The story of what happened to Maher Arar is what nightmares are made of. This is the kind of story you see happening to people like US martial artist-actor Wesley Snipes in a fast-paced Hollywood thriller, where Mr. Snipes' character manages to remain one step ahead of the law while jumping from tall buildings onto moving fast-moving trains landing without a scratch, and finally, when it looks as though he has run out of luck, he somehow managed to prove his innocence at the end.
But this is not the way such dramas unfold in real life.
Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen of Syrian origin. Mr. Arar, now 36-years-old, moved to Canada when he was 17. In the aftermath of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, through some pretty awful luck - and one may add despicable police work - Mr. Arar found himself of a Canadian terrorist watch list.
While on a business trip Mr. Arar found himself in transit at JFK Airport on September 26, 2002. Canadian intelligence agents tipped off their US counterparts that Arar, a Muslim, had links to Al Qaeda. That was enough to have him arrested, detained and whisked-off to Jordan aboard a plane belonging to the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). After a few days in Jordan, Arar was transferred by car to the Syrian capital, Damascus.
It was while he was held in captivity in Syria that he was repeatedly tortured and forced to sign a false confession, which at that point, he felt he had no choice but to comply.
Arar was held in the US for 12 days during which time he was unable to communicate with anyone. He was then flown by jet to Jordan and driven by car to Syria. Mr. Arar reports to have been beaten, forced to confess to having trained in Afghanistan - a country he has never set foot in - and confined to a miniscule cell for 10 long months before he was finally released.
It took a two-and-a-half year inquiry to prove that mistakes had been made by Canadian intelligence services, by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and by the CIA, and of course by the Syrians. Two-and-a half years of a man's life wasted because of a "mistake."
But the report shed light on what is being referred to as "extraordinary rendition." That is when the US government, prevented by US law to use torture in the interrogation of suspected terrorists, send the suspects to third countries, such as Syria, Jordan, Egypt, and others, where use of torture will be applied. This is clearly a case of the ostrich hiding its head in the sand.
If torture is illegal in the United States - as it should be - it should be just as illegal to "subcontract" torture to other countries. Torture should not exist and in a democracy, period. Allowing third parties to torture on behalf of the United States is equivalent to carrying out the torture here in the US It is illegal and immoral.
According to reports from Ottawa into the kidnapping of Mr. Arar, brutal methods were often used in order to make the prisoner confess. The same report that found that Arar was falsely accused, revealed that Arrar's wife, a university economist, was also placed on the watch list. There was no justification in either case.
According to a report published in the Washington Post, Arar was listed as an "Islamic extremist individual by Canadian intelligence." They listed him as being in the Washington area on September 11, 2001. As it turned out, Arar happened to be in San Diego on a business trip on that date.
What makes this a nightmarish story is the fact that Arar never did anything wrong nor was he ever a security threat to Canada or to the United States. Today, Mr. Arar is vindicated and his name has been cleared. But the damage done is irreparable.
Claude Salhani is Editor of the Middle East Times. He may be contacted at claude@metimes.com.
Letter from the Editor
TOOLBAR
To add a comment,
Please log in:
Don't have an account?
Register now to comment on stories and stay up to date on important events and issues in the Middle East with our newsletter.