ZGram - 1/25/2004 - "The Arar Deportation-and-Torture Scandal" - Part II

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

January 25, 2004

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

Herewith a follow-up on yesterday's "Arar Deportation" that has many 
earmarks of how Ernst was removed from the United States with some 
obliging aiding and abetting by law enforcement agencies on both 
sides of the border.  Now that the Arar story broke and caused an 
international uproar, both countries have shown their claws, and 
media mavens are getting upset, as they should.

Now mainstream media are quite concerned that they might be raided 
and maybe even go to jail, should they be so foolish as to file a 
politically incorrect thought. 

Who told them it would happen?  That's right!  That is exactly right! 

[START]

Reporter's home searched by RCMP as part of Arar investigation

Last Updated Wed, 21 Jan 2004 22:07:57

OTTAWA - RCMP officers raided the home and offices of an Ottawa 
Citizen journalist on Wednesday as part of a criminal investigation 
into leaks in the case of Maher Arar.

"I cannot really comment on the specific details of the 
investigation," said RCMP Sgt. Jocelyn Mimeault, who acknowledged 
that search warrants were executed but have been sealed.

60 Minutes says Canada knew and approved Arar's deportation

Mimeault said police were conducting an investigation into an alleged 
breach of the Security of Information Act by reporter Juliet O'Neill. 
***The act makes it illegal to communicate leaked secret 
documents.*** (Emphasis added!)

Ottawa Citizen editor-in-chief Scott Anderson said the search had to 
do with a Nov. 8 story O'Neill wrote on the Arar case. Police took 
spiral notebooks, computer hard drives, address books and documents, 
he said.

Jocelyn Mimeault

He said any seized documents will remain in a sealed evidence bag 
while lawyers for the newspaper challenge the search warrants.

"We believe charges are pending although Julie hasn't been charged 
yet," said Anderson. "I think this is a black, black day for freedom 
in this country. I am outraged."

The search warrants come as Arar, a Canadian citizen who says he was 
tortured after being deported to a Syrian prison by the United 
States, is set to launch a lawsuit against American officials.

Arar and his lawyers from the New York-based Center for 
Constitutional Rights are expected to announce details about the 
lawsuit to be filed on Thursday at the U.S. District Court for the 
Eastern District of New York.

U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft is among the officials expected 
to be named in the lawsuit.

U.S. authorities detained Arar at Kennedy airport in New York in 
September 2002, while he was on a flight back to Canada from Tunisia.

He was accused of having ties to Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network 
and deported to Syria, the country where he was born.

The CBS News program 60 Minutes II reported on Wednesday night 
***that Canadian authorities were told of Washington's plan to deport 
Maher Arar to Syria and that they approved.*** (Emphasis added)

The Canadian government announced earlier this month it would 
investigate leaks by unnamed government officials who alleged Arar 
trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan.

But Ottawa has rejected calls for a public inquiry into his deportation.


Written by CBC News Online staff

[END]