ZGram - 2/27/2004 - "Investigation into CSIS's role in torture widening" - Part I

[zgrams at zgrams.zundelsite.org]

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

  February 27, 2004

  Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

  Another important development!

Remember the Canadian Arab, Maher Arar, who was nabbed in the United 
States, apparently after a tip by the nefarious Canadian political 
police, CSIS, and turned over to the Syrian government to be 
tortured? 

For some time now, Ernst has insisted that his kidnapping in the U.S. 
and being turned over to Canada was done in a similar fashion - with 
the collusion of two governments trading political "favors".  As 
Ernst puts it, "Š somebody in Canada collected an IOU with my arrest 
and deportation from the United States." 

I am going to parcel out to my ZGram readers a story in four parts 
because it is difficult to absorb the roles of various players in the 
widening Canadian/US deportation/torture scandal since Arab victims' 
names are involved.  I tend to confuse them myself.  However, we are 
beginning to see some patterns of how these political 
deportations/extraditions are carried out.  

Zgram - Part I gives an overview of what Ernst calls "... they 
(secret services in the United States and Canada) are farming out 
people to other countries to be tortured."

Zgram - Part 2 is the actual testimony of the second Arab torture 
victim, Muayyad Nureddin, to have come forward telling a story of 
having been nabbed while traveling and turned over to Syria to be 
tortured.  Apparently due to media awareness and pressure, this 
second torture victim requests to have the government of Canada 
investigate the roles of CSIS and the RCMP. 

Zgram - Part 3 is particularly interesting because it quotes Amnesty 
International's General Secretary Alex Neve, admitting he has known 
about these torture practices for "several months" and asking 
likewise for the government of Canada to investigate.  Remember that 
it was Newe, knowing full well that this was going on, who REFUSED to 
look into the kidnapping and mistreatment of Ernst Zundel - even 
after hundreds of letters, faxes and emails were sent to him from all 
over the world!

  Part 4 is just a wrap-up ZGram, quoting the attorney for the first 
two torture victims to have come forward with this chilling story in 
a press conference.

  I am sending all four ZGrams today to make up for a missing ZGram 
yesterday and to trade myself a "ZGram-free weekend" - very badly 
needed!

  Brace yourself.  This is not pleasant reading.

  [START]

   Feel free to forward far and wide--for those without the stomach to 
read this in e-mail form, it is posted on our website at 
www.homesnotbombs.ca)

  Second Canadian Details Torture in Syrian Prison

  Major Questions Arise about Role of RCMP and CSIS in Setting Up 
Canadians for Torture Overseas

  "A Syrian official told me that I would not see the sun again," 
traumatized Canadian tells press conference.

  Lawyer says, "Mr. Nureddin's case, and Mr. Arar before it, appear to 
indicate that the RCMP and CSIS, or both of them, are moving into 
another form of targetting: Canadian citizens."

  (report from the Campaign to Stop Secret Trials in Canada and its 
growing subsidiary, the Campaign to Stop the Detention and Torture of 
Canadians Abroad)

  TORONTO, FEBRUARY 25, 2004 -- It's the second time in the past few 
months that a Canadian has gone before the cameras to discuss his 
torture at the hands of Syrian authorities. It's the second time that 
serious questions have been raised about the potential role of CSIS 
and the RCMP in sharing the kind of information with overseas 
intelligence agencies that has prompted the torture of a Canadian 
detained abroad.

  	And there was an eerie sense at today's Toronto press 
conference with torture survivor Muayyad Nureddin -- who was held 
without charge or explanation just over one month in a Syrian prison 
and released in January -- that it may not be the last time we see 
such a sight:  a quiet, dignified statement about the terror of 
torture visited upon a human being who made the mistake of travelling 
abroad while Muslim or Arab.

  	Indeed, as Amnesty International's Canadian General Secretary 
Alex Neve pointed out, "two other Canadians,  Abdullah Almalki and 
Anwar Al-Bouchi remain in Syrian jails. Reports of their torture 
emerged months ago. Canada must redouble its efforts on their behalf."

  	And yet there are still others. Recently detained overseas 
and just released from Egypt are Helmy Elsherief, a 64-year-old man 
who was "questioned" for two full weeks in Egypt before being 
released, and Ahmad Abou El-Maati, held over two years, tortured in 
Syria and then transferred to an Egyptian prison.

  	Israel has detained Windsor, Ontario resident Jamal Akkal 
based on what appears to be a trumped-up allegation that he was 
forced to confess to in a language he does not read nor speak after 
20 days of round-the-clock interrogation.

[--- something deleted here] In the U.S., Canadians are also held behind bars. 

  There's the mysterious case of Mansour Jabarah (who was recently 
convicted in a secret trial of a slew of alleged crimes after 
apparently being kidnapped by CSIS while in Oman and turned over to 
the U.S.). 

  Recently, Somali-Canadian Mohammad Warsame was arrested in 
Minneapolis and, after being held as a material witness in an 
undisclosed location in connection with a case related to Sept. 11, 
2001, was indicted under the (recently declared unconstitutional) law 
against provision of materiel aid to a terrorist group, yet no 
details have been made public.

