Canadian Gets Apology from U.S. Congressmen
Canadian Maher Arar heard two things Thursday he probably didn't expect. First, he got apologies from both Democratic and Republican congressmen for being wrongly sent by U.S. authorities in 2002 to Syria for suspected terrorist links. Arar was repeatedly tortured during the year he was in a Syrian prison.
And he heard Democratic Rep. Jerrold Nadler say, "There is nothing [in the U.S. government's secret dossier on Arar] to justify the continuation of this campaign of vilification against you or to deny you entry into this country." Nadler made the comments after saying he had read the file. "This was a kidnapping," Nadler said.
But the one thing Arar didn't get was permission to travel to the United States, which was the reason that he was testifying, by video link from Ottawa, to a House Judiciary subcommittee in Washington about his experiences. The Bush administration has refused to take Arar off its no-fly list even though he's been completely cleared by Canadian officials after an extensive judicial inquiry. The U.S. is also trying to squash a lawsuit that Arar has filed in New York.
And while they apologized to Arar for his treatment, Republican members of the committee defended the practice of extraordinary rendition, calling it a vital tool in the war on terror. They also noted that Canadian officials had made the first mistake about Arar. But the committee's chairman, Democrat William Delahunt, praised Canada for being accountable for its culpability in the case and said it "cries out" for a similar independent probe in the U.S.
11:48 AM ET | 10-19-2007 | permalink
