Some more facts: Torture by proxy/How immigration threw a traveler tothewolves

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-----Original Message-----
From: Brad Templeton <btm () templetons com>
Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 11:11:23 
To:Dave Farber <dave () farber net>
Cc:perl () lucent com, rdp () yikes com
Subject: Some more facts: Torture by proxy/How immigration threw a traveler to
 thewolves

Naturally I have particular sympathy for Arar, who like me is a computer
scientist and mathematician (He holds a bachelor's in computer engineering
and a PhD in Mathematics) and like me, travels on a Canadian passport.

A few other salient details -- this story has gotten of course much more
play in Canada than in the USA.

    a) Arar was not trying to enter the USA.  He was just doing a plane
       change in NYC coming in from Europe and going on to Montreal.  Since
       then the USA has cancelled the program that let you stay in a
       controlled area to change planes in the USA without entering it.

       He was then, bizarrely, deported not back to Europe (normal
       procedure for those who fail immigration) or to Canada (his place
       of citizenship to which he was flying) but to Syria.

    b) The organization that he was accused of assocation with, the Muslim
       Brotherhood, is an anti-Syrian-government organization, trying to
       bring down the repressive Syrian regime, very much in line with
       US goals.   So when they sent him to Syria, they tortured him not
       to help the USA, but to see if he was one of their own enemies.

    c) Arar had been investigated on these associations, and cleared,
       in Canada.  That got his name in the files though, and thus got
       him pulled from the airport.   The RCMP's complicity in this is
       an issue of contention in Canada right now.

    d) Canada issued a travel advisory after this, warning Canadians
       who were born in certain Arab nations "to avoid travelling to the
       USA."   Yup, the USA is the sort of dangerous country travel
       advisories get issued on.


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