01-11-2012, 03:08 PM
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[TD="align: left"]Arar Bombshell
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Posted 1/19/2009 8:00:00 PM
Well, well, well... I wonder if he cashed that cheque, because there may be some new questions for Maher Arar to answer:
Maher Arar, the Ottawa computer engineer whose 2002 deportation and torture in Syria made him a symbol of the perils of post-9-11 hysteria, was identified by Omar Khadr as someone he'd seen at al-Qaeda safehouses and possibly an Afghan training camp, an FBI special agent testified Monday.
The teenaged, Toronto-born Khadr immediately identified Mr. Arar from a black and white photo he was shown during two weeks of interrogation that got under way Oct. 7, 2002, at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller told Mr. Khadr's war-crimes trial in Guantanamo Bay.
"He identified him by name," Mr. Fuller testified. "He said he had never seen him in Canada."
So what are we now to make of this information? We've already officially cleared Arar, and given him millions of dollars in compensation. There have always been holes (see here, here, and here) in the Arar story, and maybe this is what blows those holes wide open. Perhaps if the Americans had been more forthcoming in the first place, we could have had this information when it might have been more useful.
Author Paul Palango, in his book "Dispersing the Fog", uncovers some further anomalies in the Arar narrative:
Palango discovered that the O'Connor commission report misspelled the name of a company that was listed as part of Arar's employment history. In one place, it was identified as "CIM21000 Inc.", and in another, it was written as "CIM2000".
Palango later discovered that Arar had set up a company with a slightly different name, CIM 2000 Inc., which was registered between 1997 and 2000 in the name of his former sister-in-law, Parto Navidi. At the time, she and her ex-husband, Mourad Mazigh, were living in a house owned by an arms dealer named Pietro Rigolli. Rigolli was later jailed for violating a U.S. embargo on selling military hardware to Iran. Palango reports in his book that search warrants were executed on Navidi's house and at a building at a Montreal airport, but that the affidavits to support the search warrants disappeared from a Montreal courthouse in 2000. In the book, Palango notes that it's unclear whether Arar lived in the house with his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law's then-wife.
Palango, though, has come to the odd conclusion that Arar was (and presumably still is) an FBI agent. Either way, it would seem that the whole Arar story has yet to be told. More here:
...The other big story concerned Maher Arar. [Palango] explained how yet another massive PR campaign made Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh "politically bulletproof" and discussed the limitations of the O'Connor report that investigated selected aspects of the Arar affair. He raised questions about Arar's experiences in the US, in Syria, and in Canada that no official has. Indeed, he pointed out that Arar has never answered a single question under oath.
For example: Palango analyzed Arar's famous October 12, 2001 lunch at Mango's Café with Abdullah Almalki, a person of interest to CSIS because of his association with the notorious Khadr family, and their walk in the rain to converse a bit of elementary tradecraft designed to prevent electronic eavesdropping. Second, he raised a commonsensical question: if Arar had been tortured in Syria, why has no one seen the physical evidence?
UPDATE: More in today's Toronto Star:
"If he (Day) was told he was shown the whole file, either we have a major problem if he wasn't shown this, or he was shown it and he attached no credibility to it. The minister said after reviewing the file he said he was still satisfied with Commissioner (Dennis) O'Connor's opinion," [Lorne Waldman, Arar's former lawyer] said
Well, which is it? Was it problematic for the government to rely on anything Omar Khadr may have admitted to? Was there nothing else to confirm Khadr's account? Even if Khadr's account could be confirmed, would that be enough for the government to denounce Arar as a terrorist and scuttle the entire O'Connor Commission? Probably not. Curiously, the government is rather mum on all this:
Kory Teneycke, communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who personally issued an apology to Arar, said only: "We have seen the story and we have no comment at this time."