  	There's also the cases of Canadians held at the illegal 
Guantanamo Bay "enemy combatants" camp, including teenager Omar 
Khadr. 	This disturbing trend, especially with respect to those who 
call Canada home, seems to follow a particular pattern. Mr. 
Nureddin's attorney, Barbara Jackman, notes "CSIS has a long-standing 
practice--and the RCMP before it and still--of focusing and 
targetting of persons who are associated with particular centres. 
Certainly the Muslim centre is now being targetted. In the past it's 
been Tamils, Kurds, Sikhs, because of their association with 
particular ethnic centres.

  	"Associations with other persons and with particular centres 
have formed the basis of security certificates imposed on 
non-citizens in Canada, like Mr. Jaballah and Mr. Almrei and a number 
of others. In security certificate proceedings the government only 
needs to establish that the case might possibly be true, so 
inferences are drawn based merely on associations with persons or a 
particular centre that's a concern to CSIS. Mr. Nureddin's case, and 
Mr. Arar before it, appear to indicate that the RCMP and CSIS, or 
both of them, are moving into another form of targetting: Canadian 
citizens."

  	The unsettling conclusion to be drawn from these practices is clear.

  	"Canadian citizens can't be made subject of security 
certificates because they're Canadian citizens," Jackman points out 
in reference to the mechanisms whereby secret trials in Canada are 
initiated, and under which five Muslim men have been detained without 
charge or bail a collective 124 months.

  	"So what appears to be happening is that CSIS or the RCMP are 
opportunistically taking advantage of times when people are 
travelling to provide information to other governments to get them to 
do their dirty work, to ask questions using means that would not be 
acceptable in Canada and that are not condoned internationally and in 
fact are prohibited internationally ... at this point in time, 
anybody -- any Canadian citizen or permanent resident from the Middle 
East  who's ever been questioned by CSIS or the RCMP -- should be 
worried about travelling. They can't take a chance that if they 
travel they won't be detained in some other country because CSIS has 
passed information on about them."

  		Nureddin's friend, Tawfik Kettanah, asks, "How do you 
feel when you know your fellow citizen is passing information about 
you that resulted in your torture and humiliation? I say definitely 
it's betrayal. This is not only about a fellow citizen, but an 
organization whose job  is to protect the entire nation's security."

  	Many questions arose as a result of today's revelations. Mr. 
Nureddin himself states clearly: 

  "I want to know why I was detained in Syria. I want to know if CSIS 
or any other Canadian security agency was responsible for my 
detention and torture in Syria. I want the Canadian government to 
hold a public inquiry so that I and the Canadian public know exactly 
what happened. I do not want this to happen to others ever again. It 
is wrong."

  	Other important questions arise. Why was it that the Canadian 
consular official in Syria learned of Nureddin's pending release not 
from Syrian authorities, but from CSIS? 

  Why was it that the same questions asked by CSIS agents at Pearson 
airport in September, 2003, before Nureddin travelled overseas, were 
asked by Nureddin's torturers in a Syrian prison three months later? 
(Those questions concerned the cash he was carrying for his own and 
other families in Iraq (a fairly common practice for many in 
immigrant communities who visit overseas); questions about two 
individuals associated with the Salaheddin mosque in Scarborough and 
about another individual who has since left Canada; questions about 
whether Nureddin worked in Salaheddin's accounting department; and 
how many times he had visited Iraq.

  	Why is it that Nureddin, while crossing the Turkish-Syrian 
border earlier in his ill-fated trip, was again asked questions about 
the Muslim centre, when he had quit, whether he belonged to any 
organization? At that time his car was stripped down and searched, 
and his money counted.

  	While today's conference called for the terms of the Arar 
inquiry to be broadened to include the case of Mr. Nureddin, it also 
served as another reminder of a question which demands its own 
inquiry (perhaps even more so than the shocking -- yet not unexpected 
-- disappearing act of $100 million into Liberal patronage coffers.)

  	That question is on the minds of many refugee families, 
especially those whose loved ones have been subject to security 
certificates. After someone like Mr. Nureddin comes home from the 
hell of a Syrian torture chamber and shares his horrific story, how 
can the federal government proceed with plans to try and deport 
Syrian refugee Hassan Almrei, now 28 months in solitary confinement, 
knowing full well the substantial likelihood that Almrei will face 
torture or murder?  

  How can the Canadian government, despite its own conclusion that 
they will be tortured and likely killed if returned to Egypt, proceed 
with efforts to deport secret trial detainees Mahmoud Jaballah 
(father of six, held since August 2001) and Mohammad Mahjoub (father 
of three, held since June 2000) to Egypt? 

  How can Canada proceed with similar cases against Algerian refugee 
Mohamed Harkat (still behind bars in Ottawa as his wife Sophie Harkat 
wages an unending battle to free the detainees) and Adil Charkaoui, 
an art student and permanent resident from Morocco separated by 
concrete and steel bars from his loving family, in Montreal?

  	Given the soundbite nature of the news, it seems especially 
important given the gravity of this issue to reproduce [in ZGRAMS 
Parts 2, 3, and 4] a transcript of today's press conference 
statements. Those who participated are Muayyad Nureddin, his friend 
Tawfik Kettanah, Alex Neve of Amnesty International and lawyer 
Barbara Jackman.

  [END] 

  Tomorrow / Part II :   Transcript of tortured victim at a Canadian 
press conference