Maher Arar's appeal to sue US govt. denied.

Maher ArarMaher Arar was on his way back to Canada when he was simply changing planes in New York. He was removed and taken into custody and after several days was rendered to Syria where he was imprisoned and tortured and questioned about ties to Al Qaeda.

Under torture he confessed to various things such as attending Al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan--which was quite untrue. Many in Canada especially his wife worked for his release but some of these confessions were conveniently leaked to the press making Arar look to be a terrorist and trying to discredit those working for his release. Eventually he got back to Canada and an inquiry was set up to investigate his case. The web site of the inquiry has now been conveniently removed by the Canadian govt. but the entire OÇonnor report is archived at this library. The inquiry found among other things that the RCMP and CSIS had sent raw intelligence reports without any vetting or verification to US intelligence. The inquiry found that these reports contained very damaging and inaccurate information. The procedures used to transmit the evidence violated Canadian intelligence agencies own rules. For the most part US decisions were based upon this evidence. Arar was rendered to Syria even though he is a Canadian citizen with a Canadian passport and asked to go to Canada. The inquiry found he had no terror connections and also that he was tortured in Syria. Arar was extended an apology by the government and awarded 10.5 million in damages.

""Arar received $10.5 million in compensation after a federal inquiry found the RCMP passed inaccurate and misleading information to American intelligence officials that likely led to his detention and torture."""

Of course no one involved in the RCMP or CSIS was ever punished or reprimanded in fact some were promoted. Arar also attempt to sue the US government for damages. This recent decision is part of that process. He is getting nowhere fast. He is still on a no fly list. Although he received a human rights award by a US organisation he was unable to attend for he feared being arrested again. The US rendered him on the basis that he was an Al Qaeda operative and that view has never been changed. Obama has never done or said anything about the case except that he has indicated that he will also use rendition. US intelligence refused to co-operate in any way with the Arar inquiry. The Arar inquiry was a unique event that the government is loathe to repeat. It showed how innocent people could be ensnared by conjecture and circumstantial evidence that did not imply the connections that intelligence officers made often involving great imaginative leaps! Yet in almost all cases and certainly in the US no one is held accountable and cannot be since any probing of evidence will be prohibited on grounds of national security.

U.S. court denies Maher Arar's appeal
CBC News
..Syrian-born Canadian Maher Arar has again been denied the right to sue the United States over his deportation to Syria, where he was tortured.

During a September 2002 stopover in New York, while returning to Canada from a vacation in Tunisia, Arar was detained by U.S authorities, who were acting on information from Canadian security officials. Based on the erroneous Canadian information that Arar had links to al-Qaeda, the U.S. deported him to Syria, even though he was carrying a Canadian passport.

When Arar returned to Canada ....., he said he had been tortured during his incarceration and accused American officials of sending him to Syria knowing that authorities there use torture.

In New York on Monday, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 7-4 against Arar. He had asked the court to overturn a decision of the U.S. District Court - Eastern District of New York, which had dismissed his suit against dozens of U.S. government officials, including former attorney-general John AshcroftJohn Ashcroft and former homeland security secretary Tom RidgeTom Ridge.

In the majority opinion, the court said it denied Arar's appeal because the U.S. Congress has not laid out legislation that specifies how unusual claims such as his can proceed and what remedies exist.

The court ruled that allowing the claim to proceed would "offend the separation of powers and inhibit this country's foreign policy."

Court a 'tool' of executive branch, Arar says
A key to the case was the practice of "extraordinary rendition" -when someone with suspected links to terrorism is sent to another country for detention and interrogation, without charges, trial or court approval.

The court said it was hesitant to "create to a new damages remedy that Congress has not seen fit to authorize."

"Even the probing of these matters entails the risk that other countries will become less willing to co-operate with the United States in sharing intelligence resources to counter terrorism," the appeal court said.

......Maria LaHood, a senior staff attorney at the centre, said an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court was likely.

"I can't see letting this decision stand without a fight. It's an outrage," she said.

With files from The Associated Press ""