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Posted By: Rob Breakenridge
http://www.qr77.com/Blog/RobBreakenridge...tID=180352[/TD]
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[TD="align: left"]Arar Bombshell
Posted 1/19/2009 8:00:00 PMWell, well, well... I wonder if he cashed that cheque, because there may be some new questions for Maher Arar to answer:
Maher Arar, the Ottawa computer engineer whose 2002 deportation and torture in Syria made him a symbol of the perils of post-9-11 hysteria, was identified by Omar Khadr as someone he'd seen at al-Qaeda safehouses and possibly an Afghan training camp, an FBI special agent testified Monday.
The teenaged, Toronto-born Khadr immediately identified Mr. Arar from a black and white photo he was shown during two weeks of interrogation that got under way Oct. 7, 2002, at a U.S. base in Afghanistan, FBI Special Agent Robert Fuller told Mr. Khadr's war-crimes trial in Guantanamo Bay.
"He identified him by name," Mr. Fuller testified. "He said he had never seen him in Canada."
So what are we now to make of this information? We've already officially cleared Arar, and given him millions of dollars in compensation. There have always been holes (see here, here, and here) in the Arar story, and maybe this is what blows those holes wide open. Perhaps if the Americans had been more forthcoming in the first place, we could have had this information when it might have been more useful.
Author Paul Palango, in his book "Dispersing the Fog", uncovers some further anomalies in the Arar narrative:
Palango discovered that the O'Connor commission report misspelled the name of a company that was listed as part of Arar's employment history. In one place, it was identified as "CIM21000 Inc.", and in another, it was written as "CIM2000".
Palango later discovered that Arar had set up a company with a slightly different name, CIM 2000 Inc., which was registered between 1997 and 2000 in the name of his former sister-in-law, Parto Navidi. At the time, she and her ex-husband, Mourad Mazigh, were living in a house owned by an arms dealer named Pietro Rigolli. Rigolli was later jailed for violating a U.S. embargo on selling military hardware to Iran. Palango reports in his book that search warrants were executed on Navidi's house and at a building at a Montreal airport, but that the affidavits to support the search warrants disappeared from a Montreal courthouse in 2000. In the book, Palango notes that it's unclear whether Arar lived in the house with his brother-in-law and his brother-in-law's then-wife.
Palango, though, has come to the odd conclusion that Arar was (and presumably still is) an FBI agent. Either way, it would seem that the whole Arar story has yet to be told. More here:
...The other big story concerned Maher Arar. [Palango] explained how yet another massive PR campaign made Arar and his wife Monia Mazigh "politically bulletproof" and discussed the limitations of the O'Connor report that investigated selected aspects of the Arar affair. He raised questions about Arar's experiences in the US, in Syria, and in Canada that no official has. Indeed, he pointed out that Arar has never answered a single question under oath.
For example: Palango analyzed Arar's famous October 12, 2001 lunch at Mango's Café with Abdullah Almalki, a person of interest to CSIS because of his association with the notorious Khadr family, and their walk in the rain to converse a bit of elementary tradecraft designed to prevent electronic eavesdropping. Second, he raised a commonsensical question: if Arar had been tortured in Syria, why has no one seen the physical evidence?
UPDATE: More in today's Toronto Star:
"If he (Day) was told he was shown the whole file, either we have a major problem if he wasn't shown this, or he was shown it and he attached no credibility to it. The minister said after reviewing the file he said he was still satisfied with Commissioner (Dennis) O'Connor's opinion," [Lorne Waldman, Arar's former lawyer] said
Well, which is it? Was it problematic for the government to rely on anything Omar Khadr may have admitted to? Was there nothing else to confirm Khadr's account? Even if Khadr's account could be confirmed, would that be enough for the government to denounce Arar as a terrorist and scuttle the entire O'Connor Commission? Probably not. Curiously, the government is rather mum on all this:
Kory Teneycke, communications director for Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who personally issued an apology to Arar, said only: "We have seen the story and we have no comment at this time."
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Posted By: Rob Breakenridge
http://www.qr77.com/Blog/RobBreakenridge...tID=180352[/TD]
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"The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it." Karl Marx
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.
"He would, wouldn't he?" Mandy Rice-Davies. When asked in court whether she knew that Lord Astor had denied having sex with her.
“I think it would be a good idea” Ghandi, when asked about Western Civilisation.