan amortization calculator, mortgage amortization calculator, auto finance calculator, car loan payment calculator, calculation loan, auto loan payment calculator, car loan finance calculator, yahoo auto loan calculator, vehicle loan, loan calc, calculate loan payment, calculate car loan