Lawmakers Apologize To Rendition Victim

U.S. Officials Took Canadian To Damascus, Where He Says He Was Tortured And Held For A Year Without Charges

(CBS/AP)  Lawmakers apologized Thursday to a Canadian engineer for his detention by U.S. officials, who took him to Syria where the man says he was tortured and held for nearly a year without charges.

Maher Arar, 37, appeared before a joint hearing of House subcommittees by video, because he is still on a U.S. government watch list.

“Let me personally give you what our government has not: an apology,” said Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., as he opened the hearing. “Let me apologize to you and the Canadian people for our government's role in a mistake.”

Republican Dana Rohrabacher also apologized, but said he would fight any efforts by Democrats to end the practice of extraordinary rendition, whereby terror suspects are grabbed by government agents and taken to another country where local authorities may torture confessions out of them.

“Yes, we should be ashamed” of what happened in the case, Rohrabacher said. “That is no excuse to end a program which has protected the lives of hundreds of thousands if not millions of American lives.”

Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was detained by Homeland Security agents on Sept. 26, 2002, as he stopped over in New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport en route home from a vacation. Days later, he was sent by private jet to Syria where, according to Canadian officials, he was tortured.

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Visit Maher Arar's Web site

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After nearly a year in a Syrian prison, he was released without charges and returned to Canada.

The Canadian government has apologized to Arar for its role in the case, and agreed to pay him almost $10 million in compensation. The Bush administration has not apologized.

The administration has refused to say much about its extraordinary rendition program, other than it is an extremely important tool in combatting terrorists.

The hearing comes a day before Hollywood is to offer its own take on the contentious anti-terror program: “Rendition,” starring Reese Witherspoon, opens in U.S. theaters Friday.

[prinzowhales]

At first thought, one might imagine that a barbed anal probe might change Congressman Rohrabacher''s mind about torture and rendition...but, he is, afterall, a Republican...and may well enjoy the kind of Abu Ghraib fun that Rush Limbaugh likened to fraternity hazing.

His suggestion that the Regime''s barbarism and sadism has saved any American lives is--like the Regime''s 9-11 fairy tale--little more than a bald-faced lie.

Troops Home Now! Down with the Washington Regime!

[forthepeopl1]

Finance officials called on China to move faster on efforts to let its currency, the yuan, rise in value. That would raise the price of Chinese goods on world markets. China''''s undervalued currency is blamed for contributing to the United States'''' swollen trade deficits and the loss of millions of U.S. factory jobs. "We stress its (China''''s) need to allow an accelerated appreciation of its effective exchange rate," the G-7 said.

The G-7 statement did not mention the big drop in the U.S. dollar, which has hit a record low against the euro, giving some European companies heartburn.

that why everyone in germany have taken all their cash out of banks.

one thing still assmazes me, they complain and complain all day and all night about china this and china that..WAKE UP ALL YOU DUESH BAGS CHINA HAS BEEN AND WILL PUT CHINA FIRST..AT WHAT EVER THE COST IS, THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT CHINA,.AS THEY DESTROY AMERICA..

CANT ANYONE SEE THIS TO??? NOTHING SHOULD BE ALLOUD INTO THIS COUNTRY FROM CHINA WE NEED NOTHING FROM THEM THINK ABOUT IT, NOTHING AT ALL TO SERVIVE..

AMERICAN BETTER START WAKEING UP, AND IF THEY ELECT MISS PIGGY HILLARY THEN ALL BETS OFF WE WILL LOSE AMERICA,,SHE''''S THE CLOKE AND DAGGER

[abbe91]

PS abbe91 - I DON''''t Work for CBS, nor am I an AP Correspondent. I DON''''T know why they didn''''t choose to put any sigificant information in this piece (of *******) article. The article was NOT informative, merely inflamitory - WHICH YOU ATE RIGHT UP!!!
BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ
Posted by speakinup at 11:19 AM : Oct 19, 2007"

They could not answer the question why the guy was deported because the administration didn''t give the reason. Hungry is right. CBS is not to blame for it.
And besides, this administration doesn''t need CBS to propagate its propaganda. When needed, they just "leak" it.

[abbe91]

That he was tortured is not good, that he was taken without APPARENT reason in the article is not good. But, somehow, I find it really hard to believe, that without motive government agents whisked him away.
Posted by speakinup at 11:16 AM : Oct 19, 2007

He made the claim, and our government isn''''t disputing that it ever happened. Find it hard to believe if you want, but it doesn''''t appear the guy is lying, and our government''''s silence is deafening.

Posted by hungry1968 at 11:22 AM : Oct 19, 2007

That''s what I tried to explain too, but he seems to be a lost case, accusing others of his own shortcomings.

[zootallures2]

To Damascus???? Gee, isn''t that in Syria?
Back in WWII, did the US take nazis to Japan, Japanese to Italy and Italians to Japan?

To Syria? Really? So when did they go from the US''s fun house to being the enemy again?

[jankebenz]

Mr mahars claims of torture are very dubvious at best mainly because no scars or injury marks could be found on him.Why would somone of syrian birth be so foolish as to travel to the U.S. so soon after 9|11, and since his own country alledgedly tortured him,why blame others? Who knows, maybe he was punished for crimes commited in his homeland.Then to top it off ,Canada gives him $10 mil. for his 1 year incarceration in a syrian jail. Not surprising that all of a sudden more Canadian immigrants are claiming torture abroad -easy money !

[rickstas]

Very astute observation Azmka.

[azmka]

If I would have heard about the U.S. government doing this pre-bush, I would never have believed that we would go so against what we are as Americans.
Now we are just like those sinister freedom hating governments that we used to despise.

