The Unfinished Case of Maher Arar

[groovedaddy]

The troubled world economy will almost certainly top the agenda when President Obama meets Thursday with Canada’s prime minister, Stephen Harper, in Ottawa. We hope the two leaders will also take the time to discuss the painful case of Maher Arar.

Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian, is the most well-known victim of the Bush administration’s notorious policy of extraordinary rendition, or the outsourcing of interrogations to foreign governments known to use torture. Former President George W. Bush and his aides stubbornly refused to admit the grave injustice done to Mr. Arar. President Obama must do better.

Mr. Arar was seized at Kennedy International Airport in 2002 as he tried to change planes on his way home to Canada from a family vacation. He was held in solitary confinement and subjected to harsh questioning before being sent to Syria. He was tortured there and imprisoned for nearly a year in an underground cell the size of a grave until the Syrians finally let him go.

In 2007, Mr. Harper’s government set an admirable example of decency. After an extensive investigation that concluded Mr. Arar had no ties to terror, Canada offered him a formal apology and compensation worth millions of dollars for providing the unsubstantiated information to American officials that helped trigger his nightmare.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/18/opinion/18wed2.html?th&emc=th