Canadian man arrested shiped to Syria by US, and tortured was the wrong man all along

[e-brake]

Ottawa- Canada's federal police was reviled Tuesday for providing wrong intelligence to US authorities that led to the detention and torture in Syria of a Canadian citizen for his suspected links to Al-Qaeda.

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) provided "inaccurate" information to US security officials in 2002 suggesting engineer Maher Arar, 37, was an "Islamic extremist" with links to Osama bin Laden's terror group, according to a report released on Monday.

The document stated that US authorities had likely relied on the information in deciding to detain and deport Arar to Syria after he was stopped in New York while in transit from Tunisia to his home in Canada.

The report cleared Arar of terrorism ties.

Newspaper headlines in on Tuesday shouted: "How Canada failed citizen Maher Arar" and "RCMP faulted; Arar cleared."

The Globe and Mail newspaper columnist John Ibbitson called on RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli to resign - not over the national force's "astonishingly irresponsible" acts, which led to "horrible consequences," but for trying to hide their misdeeds from the government and the public.

"This travesty occurred because procedures were not followed, training was inadequate, and accountability was replaced with passing the buck (all on Zaccardelli's watch) ... The RCMP has lost our trust," he wrote.

"Heads should roll," echoed the Toronto Star.

In an editorial, The Globe and Mail went further, saying:

"Canada's hands are dirty ... from sloppiness, indifference, butt-covering and defamation."

"The Arar tragedy has much to teach Canada, and indeed all Western democracies (about the need for due process)," the national newspaper said.

Alexa Leblanc, director of a Quebec rights group, told AFP the case demonstrated that the war on terrorism does not justify lapses in civil rights and freedoms, or due process.

"It's concerning to see the impact (that police bungling) can have on an innocent person," she said.

Justice Dennis O'Connor said in his 822-page report that Arar was an innocent victim who should never have been detained and who had no links to the Al-Qaeda network.

He also called for a review of three similar cases involving Canadians Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin.

Each claimed to have been detained and tortured by Syrian Military Intelligence while being interrogated based on information that originated in Canada.

Arar, married with two children, was arrested by US authorities in September 2002 and detained for 12 days before being sent to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured for almost one year, according to the report.

Although Canadian officials were not found directly responsible for those events, Canadian police got the ball rolling by identifying Arar as a "person of interest" after he was spotted talking to another terror suspect outside an Ottawa restaurant, O'Connor said.

The tag snowballed amid heightened tensions over terrorism, he said in his report.

Only the Ottawa Citizen in an editorial partly defended the RCMP, saying: "Many of the errors committed by the (RCMP) are understandable, but they are not acceptable."

To bolster its argument, the newspaper said there was a "great deal of pressure" on the force to investigate possible terror plots in the period following the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States, since more attacks were expected.

"Being out of the national security game for decades (since the creation of the Canadian Security Intelligence Service in the early 1980s), the Mounties didn't have investigators skilled in hunting terrorists," the newspaper said.

O'Connor's report made 23 recommendations, including proposing stricter rules for national security investigations and urging complaints be made to the US and Syrian governments.

Alex Neve, Secretary General of Amnesty International Canada, urged Ottawa to act on them "without further delay."

But the government's response was tepid. Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the recommendations would be reviewed and possible compensation for Arar in light of a lawsuit he filed against the government would be considered.

Arar, a telecommunications engineer who denied the terrorism accusations after returning to Canada in 2003 and had asked for a public inquiry, said the report restored his reputation. - Sapa-AFP

IOL: False data leads to innocent man's torture

[Xodiac]

Fuck. Cases like these are starting to pile up, too. Things are starting to get kind of scary.

[Krash]

My sympathies to this poor guy.

Who needs terrorists when you do this to the innocent

[zerojunkie]

Why did Syria torture him?

[Dionysos]

Originally Posted by zerojunkie

Why did Syria torture him?

Probably because we asked them to.

[Satchel]

wtf outsourcing our torture now?

[Xodiac]

Originally Posted by Satchel

wtf outsourcing our torture now?

Lol, yeah, because it helps us avoid a bunch of legal trouble.

