"...horrific example of what is really going on under the guise of airport security."
 

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...omment-letters

A Foreigner Abused -- and You May Be Next

December 12, 2003
Maher Arar's "Delivered Into Hell by U.S. War on Terror" (Commentary, Dec. 10) should be a warning to all of us to wake up before we transform entirely into what we are fighting. That the author is not a U.S. citizen is no justification for the frightening treatment he received at the hands of the U.S. government. If such abuse of power can happen to a Canadian citizen, U.S. citizens could be next. Let us return to the standards of human rights that we once advocated.
Marilyn K. Slater
West Los Angeles
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After reading Arar's commentary, we realize and shudder to think that this administration is no different from the countries we accuse of terrorizing innocent people. Any one of us could be next.
The FBI agents and police officers who first pulled him aside in a New York airport had a copy of the lease for his Ottawa apartment. This was no random questioning and is only one horrific example of what is really going on under the guise of airport security.
Pat Ostrye
Monrovia

So they sent him home, so what? He was a Syrian national with a Syrian passport. Where were they supposed to send him, Jamaica? All this crying over non-nationals who are deported is really silly. If you care so much for them, have them move in with you. I feel nothing untoward these people, but they are not citizens of the US and therefore their treatment in their home country is not my problem, nor that of our government.

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.

His home is Canada and that is where he was connecting to. He was deported to Syria where he was held and tortured for a year. An injustice was done. It is immoral to deport a person to a country where he will surely be tortured.

If he was only a Canadian national, that would be one thing. This guy was travelling on a Syrian passport, not a Canadian passport. Therefore, in the eyes of the INS he was a Syrian. Read the whole story, there is MUCH more to it than the original poster, who insists that the sky is falling, led everyone to believe. Since this guy was travelling as a Syrian national, where were they to send him? If the Syrians tortured him, that is on them.

My thanks to Plato90s for the following....

First of all, the story written by Maher Arar is incomplete at best, a lie at worst. Amnesty International reported that a lawyer met with him on October 5th, before his deportation to Syria. He was also met by a Canadian consular official on October 3rd. How convenient that Mr. Arar neglect to mention either of these things, giving the false impression that he wasn't allowed to meet with anyone other than American police/immigration officials.


quote:
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Originally posted by Doppy:
It's been reported a couple times in the news that the US has deported Canadian citizens in tranist through US airports to their supposed "home" countries, rather than to Canada, where they should go.
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supposed "home" countries?

There is nothing "supposed" about the fact that Maher Arar is a Syrian citizen. He was born a Syrian citizen, and Syria does not recognize dual citizenship. As far as Syria is concerned, they have first claim on Maher Arar, especially since he is technically in violation of his compulsory military service duties as a citizen.

If Mr. Arar was really in fear of being tortured if he EVER returned to Syria, he has the right to declare himself as a refugee and then the US would be enjoined against returning him to Syria. That was not the case.

So at the end of the story, a foreign citizen tried to enter the United States and was denied the right to transit. He was deported to his home country, Syria. What exactly is the complaint?

EVERYTHING the original poster posts should be looked at closely. It is apparent that an agenda is being furthered by the posts of this poster. He is the same person who accused the screeners at SFO of "impersonating a federal official" because they are contract screeners wearing TSA uniforms. This is the same poster who brought us the sensationalistic "public execution" of the woman who made a meal of a large quantity of cocaine and died. Now he latches onto yet another story and blows it way out of proportion to what really happened. Is it really a surprise?

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.



[This message has been edited by The Unknown Screener (edited Dec 17, 2003).]

US, so far everything i have read, he was traveling under a canadian passport-please give me a link to any news story that says he was traveling under a syrian passport...

if indeed he was traveling under a canadian passport, then he shouldn't have been sent to syria...

This is a major story in Canada and I've been reading about it for the past year. I've seen no references so far that show he wasn't travelling under a Canadian passport but then again new information does sometimes come out so I'll keep my mind open on that issue. Operating under the assumption he was with his Canadian passport, however, I think a great injustice has been done and I've thought this for a year now.

