Democrats in U.S. Congress Seek Investigation Into U.S. Deportation of Maher Arar

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In a bold move, the chairman of the U. S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee, John Conyers, and Representatives Jerrold Nadler and William Delahunt have sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Michael Mukasey demanding that an independent investigation be held regarding the "possible misconduct [of] ... high ranking officials within the executive branch," regarding the handling of the deportation of Mr. Arar in 2002.

Although Mr. Arar successfully fought to have his name cleared in Canada, claims of misinformation, misconduct, and (over) zealousness on the part of U.S. authorities have yet to be fully addressed.

Some history from previous CBC coverage is as follows:

Maher Arar is a Syrian-born Canadian engineer who was travelling back to Canada from a family vacation in Tunisia in September 2002, when he was pulled off a plane in New York. A long nightmare was about to begin. American authorities suspected him of involvement in the al-Qaeda network. Within days, Arar was deported to Syria, where he says he was systematically tortured and brutalized for a year.

The resulting Canadian inquiry brought to light serious defaults in the communication between intelligence agencies in Canada and the U.S.: e.g. RCMP, CSIS, FBI. It also clearly found no evidence to support the U.S. claim (at the time) that Arar had ever had links to "terrorism cells" in North America or abroad. In response to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's apology in 2007, U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy (D), had this to say:

The question remains why, even if there were reasons to consider him suspicious, the U.S. government shipped him to Syria where he was tortured, instead of to Canada for investigation or prosecution.

Mr. Arar is still banned from traveling to the U.S. as his name still appears on national "watch lists" for suspected terrorists. In the past, Secretary of State Condaleezza Rice has said, "We do not think that this case was handled as it should have been,” when speaking to the the House Foreign Affairs Committee. “We do absolutely not wish to transfer anyone to any place in which they might be tortured." At no time, has she admitted on behalf of the Administrative Branch that there was any wrong-doing. Poorly handled?

Should the independent investigation, as demanded by Conyers, Nadler, and Delahunt ever see the light of day, one can only hope that the findings will be made public. The U.S. administration must be made to see that torture in the name of intelligence gathering, knee-jerk deportation, and assumptions based on nationality will not make the U.S. or the world a safer place.