October 6, 2002
At 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night, guards come to take Arar from his cell, saying that his attorney is there to see him. Arar is taken to a room where about seven officials are waiting. His attorney is not there. He is told that they contacted his attorney and that “he” refused to come (thisis strange because Arar’s lawyer is a woman).
They ask why Arar does not want to go to Syria, and Arar tells them he is afraid he will be tortured there. He says he did not do his military service before leaving Syria, he is a Sunni Muslim, and his mother’s cousin was accused of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and imprisoned. They ask him to sign a document, and he refuses.
This session continues until 3:00 a.m., when he is taken back to his cell.
This was the so-called hearing. As I noted his lawyer was not there. As a matter of fact his lawyer a woman did not know about the hearing until after it had happened. She had a message about it on her answering machine but only heard it the next day.
The notice you refer to was read to Arar two days later. As a result of the "hearing" and other information the deputy attorney general ordered him deported to Syria. Rendered would be a better word.
October 8, 2002
Arar is woken at 3:00 a.m. and is told he is leaving. He is given food, and then taken from his cell. A woman reads to him from a document, saying that based on classified information that they could not reveal to him, and because he knows a number of men, including – Abdullah Almalki, Nazih Almalki, and Ahmad Abou-el-Maati, the INS Director has decided to deport him to Syria.
Bush is an equal opportunity employer. He had a black henchman(Thompson) and a hispanic henchman (Gonzales)
A senior Justice Department official personally approved sending a Syrian-born Canadian citizen suspected of terrorist links to Syria last year after consulting with CIA officials, according to U.S. officials.
Then-Deputy Attorney General Larry D. Thompson, in his capacity as acting attorney general, signed the highly unusual order, citing national security and declaring that to send the man, Maher Arar, home to Canada would be "prejudicial to the interests of the United States," according to the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.
In the Arar report there is more about the document. In it Arar is declared a member of Al Qaeda.
Certainly Canadian intelligence was also involved. The fed questions to the Syrians. They probably orchestrated a slander campaign against Arar by releasing material in which he confessed (of course under torture) that he had trained in Afghanistan etc. etc. They did nothing to help the government get him released. They probably were quite happy that the US sent him to Syria.
I somehow deleted the URL for the first part of my message about the deportation hearing but here is a similar account from Arar's own account of the chronology. For more detail download the O'Connor report in PDF format.
This is from: http://www.maherarar.ca/mahers%20story.php
September 28 to October 7, 2002
Arar is not able to sleep until early in the morning, and wakes up at 11:00 a.m. on September 28. This is the first time he has slept since leaving Zurich two days earlier.
Arar notices he is being treated differently than other prisoners at the MDC – for example, guards will not give him toothpaste or a toothbrush or newspapers.
On the second or third day at the MDC, Arar is given a document saying that he is inadmissible to the United States under Section 235C of the Immigration and Nationality Act, because he is not is not a citizen of the United States; he is a native of Syria and is a citizen of Syria and Canada; he arrived in the United States on September 26, 2002 and applied for admission as a non-immigrant in transit through the United States, destined to Canada; and he is a member of an organization that has been designated by the Secretary of State as a Foreign Terrorist organization, to wit Al Qaeda aka Al Qa’ida.
Arar continues to ask for a lawyer and phone call, and his requests are denied until October 2 when he is permitted to make a two minute telephone call to his mother-in-law in Ottawa. He tells her he is frightened and he might be deported to Syria, and asks her to get him a lawyer.
On October 3 or 4, Arar is asked to fill out a form asking where he would like to be deported to. He writes that he chooses to be sent to Canada, and that he has no concerns about going there. He signs the document.
On October 4 Arar receives a visit from Canadian consul Maureen Girvan. Arar shows her the document he has been given, and she notes the contents. He tells her he is frightened of being deported to Syria, and she reassures him that this will not happen.
On October 5 Arar is visited by lawyer Amal Oummih. They talk for 30 minutes, and he relates his fears to her, and asks her to help. She advises him not to sign anything without her being present.
October 6, 2002
At 9:00 p.m. on Sunday night, guards come to take Arar from his cell, saying that his attorney is there to see him. Arar is taken to a room where about seven officials are waiting. His attorney is not there. He is told that they contacted his attorney and that “he” refused to come (thisis strange because Arar’s lawyer is a woman).
They ask why Arar does not want to go to Syria, and Arar tells them he is afraid he will be tortured there. He says he did not do his military service before leaving Syria, he is a Sunni Muslim, and his mother’s cousin was accused of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and imprisoned. They ask him to sign a document, and he refuses.
This session continues until 3:00 a.m., when he is taken back to his cell.
October 8, 2002
Arar is woken at 3:00 a.m. and is told he is leaving. He is given food, and then taken from his cell. A woman reads to him from a document, saying that based on classified information that they could not reveal to him, and because he knows a number of men, including – Abdullah Almalki, Nazih Almalki, and Ahmad Abou-el-Maati, the INS Director has decided to deport him to Syria.
Arar protests, saying he will be tortured there. He is ignored. He is chained and taken to a waiting car, and driven to an airport in New Jersey.
Arar is placed on a private jet. He is the only passenger. They fly to Washington, and the people with him disembark, and a new team gets on the plane.
Arar overhears the men talking on the phone saying that Syria is refusing to take him directly, but Jordan will take him.
Cheers, Ken Hanly
--- Jordan Hayes <jmhayes at j-o-r-d-a-n.com> wrote:
> > after interrogating him eventually hauled him
> before
> > an immigration hearing where his lawyer did not
> attend
> > and it was decided that he was a member of Al
> Qaeda
> > and should be deported to Syria.
>
> If you can call being read a deportation notice in
> your cell at 3am a
> "hearing" (in order to catch a 5am flight out of
> Teterboro to Dulles and
> on to Damascus) then I guess you're more charitable
> about this case than
> I am.
>
> I'm reading Ghost Plane by Stephen Grey ... it's a
> good read.
>
> /jordan
>
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