Since he was on an immigration watch list, and had known ties to Osama's boys (one of them co-signed the lease on his apartment) his deportation to his home of birth is standard practice. Since Syria does not recognize dual-citizenship in their eyes he is a Syrian.

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2003/24965.htm

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp...&notFound=true



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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.

Neither of which say he was travelling on a Syrian passport. You may think these extraordinary measures are justified, but I find them repulsive. Knowingly sending foreigners to be tortured without even a semblence of due-process is completely immoral. I can't understand how this has been allowed to happen. You're the United States, the birthplace of freedom.

Well, the guy was on a watch list. Has/had known terrorist ties, and entered the US. So they sent him home. Syria denies he was tortured, not that I believe them, but it is his word against theirs. It could possibly a case of guilt by association, so be careful of who you associate yourself with.

How many muslim immigrants to Canada enter the US every year? How many have been deported from the US? I would bet this guy was probably the first.

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.

No, they sent him to Syria to extract information out of him. They either should have held him and potentially charged him or returned him to his real home, where his passport was from. This wasn't a deportation, it was an illegal interrogation by other means. If you want to torture people have the balls to change your own Constitution instead of farming it out to every little tinpot ****hole that owes you a favour.

No, they deported him to his place of birth. He was/is on an immigration watch list. Thats what brought him to the attention of immigration in the first place. Regardless, I doubt very much that he will enter the US again. Given his ties to nefarious individuals, that is probably a good thing.

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.

His "ties to nefarious individuals" are he once had an apartment lease co-signed by another Syrian-Canadian suspected of having terrorist links. There are no other links. I had a room-mate who I have no contact with who now sells small quantities of dope. Should I be put on a watchlist, too, for having ties to a suspected drug-dealer? The Syrian ex-pat community in Canada isn't exactly huge. US immigration officials violated both US and international law in this deportation.

From the Globe & Mail:
http://www.globeandmail.com/servlet/...BNStory/Front/

[This message has been edited by CATSA Screener (edited Dec 17, 2003).]

...the main problem i have with this is the canadian citizenship and the fact he wasn't trying to "sneak" into this country illegally...

contacting the canadians and honoring his canadian citizenship would have taken nothing away from the process

i'm sorry-but i buy into the concept of innocent until PROVEN guilty, not "guilty by association"-the United States is a country basically built and populated by immigrants and their heirs, and even tho repulsive and terrible injustices are done everyday in the name of liberty just because of the way someone looks, we have to hold on to at least the concept of due process and good people have to fight every day to see that these truths that we hold self evident aren't lost in the quicksand of fear and distrust..

consider this, if it had been the irish republican army that had perpetrated 9/11 instead of radical muslams, would it be proper to profile peole with red hair and the last name o'reilly????or catholics??? it would be a MUCH tougher job singling out people who didn't have more obvious physical differences than the majority of white america if it had happened this way...

Because we ARE the United States of America, we have the RESPONISIBILTY to transcend bullying tactics and slipshod justice-this is even more important in the shadow of a 9/11 event-

yeah- i know this sounds pollyannish and naive and not "real worldish"(what ever that is), but you know-there's nothing wrong with having ideals to hold onto...and i just feel it's more important to hold onto them at the times it seems it's more easy and convenient to let them slide...

...however, until otherwise noted, please consider taking your shoes off and putting them on the belt-thank you...

dupe

[This message has been edited by CATSA Screener (edited Dec 17, 2003).]

Regardless of how anyone feels about what happened to this guy. The only ones who know the truth are the Syrians, the US, and he himself. Was what the US did the best thing? Maybe, maybe not. Sovereign nations can pretty much do as they please, and right now, anyone entering the US had better have their paperwork in order. In my opinion we have been way too lax in that area. Try sneaking into Mexico and see what they do to you.....

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Don't take life too seriously, afterall, you won't get out alive.