U.S. Senator Leahy takes up the Arar fight

01/20/2007

Editorial
Globe and Mail

Late Thursday morning, after grilling U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzales about the Bush administration's policy on wiretapping, Vermont Democratic Senator Patrick Leahy switched gears. The new chairman of the Senate judiciary committee wanted Mr. Gonzales to explain the administration's silence on the case of Maher Arar. The U.S. media largely ignored this exchange, and that's unfortunate, because Mr. Leahy was passionate in denouncing Washington's disgraceful conduct.

Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was seized in transit at a New York City airport in 2002 and treated as a terrorist suspect, a belief fed in part by erroneous information supplied by the RCMP. Instead of sending Mr. Arar to Canada to be dealt with (though there was, in fact, no reason to deal with him), and without bothering to tell Canadian authorities, the United States sent him to Syria, where he was jailed and tortured for nearly a year. A Canadian public inquiry concluded that Mr. Arar was the innocent victim of a horrendous abuse of authority. Yet Mr. Arar, who is suing the United States (and Canada), remains on the U.S. terrorist watch list and can't even fly over U.S. airspace.

Mr. Gonzales said the U.S. had sought assurances from Syria that Mr. Arar would not be tortured. Mr. Leahy wasn't buying it. "Assurances from a country that we also say, now, we can't talk to them because we can't take their word for anything? . . . We knew damn well, if he went to Canada, he wouldn't be tortured. He'd be held. He'd be investigated. We also knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. And it's beneath the dignity of this country, a country that has always been a beacon of human rights, to send somebody to another country to be tortured." And Mr. Arar wasn't alone. "You know, and I know," Mr. Leahy said, "that has happened a number of times in the past five years by this country. It is a black mark on us. It has brought about the condemnation of some of our closest and best allies."

And yet, he said, the United States "has not said anything at all that we made any mistake or had any apology" regarding Mr. Arar. Mr. Gonzales replied that he'd have to talk to the White House, but "we may be able to publicly say more about this shortly." Mr. Leahy responded sharply: "If we don't get it, I guarantee you there will be another hearing on this issue. Canadians have been our closest allies, longest unguarded frontier in the world. They're justifiably upset."

And they may be thankful that Mr. Leahy has forcefully joined those pressing the administration to answer for the wrong it did to Mr. Arar.

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