ZGram - 1/24/2004 - "The Arar Deportation-and-Torture Scandal" - Part I

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny:  Now more than ever!

January 24, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I am still waiting for an official report on how the Friday hearings 
went.  I talked to Ernst on Friday evening, and he thought that 
things went extremely well - he called it "wonderful!" - but I don't 
want to summarize on my own;  I'd rather wait for one of Paul Fromm's 
descriptive write-up that always make me feel as though I had been 
there. 

On Friday, a CSIS agent was on the stand, being cross-examined on 
what grounds and with what evidence he had compiled the viciously 
hostile report, and he was forced to admit that he had not "publicly" 
seen anything that would have justified the smears.  His 
cross-examination will continue on Monday and will be another fine 
piece for the record.  That's how the Zundelists write Modern Galileo 
History!

There is another important story breaking both in the United States 
and Canada that might be of benefit to Ernst because it suggests 
nasty collusion between the two governments in railroading another 
deportation victim into a horrid nightmare.  This one isn't a 
convenient target as a White Male with politically incorrect views 
unflattering to the Holocaust Lobby;  he is a young Arab professional 
with a young family and apparently no political Black Page.  It will 
be much harder to demonize him as Ernst has constantly been demonized 
to keep the shekels flowing for his foes.

Read on:

[START]

Canadian sues U.S. over expulsion, torture in Syria

By Grant McCool

NEW YORK, Jan 22 (Reuters) - A Syrian-born Canadian sued U.S. 
Attorney General John Ashcroft on Thursday for deporting him to Syria 
as an al Qaeda suspect and said government officials knew he would be 
tortured in a Damascus jail.

The lawsuit filed in Brooklyn federal court is the latest development 
in a case that has strained relations between the United States and 
Canada, raised security and human rights issues and led to a new 
deportation deal between Ottawa and Washington.

Computer technician Maher Arar was arrested between international 
flights at Kennedy airport in New York in Sept. 2002. He was 
interrogated for 13 days and expelled to Jordan and then Syria, where 
he said he was held for more than 10 months in a "dark, damp hole" 
and tortured.

Arar was freed in October 2003 and returned to Canada, but he is 
barred from the United States. At a news briefing in New York to 
announce the lawsuit, Arar talked by speakerphone.

"I believe that the persons who sent me to Syria knew that I would be 
interrogated under torture there," said Arar, 33, who lives in Ottawa 
with his wife and two children. He has been unemployed since his 
return from Syria after years of working for a high-tech company.

Arar added that he had "never knowingly associated with terrorists" 
and that under brutal treatment in Syria, he "falsely confessed to my 
torturers."

One of his lawyers, Steven Watt, said: "Syria released him as an 
innocent man and an innocent man he remains today."

In a statement on Thursday, the U.S. Department of Justice headed by 
Ashcroft said it believed Arar was a member of al Qaeda, the radical 
Islamic group blamed for the Sept. 11, 2001, plane strikes and other 
attacks.

CABINET MEMBERS NAMED

The lawsuit named Ashcroft, Homeland Security Department Secretary 
Tom Ridge, FBI director Robert Mueller and a dozen other officials as 
defendants. It said Arar's deportation broke U.S. and international 
laws against torture.

The Justice Department said its information about Arar could not be 
made public because it was classified.

"In removing Mr. Arar, we acted fully within law and applicable 
international treaties and conventions," it said.

Lawyers for the Center for Constitutional Rights said the suit was 
the first to challenge the government's "extraordinary renditions" 
program of keeping foreigners suspected of being a security risk out 
of the country.

"Federal officials removed Mr. Arar to Syria under the program 
precisely because Syria could use methods of interrogation to obtain 
information from Mr. Arar that would not be legally or morally 
acceptable in this country or other democracies," the lawsuit said.

It was filed on Arar's behalf by the Center, which has been at the 
forefront of legal challenges to U.S. detention and deportation 
policy of Muslim men since the Sept. 11 attacks.

Arar requested a court declaration clearing him of any association 
with terrorist organizations or suspected terrorists. The lawsuit 
seeks a declaration of the unconsitutionality of his detention and 
rights violations.

Thirdly, he demanded unspecified monetary damages for economic losses 
and emotional and physical injuries.

***He has also asked for a public inquiry into the role, if any, of 
the Canadian police and spy agency in the case*** (emphasis added), 
which has been a sticky issue for new Prime Minister Paul Martin.

In Canada on Wednesday, the story took another twist when police 
raided the office and home of Ottawa journalist Juliet O'Neill to 
investigate possible leaks of classified information about Arar. The 
probes prompted widespread media outrage.

Martin said he was "quite concerned" by the raids.

[END]