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rfmcdonaldThe case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-Canadian computer technician who was sent by the United States (with Canadian help) to be imprisoned and tortured for nearly a year in Syria, just took another twist.
The distant possibility that Arar was, in fact, in Afghanistan contra his claims to date upsets me, but the methods that have been used and are being used by the Guantanamo system certainly disgust me.
An FBI agent’s claim that Omar Khadr had seen Maher Arar at terrorist "safe houses" in Afghanistan was severely undermined today when a military court was told that Arar was in North America during the time in question.
FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller testified Monday that Khadr said he recognized a photo of Arar during an October 2002 interrogation.
Under questioning Tuesday, Fuller said Khadr saw Arar in Afghanistan during late September or October 2001.
A Canadian judicial inquiry determined in 2006 that Arar was working in San Diego on a business trip on the day of the 9/11 terror attacks — and back in Canada in October. In fact, Arar first drew the interest of the RCMP when he met another man they were watching in an Ottawa cafe Oct. 12, 2001.
The FBI claim has drawn ire in Canada and in Ottawa Tuesday Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon said the government has not been shaken from its belief that Arar is an innocent man.
Arar has denied ever being in Afghanistan.
Fuller’s evidence was further undercut by revelations that the FBI notes taken during the interrogation stated Khadr was shown a photograph of Arar and at first said he "looked familiar." The notes recorded that "in time" Khadr stated "he felt he had seen" Arar.
[. . .]
Khadr’s lawyers had tried repeatedly to have this week’s hearing delayed so as not to end on the government’s evidence if Obama stops the trial.
Cannon stood by the results of the Canadian inquiry in which Justice Dennis O’Connor concluded Arar was a wronged man.
"Justice O’Connor did a fulsome report ... (and) the government acknowledged and accepted its recommendations," Cannon told the Star.
[. . .]
Paul Cavalluzzo, the commission counsel to Justice O’Connor, noted that the report concluded there was no evidence Arar was engaged in terrorist activity.
Cavalluzzo said that "given what’s happening at Guantanamo Bay, it wouldn’t surprise me if it was a product of torture, which means that it’s meaningless and useless information."
Navy Lt.-Cmdr. Billl Kuebler, Khadr’s Pentagon-appointed lawyer said Tuesday outside court that Khadr, who was 15 and gravely injured when he arrived at the U.S. base in Bagram, would have "confessed to seeing the Pope," to make his interrogations stop.
The distant possibility that Arar was, in fact, in Afghanistan contra his claims to date upsets me, but the methods that have been used and are being used by the Guantanamo system certainly disgust me.
