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After I sent my posting off, I listened to an interview
with Robert Baer, a member of the CIA who worked in the Middle East as a
field officer. What Baer said was that the CIA could not use the
kind of methods other countries use to elicit information. Syria, he said,
was where they sent people who needed pretty rough treatment to get them to
talk. The fact that Syrian authorities let Arar go suggests that he is
innocent. However, the Syrians continue to hold and torture another
Canadian with suspected Al Qada ties because they are not yet convinced he has
told them everything he knows.
Why is Syria doing this for the Americans?
According to Baer, it is very worried about becoming the next Iraq, so it plays
covert ball in whatever way it can.
Baer also said that suspects are sent to other
countries, depending on what the CIA wants done with them. If it want them
to disappear without a trace, it sends them to Egypt.
Ed
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Thursday, November 06, 2003 8:46
AM
Subject: Re: [Futurework] The Arar
Case
Ed, you wrote:
Send the bastard to Syria.
They'll know how to look after him.
What this suggests is that there is closer collaboration between the Bush
Administration and Syria than had been thought.
Bill
It is rather odd how people come out of the woodwork when there isn’t
much reason to stay in anymore. Responding to public outrage over the Maher
Arar case, Canadian politicians are now getting mildly bellicose, or at
least making some pretense at doing so. Our Prime Minister, who said
absolutely nothing about the case when Arar was being confined and tortured
in Syria is going to demand answers from the Americans, but he’s leaving
politics so he won’t be around to field the answers, if they come, which is
unlikely. Bill Graham, the Canadian foreign affairs minister, who exudes
about as much energy as a wet mop, is going to ask Colin Powell about Arar’s
deportation. Well, good luck there too.
Arar, for those very few who are not familiar with the case, is the
Canadian citizen and software engineer who was detained in New York while
changing planes on his way back to Canada. Strangely instead of being
allowed to continue on to Canada, he was deported to Syria, his birthplace.
An alternative might have been to detain him in the US, along with ever so
many other people who are in secret detention without being charged.
However, it would seem that wasn’t an option either. Send the bastard to
Syria. They’ll know how to look after him.
Arar is now back in Canada after suffering ten months of isolated
detention and torture. Explanations are needed. Is he a genuine threat or
was he a victim of circumstances? What circumstances, and if mistakes were
made, who made them? Rights were violated and no charges were laid. Please,
somebody, tell us why. Don’t worry, says our soon to be gone Prime Minister,
the RCMP is conducting an internal inquiry, but what if the Mounties have
something to hide, as is probable? What role did the now endemic paranoia in
the US Administration play?
What is needed is a full public inquiry which will either vindicate Mr.
Arar or prove that we have something to fear from him. Mr. Arar is not
afraid of an inquiry so why, politicians, are you?
Ed
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