[Mb-civic] CBC News - U.S. ACTIONS IN ARAR CASE CALLED 'EXTREMELY TROUBLING'

Wed May 18 12:49:00 PDT 2005

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U.S. ACTIONS IN ARAR CASE CALLED 'EXTREMELY TROUBLING'
WebPosted Wed May 18 09:53:23 2005

OTTAWA---A senior foreign affairs official has told the Maher Arar
inquiry he was troubled by the way the United States handled the
Ottawa engineer's deportation case, though he defended Canada's role
in the affair.

Dan Livermore, the director general of the department's security and
intelligence bureau, said the Syrian-born man was deported to Syria while
returning to Canada through the U.S. in 2002 because of a controversial
American process called extraordinary rendition.

That's a secret system that was allegedly set up to send terrorist
suspects to another country for questioning in the wake of the Sept. 11,
2001 attacks against the United States.

"I find troubling the entire course of activity the American government
has embarked upon since about 2001 with respect to what they call
extraordinary rendition, a practice which we knew absolutely nothing
about," said Livermore.

Livermore added that he was also disturbed by the way the U.S. suddenly
decided to deport Arar one early October morning in 2002.

"I find it extremely troubling that the Americans would hold an
administrative tribunal in the middle of the night and deport someone
back to his native country, where they must have known it was difficult,
to say the least, for him."

Arar claims Syrian officials tortured him before he was released more
than a year later and returned to Canada.

                        FROM OCT. 30, 2003: Arar
                      says he was tortured in Syria

Yet Livermore defended how Canadian officials acted in the case, saying
the practice of sharing consular information with the RCMP and the
Canadian Security Intelligence Service was necessary, given the
heightened global terrorist threat.

Arar's lawyer, Marlys Edwardh, said much of that information was provided
to Canadian security forces by the same Syrian authorities that Arar says
later tortured him.

She pointed to information the RCMP leaked to Canadian media, alleging
Arar had links to Muslim extremists.

"This is a very destructive thing to have done in respect of Mr. Arar in
circumstances where information is neither confirmed or proven, given its
alleged source," she said.

Livermore agreed that the media leak was devastating to Arar, and said he
found it "personally distasteful."

The public inquiry looking into the Canadian government's role in Arar's
deportation continues in Ottawa.