The plight of Canadian-Syrian Maher Arar is a disturbing example of how far the United States is prepared to go in its hunt for suspected terrorists, writes Jaideep Mukerji On 26 September 2002, Maher Arar landed at John F Kennedy International Airport, stepped off an airplane and walked into a nightmare. Arar, 33, was stopped by US officials during a routine layover in New York as he returned home to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia. He was subsequently detained and subjected to interrogations by US officials who accused him of having links to Al-Qa'eda. Then, using a covert procedure known as an "extraordinary rendition", US officials secretly deported Arar to Syria even though he had been travelling on a Canadian passport and had not been to Syria in over 15 years. Arar claims that once in Syria he was tortured and forced to sign false statements about his involvement with Al-Qa'eda. The incident has once again raised serious concerns about questionable US treatment of suspected terrorists, and has also sparked outrage in Canada over why Canadian officials were unable to prevent Arar's deportation. Speaking to reporters last week, Arar gave a vivid account of his ordeal, starting with his detention in the US. "A team of people came and told me they wanted to ask me some questions," he said. "I was scared and I told them I wanted a lawyer. They told me I had no right to a lawyer, because I was not an American citizen. They swore at me, and insulted me. I was very, very worried, and asked for a lawyer again and again. They just ignored me." Arar says he was deprived of food and sleep and was not allowed to make a phone call until five days into his detention. During that time, Arar says American officials accused him of hiding facts about his relationship with another Syrian-Canadian, Abdullah Al-Malki, whom US officials apparently also suspected of having links to Al-Qa'eda. Arar pleaded with his interrogators to let him pass through to Canada and claims he repeatedly told them that he would be tortured in Syria. After eight days in custody, US officials finally allowed Arar to meet with a Canadian consular official. The official, Arar says, told him that Canada would provide a lawyer and assured him that the US would not deport him to Syria. A few days later, however, that is precisely what happened. Arar was flown to Syria and taken to a prison in Damascus. "I [lived] in a grave," Arar said, describing his cell at the prison. "It had no light. It was three feet wide. It was six feet deep. There was a small opening in the ceiling, about one foot by two feet with iron bars. There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time the cats peed through the opening into the cell. I spent 10 months and 10 days inside that grave." Arar alleges that he was repeatedly tortured by Syrian officials and forced to sign a confession stating that he had received training at an Al-Qa'eda terrorist camp in Afghanistan, despite the fact that he had never set foot in Afghanistan. It took a year of intense international pressure and diplomatic wrangling to secure Arar's release. Arar says he is innocent and told reporters that he will fight as long as it takes to clear his name. "I want to know why this happened to me. I have never had trouble with the police, and have always been a good citizen. I am not a terrorist. I am not a member of Al-Qa'eda and I do not know anyone who belongs to this group." Lorne Waldman, Arar's lawyer, told Al- Ahram Weekly that his client's plight has shed light on how the US government deals with suspected terrorists. "We now know that it is a standard practice for the US to render low level suspects to third countries where they are tortured to get information," he said, adding that such extraordinary renditions are "a blatant and flagrant violation of international law". The Washington Post, which first broke the story of extraordinary renditions to the US public last week, quoted one unnamed US official as saying "The temptation is to have [terrorist suspects] in other hands because they have different standards." Another official added that "someone might be able to get information we can't from detainees." An official with the US Department of Homeland Security told the Weekly that the US government was perfectly within its rights to deport Arar to any country it wished. "The laws and regulations do govern the removal process to include determining which nation an individual is sent to," he said. "The law was followed in this particular case." Steven Watt, a human rights lawyer with the New York-based Centre for Constitutional Rights, disagrees. His is investigating the US's actions in the Arar case and explained to the Weekly that "the US has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture and is therefore under a binding legal obligation not to send persons to countries where they will be subjected to torture," adding that "even under US domestic law, there are certainly due processes to which Mr Arar was entitled to and did not receive." The Canadian government has so far maintained that it had no idea Arar was going to be deported and that it did everything it could to protect him. A spokesperson for Canada's foreign affairs minister told reporters that, "Everyone was completely taken by surprise by the fact that the Americans -- despite the fact that we are good neighbours -- chose to deport [Arar] to a country where he did not want to go." Critics, however, point to recent statements by US officials who claim that Arar became a suspect only after the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) alerted them to his possible links with Al-Malki as proof that Canada did in fact play a role in Arar's deportation. Watt told the Weekly "if the RCMP was in fact sending information to the US, they would have been complicit because that information was what ultimately led to Arar's deportation." Canadian officials vehemently deny that they were knowingly involved in Arar's deportation and have suggested that moles in Canada's intelligence community may be responsible for providing information on Arar to US officials. The Canadian government promised an investigation but is refusing to launch a public inquiry into the matter. As Arar's lawyer, Waldman finds that unacceptable. "We need to know if Arar's deportation was done in collaboration with Canada, over the objections of Canada or without Canada's knowledge. An [RCMP] investigation is not enough; we are extremely disappointed that the government has not called a public inquiry into the matter." Waldman pointed out that Canada took drastic security measures in the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks and that Arar's case is a clear example of the deleterious effects those measures are having. "Canada needs to rethink its cooperation with the US over the war on terror if the US is going to render Canadian citizens to other countries to be tortured," he said. "There is a situation now here where if you know someone who happens to know someone who might be a terrorist, then you yourself are a suspect. That's incredibly dangerous."
