Protection from Embarrassment is Not Covered in Canadian Security Laws |
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| By: MrWhy Friday July 10, 2009 8:07 pm | |
Justice Simon Noel of the Canadian Federal Court reasons that the public’s right to know outweighs the embarrassment that CSIS or the RCMP might suffer on publication of the 2006 inquiry report into the rendition and torture of Maher Arar. “Protection from embarrassment is not covered in our security laws,” Judge Noel wrote. Noel did allow some information in the report to remain secret.
The Canadian Press story by Jim Bronskill is available via the Globe and Mail.
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3 Comments
The CSIS knew the US was using rendition to enable torture and kept silent. Who gave the CIA the right to kidnap and render a Canadian citizen from US soil? No wonder Gonzo fought to keep Arar from getting a hearing in the US. There isn’t any secret evidence against Arar, but there obviously is a secret program of rendition within the US.
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“The new elements revealed that Canada’s spy agency suspected, within two days of Mr. Arar’s deportation, that the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency had shipped him somewhere to face possible torture.
The suspicion within the Canadian Security Intelligence Service was fuelled by knowledge of a pattern of cases in which American authorities would send terrorism suspects abroad for questioning in countries that paid little attention to legal niceties.
Jack Hooper, then deputy director of CSIS, said in an Oct. 10, 2002, memo: “I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.” “
http://www.theglobeandmail.com…..le1212918/
And to the day, Mr. Arar remains on the US no-fly list, which means he can’t fly very many places, if at all, in case the plane is forced, because of a medical or other emergency, in the US and he is sent right back to Syria.
As a Canadian citizen, I am heartsick at the lack of justice the US has given my countryman.
Sadly,
Heather
FBI agent Robert Fuller should be charged. Thanks to Obama’s protection of torture enablers, he never will be. Khadr was tortured at Bagram and subsequently fingered Arar. The US tortured a Canadian child to get him to lie about Arar. Khadr still sits in Guantanamo. He is one of the innocent prisoners that Obama thinks should be jailed indefinitely. Whose opinion is Napolitano quoting..Fuller’s?
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“On 19 January 2009, while testifying at the Guantanamo military commission for accused terrorist Omar Khadr, FBI agent Robert Fuller testified that Khadr had identified Maher Arar as among the al-Qaeda militants he met while in Afghanistan. Upon cross-examination the following day, Mr. Fuller clarified his statement saying that at first Mr. Khadr could not identify Mr. Arar. Then after giving him a couple minutes Khadr “stated he felt he had seen” Maher Arar.
On October 7, 2002, FBI agent Robert Fuller went to Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan and showed Canadian teenager Omar Khadr a black-and-white photograph of Arar obtained from the FBI office in Massachusetts, and demanded to know if he recognised him. Khadr initially stated that he did not recognise Arar, but when further pressured by Fuller, confessed he had seen him at a Kabul safehouse run by Abu Musab al-Suri or Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. This testimony given by Fuller is contradicted by the fact that during the period indicated by Khadr in Fuller’s testimony, Maher Arar was known to be in Canada, under surveillance by the RCMP.
Arrested in 2002, Arward Al-Bousha gave up the name of Arar as a possible militant, after he himself had been fingered in a confession given by Abdullah Almalki allegedly to stop his own torture.
Little has been said publicly about Maher Arar by President Obama’s new administration. In an interview with Neil Macdonald of CBC, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano stated that it is the opinion of those who have reviewed Mr. Arar’s case that “his status should not now be changed.” When questioned about the validity of Canada’s findings in all matters relating to Mr. Arar, Secretary Napolitano clarified saying “his status at least for admission to the United States purposes should not be changed.” ”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maher_Arar