Arar sues U.S. government: Canadian deported to Syria says US did so and knew he would be tortured (...and that's illegal)

By OLIVER MOORE
Globe and Mail Update

Refused the public inquiry that could explain why U.S. intelligence officials insisted on deporting him to Syria, Ottawa resident Maher Arar on Thursday filed suit against the United States government.

The suit — which specifically names U.S. Attorney-General John Aschroft — demands compensation and an apology.

"I spent nearly a year of my life terrified in Syrian jails, always in fear of being further tortured at the hands of Syrian officials, officials the United States knows full well practise torture," Mr. Arar said Thursday. "Even President Bush himself recently condemned Syria's practise of torturing prisoners."

"I hope my lawsuit will make sure no one ever, no one ever again, has to go through what I went through at the hands of the United States."

One of Mr. Arar's lawyers said that the crux of their case is that the U.S. government knew it was illegal to deport anyone to a country known to practise torture.

"They sent Maher because the United States knew he would be subjected to torture, they intended for this to happen," said Steven Watt, a lawyer on the staff of the U.S.-based Center for Constitutional Rights.

"They wanted the Syrian authorities to resort to using interrogation techniques that legally or morally could not be applied here."

Mr. Arar, a Syrian immigrant travelling on his Canadian passport, was detained while changing planes in New York and sent to Syria, in spite of his demands that he be sent home to Canada. He says that he was abused repeatedly in Syria and that they wrung a false confession of terrorist complicity out of him.

Intelligence sources in the United States have said that Mr. Arar was sent to the Middle East as part of a process called "extraordinary rendition" and that it has become a key element of the campaign against terrorists.

Alan Dershowitz, a prominent Harvard lawyer, believes that the habit of farming out torture is widespread and comes to light only if a suspect reappears in North America.

"The United States can maintain deniability, but it sends this guy off to Jordan and Syria, knowing that those are two of the countries that excel in torture," he said after Mr. Arar came back to Canada. "That way we have clean hands and get the benefit of the information; or, if not, at least the guy is taken care of.

"What happened with this guy is he came back, and he's appropriately complaining."

Since his release last fall, Mr. Arar has called repeatedly for a public inquiry. Although Prime Minister Paul Martin appeared open to an inquiry before he took office, he has turned aside more recent calls. On Thursday, he said that he has never ruled out an inquiry but prefers to wait while the RCMP public-complaints commission is investigating the case.

"If we're not satisfied with the answers we're given, Minister McLellan will make recommendations and we'll get all the facts," he told reporters in Davos, Switzerland.

The position of the U.S. Justice Department remains that there is reason to believe that Mr. Arar is a member of al-Qaeda and, therefore, remains a threat to U.S. national security.

"The United States government still states that I am a terrorist, how do I prove to them that I'm not?," Mr. Arar said Thursday. "I have so many questions ... and so few answers."

Mr. Arar has also sued Syria and Jordan for $31-million, alleging that he was beaten by the Jordanians before being turned over to the Syrians, who he says tortured him by whipping him with a thick electric cable.

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