He added, “In this case, federal officials conspired to send an innocent man to Syria to be tortured and arbitrarily detained, and then did everything within their power to ensure that he could not get to a court to stop them from effectuating their conspiracy. They lied to him about his lawyer, and lied to his lawyer about him, while spiriting him off to Syria in a chartered jet. Now the government maintains that he has no remedy whatsoever in a court of law, and has the temerity to contend that his only avenue for judicial review was the very one they blocked him from pursuing while he was in their custody.”
At a US Congressional hearing last month, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice acknowledged Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice admitted that the US had mishandled the case, but stopped short of an apology. “We do not think that this case was handled as it should have been,” Ms. Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We do absolutely not wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured.”
Arar was transported to Syria under a US Government program that transports detainees to countries where prison authorities are known to practice torture. The program, which was started during the Clinton Administration, has been used extensively by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), which uses leased Gulfstream business jets for its flights. One of the owners of these leased airplanes, a subsidiary of the Boeing Company, is currently being sued for facilitating renditions.
The US Government has acknowledged that it uses the rendition practice, but insists that countries to which prisoners are taken provide 'diplomatic assurance' that they will be treated humanely. It is generally thought that the rendering practice may be responsible for some of the 'ghost detainees' from Iraq and Afghanistan -- US prisoners whose identities have been hidden from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
Arar came to Canada in 1987. After earning bachelor's and master's degrees in computer engineering, he worked in Ottawa as a telecommunications engineer. He now lives in British Columbia.
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