Obsidian Wings archive

So some of you must have wondered why I’ve spent so much time and effort blogging about the Arar case. In part it’s because I used to be a reporter and it’s fun to keep those skills from getting rusty. In part it’s a quest for links (precious links!). In part it’s because I’m going on extended blogging hiatus very soon, and I wanted to make sure I did something worthwile before I did.

But mainly it’s because think it’s such an incredibly important, and under-reported story.

There have been a lot of limits on civil rights since September 11. Some of them are probably necessary, but some are not; some are more or less benign, but some are dangerous. Although you hear most often about the Patriot Act, most of the most controversial and severe changes were made by the executive branch without prior authorization or supervision by Congress. Many of these changes were made in secret.

You can blame the Bush administration or not, as you choose–you can guess my position. But in all honesty, Congress and the public have not made a strong effort to find out what was happening, or tell the President what he could and could not do. (A notable exception to this is the Senate Judiciary committee’s insistence on some revisions of, and time to consider the Patriot Act.)

I don’t think this is because we’re willing to allow anything, as long as there’s any chance it would keep us safer. I think most Americans would not accept what happened to Maher Arar, if they knew of it. But we don’t know, and we tend to give our leaders the benefit of the doubt when the country is in danger. I suspect it’s much easier for most people to imagine the next catastrophic terrorist attack if we don’t go far enough, than it is to imagine that someone might end up being tortured because we go too far.

This is a rare case where the veil of secrecy has been lifted. We don’t know all the details or explanations, but we know that something terrible happened. Our government took a man from an airport in New York City and handed him over to Syria, where he was tortured for 10 months. I think I’ve made a decent case that he was probably innocent; that this was done with the knowledge and approval of fairly important government officials; and that this was not some freak accident or isolated occurrence. This happened, and there is no reason to believe it will not happen again. (We are less chummy with Syria these days, but that may change and there is never any shortage of nasty regimes in the world. And the agreement with Canada about this case is incomplete, and only applies to Canadian citizens anyway.)

As Ted Barlow said last November, “I support the vigorous investigation and prosecution of terrorists and terrorist suspects. But if this isn’t over the line, then there is no line.” It is not acceptable to me for my country to send people to be tortured on scant evidence, or on evidence gained from other torture sessions. I don’t believe it makes my family any safer in the long run, and even if it did I would not support it.

Maybe that’s not what happened. I’ve looked at this very carefully, and it seems the most likely explanation to me, but I could always be wrong. But I think it is beyond dispute that we need an investigation.

Yes, it might damage Bush politically, and no, I would not shed any tears over that. But I think it would lead to Ashcroft’s replacement at most, and the public will not blame Bush too much for overreacting in the name of protecting us from terrorists. Anyway, some things have to matter more than politics. These are dangerous times, and historic times–surely we can manage to agree on something more important than a do-not-call registry.

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This is speculation on my part, and should be treated as such. I want to emphasize that, because these are serious charges.

But: it seems to me that the most likely explanation for how suspicion went from El-Maati, to Almalki, to Arar (and from either El-Maati or Almalki to Al-Buchi), is that a suspect confessed and named his associates (truly or falsely, but it’s not a source of information I’d ever rely on) under torture in Syria; Syria gave the information back to United States and Canadian intelligence; which asked Syria to detain and interrogate the next suspect; who confessed and named his associates (truly or falsely) under torture; and Syria gave the information back to the United States. and Canadian intelligence….etc.

Let me summarize my reasons for believing this:

1. As I noted before, the United States went to a fair degree of trouble, and probably broke the law, to deport Arar to Syria. I don’t think eating lunch one time with a suspected terrorist, or having a suspected terrorist sign your lease, normally rates an “extraordinary rendition”. There must have been something more.

2. The timing fits:
–Ahmad El-Maati was arrested in November 2001. Badr El-Maati says his son was tortured and forced to sign a false confession in Syria, before being transferred to Egypt in January of 2002. January 2002 was when the police (or CSIS, or whoever) executed the warrants against Almalki and his family, and questioned Arar’s wife about her husband.
–In April 2002, Arar has his U.S. work permit renewed without incident. In September 2002 he is taken into custody while changing planes, and the U.S. deems him too dangerous to send to Canada or Zurich. What has changed? INS incompetence is always a possibility, so perhaps they renewed his permit in error. But I think the more likely explanation is that Almalki was arrested in May, questioned about Arar under torture, and confessed to who knows what.
–Arwad Al-Buchi is also arrested after Almalki.