Seriously, by doing this kind of thing, how can we not be creating more terrorists than we are stopping? What the hell do you an innocent Iraqi or Afgani is going to do when they let him out of a secret prison after a year or more with no explanation, rights or lawyer? It's kind of a no-brainer.

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by zerojunkie

Why did Syria torture him?

Syria did not torture him, we arrested him and shipped him to a prison in Syria where there are no torture laws. He was then "questioned" using torture by either military, or CIA personell. Today there are currently 14,000 people around the globe undergoing this type of "questioning" as we speak. Our government isnt stupid they arent going to do this in the US where its illegal. Why the hell else would we be opening prisons in Cuba, Kazikstan, Syria, etc.

[Krash]

Originally Posted by e-brake

Syria did not torture him, we arrested him and shipped him to a prison in Syria where there are no torture laws. He was then "questioned" using torture by either military, or CIA personell. Today there are currently 14,000 people around the globe undergoing this type of "questioning" as we speak. Our government isnt stupid they arent going to do this in the US where its illegal. Why the hell else would we be opening prisons in Cuba, Kazikstan, Syria, etc.

Didn't your courts decide that torture, specifically in Guantanamo (but applicable everywhere) by, or with the permission of, american agents was just as illegal on foreign soil as it is at home?

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Krash

Didn't your courts decide that torture, specifically in Guantanamo (but applicable everywhere) by, or with the permission of, american agents was just as illegal on foreign soil as it is at home?

torture has never been legal - the issue has been "what is torture and what is not"

[Krash]

Originally Posted by xian

torture has never been legal - the issue has been "what is torture and what is not"

Ignoring that, everyone (regardless of whether it is enshrined in law) knows that electrocuting someone is torturous. My point was, regardless of whether it is carried out by american agents, if american agents FACILITATE it, by handing them over to another foreign power who we can safely assume WILL use such methods, then it is just as illegal as if the torture were carried out on the white house lawn./

[PETA]

Originally Posted by Krash

Ignoring that, everyone (regardless of whether it is enshrined in law) knows that electrocuting someone is torturous. My point was, regardless of whether it is carried out by american agents, if american agents FACILITATE it, by handing them over to another foreign power who we can safely assume WILL use such methods, then it is just as illegal as if the torture were carried out on the white house lawn./

accomplice liability?


I can agree with your notion - how would you demonstrate "safely assume"?


General comments of condemnation are simple to agree with. Defining what is an intentional bad act, negligent or simply not a bad act is the problem.... again, exactly why we need a wholsale overhaul of policy to address all of htese issues and establish the rules so no one can claim they didn't know etc etc

[e-brake]

Originally Posted by Krash

Ignoring that, everyone (regardless of whether it is enshrined in law) knows that electrocuting someone is torturous.

well yes electricuting is...but the big debate that is rolling now (sad part about this one is Im not making it up) is if water torture is torture or not. We actually have people in our government right now that actually say that holding someones head under water while questioning them is not only ethical, but one of the most effective means for questioning prisoners.

[PETA]

Originally Posted by e-brake

well yes electricuting is...but the big debate that is rolling now (sad part about this one is Im not making it up) is if water torture is torture or not. We actually have people in our government right now that actually say that holding someones head under water while questioning them is not only ethical, but one of the most effective means for questioning prisoners.

so then... define torture... don't give a practice...

explain a rule that can be applied to determine if a practice is or is not torture?



my understanding of waterboarding is that it is physically safe - it just terrifies the hell out of the sorry sonovabitch that's getting water boarded... not a defense of the practice.. just pointing out that if it is as I described and it is torture then you're including in your definiion "scaring the shit out of someone"

Should scaring people be considered torture? What degree of fright needs to be created? Is this objective as viewed by the act or subjective as viewed by the reaction?

[kalamu]

Main Entry: 1tor·ture
Pronunciation: 'tor-ch&r
Function: noun
Etymology: Middle French, from Old French, from Late Latin tortura, from Latin tortus, past participle of torquEre to twist; probably akin to Old High German drAhsil turner, Greek atraktos spindle
1 a : anguish of body or mind : AGONY b : something that causes agony or pain
2 : the infliction of intense pain (as from burning, crushing, or wounding) to punish, coerce, or afford sadistic pleasure
3 : distortion or overrefinement of a meaning or an argument :