Said1
Gold Member
Is anyone following the Maher Arar case in Ottawa?
His story, told by him www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/arar_statement.html
His story, told by him www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/arar_statement.html
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Originally posted by Said1
Is anyone following the Maher Arar case in Ottawa?
His story, told by him www.cbc.ca/news/background/arar/arar_statement.html
Originally posted by Moi
As much as it appears that something is askew, I don't think you can blame the INS. It seems awfully weird that Canada didn't want him, Syria didn't want him, Jordan took him and then handed him over to the Syrians. Even weirder that they tortured him for awhile than just let him go to the Canadians.
Why didn't the canadians take him the first place and save him the trouble?
Originally posted by Moi
It may be that the INS did something wrong. However, my point was that it isn't automatically their fault. Unfortunately, we don't know anything about the communications between the USA and canada. Somehow, they must have made a tie to Syria...they didn't just see a canadian passport and decide just to call Syria on a lark.
Until it's clear what exactly happened between the INS, canada, syria and jordan I don't think we can put the blame on the INS. Theereafter, blame may ultimately fall on them in whole or in part but nothing so far has proven that they are to blame.
A search of the info on this reveals that this guy is indeed a Syrian citizen as well as a canadian one. Furthermore:
CBC News website states:
Last week, Graham said that U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had confirmed to him that CSIS and the RCMP provided American authorities with information on Arar before he was shipped off to Syria.
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.
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.
Originally posted by Zhukov
Does anyone know when this Abdullah Almalki was taken into Syrian custody? Perhaps while being tortured he fingered Aras under duress, word got out to INS and they picked him up when he showed up in NYC. Seems unlikely we'd deport a Canadian/Syrian citizen to Jordan without some sort of rationale.
Originally posted by Said1
There are many things that do not add up, but I also do not think the blame falls on INS alone. I really think Canada gave to go ahead to deport him. It seems as though there was an awful lot of effort placed on gathering information on this one guy for each government to be acting independently of the other. Seriously, who told CSIS agents when he would be arriving back in Canada in the first place? I doubt they were waiting around the airport for weeks hoping he would just show up. The whole thing stinks, and I agree a Canadian, is a Canadian, is a Canadian.
I must admit I was not following this case until I heard Bill Graham claim (on CPAC no less) to know nothing about American deportation laws when being questioned about the Arar case. This was one year after Arar was deported - Uhhh Bill....didn't they tell you you need to know that when they hired you? How stupid does he think the Canadian public really is???
Maher Arar is very lucky, his wife just wouldn't give up. I live in Ottawa, and that woman was relentless - pretty awesome if you ask me.
Originally posted by Said1
I'm fairly certain the same 60 minutes special mentioned above quotes Seria as finding him innocent based on the evidence provided to them by Canada and USA. A little strange considering they beat a confession out of him. The law firm which has taken on his case is top notch, they have infor regarding the case on their web site if anyone is intersted www.edelsonandassociates.com. I think things may turn out for him in the end - if that's possible given the circumstances.
I really hope we sent the cold on to you Brock . It's been very cold here for the last two weeks, but not -50, more like -35. It's a very blamy
-15, with a mild windchill of -25 right now. I think it's supposed to warm up a bit over the next few days, but you know what that means.....more snow
Originally posted by Isaac Brock
Interesting. Now that there is a public inquiry I should expect that that case will come further into the limelight!
Bloody hell Said! Give us a break, we've been freezing over here! Tonite they predict really temperature of -40C with a windchill putting it at -55C. I'll take snow if you care to trade? At least us stubble-jumpers have an army of plows here to deal with that. Course, you have neither
Originally posted by Moi
Can one of you canadians enlighten me as to what his status is as a syrian/canadian citizen. If you choose to take another citizenship, the us doesn't offer duality...you lose the american citizenship if you declare allegiance to another country. This guy was still a syrian citizen. What are the extradition rights of Syria?