3. A few specific statements from U.S. and Canadian intelligence officials to the press:
–“Sources told CTV News the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has received the transcripts of the Syrian interrogation of Arar.” (link)
–“American officials who spoke on condition of anonymity said the evidence was strong that Mr. Arar had associated with suspected Islamic militants over a long period in Canada. They say he confessed under torture in Syria that he had gone to Afghanistan for terrorist training, named his instructors and gave other intimate details.” (NY Times, 11/15/03, p. A4).

4. There have been other reports of U.S. intelligence collaborating with Syria, including:
— a Seymour Hersh piece in the New Yorker last year (which specifically mentions a plot on targets in Ottawa).
–This, from an NBC Nightly News report on September 5, 2002:

FRED FRANCIS reporting:

In the Syrian capital, where a dictatorship has ruled for decades, where most people resent the US for branding Syria as a state sponsor of terrorism, virtually no one would believe that the CIA has made an ally of the Syrian secret police. Earlier this year, in the Persian Gulf, US troops were saved from an al-Qaeda attack because of information from Syria. Dr. Georges Jabbour often speaks unofficially for Syria.

Mr. GEORGES JABBOUR (Former Syrian Advisor): We supply the United States with any information we have on terrorist activities of al-Qaeda and other terrorist organizations that we consider terrorists. And this does not mean that we agree with the United States on what she considers to be terrorism and terrorists.

FRANCIS: In fact, the information from Bashar Assad’s government is so golden, that the US is cutting Syria a break on illicit Iraqi oil. In exchange for continuing information to the CIA, Washington is really looking the other way as Syria continues to import as much as 200,000 barrels of Iraqi crude oil each day. The oil from Iraq’s Kirkuk fields is flowing in an old, unused pipeline, according to US Officials. Syria denies it, but senior US officials say Syria is lying. And Syria is paying Iraq only $14 a barrel, half the market price. A $3 billion-a-year bonanza for Syria and Iraq. Money, a senior US official says, is going into Saddam Hussein’s slush fund.

Mr. JEFFREY SCHOTT (Institute for International Economics): He certainly needs to have money to support his elite troops and to keep them–keep them happy.

FRANCIS: The US is looking the other way, US officials say, because the man who recruited some of the 9/11 hijackers, Mohammed Zammar, is now in a Syrian prison, and the CIA has access to him. Zammar is being questioned here at Syrian secret police headquarters. US sources say he is talking as are two dozen other al-Qaeda members also imprisoned.

Mr. ITAMAR RABINOVICH (Former Israeli Ambassador to US): I would say that the questioning in Damascus is going to be more brutal and more effective than in Guantanamo or in Washington.

Oddly enough, until Arar each suspect travelled to Syria voluntarily. Which lessens our culpability to a degree, but only to a degree. It’s one thing to cooperate with foreign intelligence services, including those of very nasty regimes. That’s a necessarily evil. It’s another thing to tell them which Canadian citizens to arrest, and look the other way as they torture those people, and rely on the information “confessed” under torture to deport other Canadian citizens into their hands. I don’t know that that’s what happened, but it seems a real possibility. It needs to be investigated, on both sides of the border.

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(sorry for the delay–I am ridiculously nervous about Iowa & couldn’t concentrate. As promised–this is my best attempt at summarizing the chain of associations and events that led to Maher Arar’s deportation to Syria. I will give my analysis of this information in the next post.)

1. INTRODUCTION
Shortly after Maher Arar was returned to Canada but before he spoke to the press, Canadian officials told CTV News that:

while in custody in Syria for almost a year, Canadian Maher Arar provided information to the Syrians about al Qaeda cells operating in Canada.

They say Arar also provided information about the Muslim Brotherhood, a radical Islamic group linked to Osama bin Laden, and information about four other Canadians: Arwad al-Bushi, a Syrian-born Canadian being held in a Syrian jail; Abdullah al Malki, another Syrian-born Canadian being held in Syria; Ahmad Abou-el-Maati, an Eyptian Canadian in custody in Egypt; and Mohamed Harkat, born in Algeria, who is being held under an anti-terrorism security certificate at the Ottawa Detention Centre….

Sources told CTV News the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) has received the transcripts of the Syrian interrogation of Arar. (Source: CTV transcript, 10/24/03.

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