[forthepeopl1]

so speakinup--go ahead and tell anyone what we few million true americans are ready to do..you loser,chicken s/h/i/t/ like bush,rove,cheney,rice, go ahead put your head between your legs and lick your self

[jackiepw]

"The Bush administration has not apologized." The Bush Administration hasn''t apologized to the American people for ruining our economy, sending our young people to die in Iraq/Afganistan, or any of the multitude of other asinine things they''ve done to us, why should he apologize to a mere torture victim?

[forthepeopl1]

BUT THEIR ARE TO MANY *** OUT THEIR TO HAVE IT DONE.

I CANT WAIT UNTIL BUSH DECARE A STATE OF EMERGENCY AND ALL YOU SO CALLED AMERICANS START SAYING HOW COME WHY WOULD BY LEADER DO THIS..CANT WAIT...

[forthepeopl1]

YES THAT IS EXECTLY WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE..

[speakinup]

forthepeopl1 - are you advocating a violent overthrow of the Bush Administration ?

That seems to be what I''m reading in your posts...

[speakinup]

tsk tsk, forthepeopl1, I''m not sure if you were sputtering while typing yor horribly misspelled tirade, that was completely devoid of logic, but I hardly think advocating the violent overthrow of the government is something that is ''for the people''. It sounds more like something ''for yourself''.

A little narsissistic are we ?

Oh, and by the way, ''Caps Lock'' key is on the left of your keyboard - explore your world.

[forthepeopl1]

HEY DIP S/H/I/T/ SPEAKINUP, I HAVE BEEN ON THIS STORY FROM THE START 3 YEARS AGO, AND LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING OUR GOVERNEMNT HAS BEEN DOING IT FOR THE PAST 5 YEARS, AND THIS MAN SHOULD BE HONORED BY US.

IF THIS WAS ME, ALL I CAN SAY IS NO ONE AND I MEAN NO ONE WOULD BE ALIVE TODAY THAT WAS INVOLVED..FROM THE TOP DOWN, AND I WOULD BE TORERING ALL FOR MONTH JUST AS I WAS AND THERE FAMILY WOULD HAVE NO PLACE TO HIDE.

OUR PRESIDENT VP RICE AND ALL INVOLVED IN THIS SHOULD BE HANG FOR WHAT THEY HAVE DONE..OUR GOVERNMENT IS A PEICE OF S/H/I/T/ AND NEEDS TO BE BLOWN UP AND STARTED OVER WITH AMERICANS THAT WANT TO HELP AMERICANS, F-DEMS/F-REPS/ THIS COUNTRY NEEDS AMERICANS..F-LOBBYEST I WOULD GET RID OF THEM IN A SEC. WHY DO THEY HAVE ALL THE POWER TO CHENGE OUR LAWS WITHOUT ANY REGUARDS TO WHAT AMERICA NEEDS..

[hungry1968]

That he was tortured is not good, that he was taken without APPARENT reason in the article is not good. But, somehow, I find it really hard to believe, that without motive government agents whisked him away.
Posted by speakinup at 11:16 AM : Oct 19, 2007



He made the claim, and our government isn''t disputing that it ever happened. Find it hard to believe if you want, but it doesn''t appear the guy is lying, and our government''s silence is deafening.

[speakinup]

PS abbe91 - I DON''t Work for CBS, nor am I an AP Correspondent. I DON''T know why they didn''t choose to put any sigificant information in this piece (of *******) article. The article was NOT informative, merely inflamitory - WHICH YOU ATE RIGHT UP!!!

BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ

[speakinup]

"Then, ask yourself why we didn''t get all the facts. abbe91

So, abbe, take another look at my words in the first post, note capitalization and condemnation of the article by calling it something which you and your ilk buzz from and to:

"I find it totally interesting that the same flies buzz from piece of ******* to piece of ******* on CBS.

"I would like to hear the conditions under which he was extradited...

"That he was tortured is not good, that he was taken without APPARENT reason in the article is not good. But, somehow, I find it really hard to believe, that without motive government agents whisked him away.

It would appear you have a reading comprehension problem.

[speakinup]

tuckerndfw - Do you have someone next to you telling you when to inhale and exhale ? If not, find someone quick!

By telling whom you have saved and the surrounding circumstances, you divulge a LOT of information as to how you actually thwart plots. As many of yor ilk have found it fit to complain about plame (note Bush didn''t condone this act), and the recent tape from OBL being aired too early - I''m a little surprised yo are asking, "As others have pointed out, if this process is saving so many lives, why does the Bush administration refuse to reveal whose lives it has saved?"

That you would say,
"The Bush administration claims Syria is a "state sponsor of terrorism." So, George Bush kidnaps a guy, sends him to Syria and tortures him. Who is the real state sponsor of terrorism?"
Shows you just don''t understand a simple fact of life.

The US doesn''t exactly have friendly ties with Syria (remember, we forced their hand in removing troops from Lebanon; have declared them torturers; and made them one of the States to which goods can''t be exported because of their ties to terrorists), so pray tell,

IF George Bush were able to get them to co-operate in the first place and perform the torture for the US as you would have us believe (presumeably on a regular basis), WHY WOULDN''T SYRIA MAKE IT PUBLIC NOW that George Bush had asked them to do so?

Inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale - hold yuor breath and drop dead.

[abbe91]

"******* happens! Maybe this guy deserves an apology, maybe he doesn''''t - but I would like to hear all the facts BEFORE I make a conclusion. This story falls WAY short on that account. Is that too hard to understand ?
Posted by speakinup at 10:42 AM : Oct 19, 2007"

Then, ask yourself why we didn''t get all the facts. If he had to be prosecuted for something, why wasn''t he ?
If something stays hidden, who is hiding it ?

Unless this is the point at which you just got tired of thinking.