"Report of the Events Relating to Maher Arar"

Last Friday the so called "Arar Commission" declassified certain withheld sections of the Canadian government report concluded last fall into the rendition, torture and subsequent release of Canadian citizen Maher Arar in Syria. Although the findings of the report were enough to secure Arar a full exoneration and substantial compensation from the Canadian government, nevertheless some of the recently declassified findings are rather chilling, although sadly not especially surprising.

The newly released information (pdf) confirms that Arar was linked to al-Qaeda by the confession of another detainee in Syrian custody who claimed to have been tortured. This is clearly a tragic situation which emphasizes the argument that torture leads to unreliable and questionable intelligence, as has been echoed by myriad military and intelligence officials past and present. More to the point, this represents one case, but how many other individuals has this fate befallen?

One particular passage in the article seems unfortunately obvious at this stage but is still worth noting:

"Rendition here appears less as a vital intelligence tool than a method of getting around the need to justify detaining someone in countries with constitutional protections for the accused."

It is also shocking to note that although the FBI had serious reservations about Arar's guilt at the time of his rendering to Syria, the process and subsequent torture continued and to this day, Maher Arar is unable to enter the U.S. and has received no acknowledgment from the Bush administration.