Detainee's Suit Gains Support From Jet's Log

[cal04]

Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, is suing the United States, saying American officials grabbed him in 2002 as he changed planes in New York and transported him to Syria where, he says, he was held for 10 months in a dank, tiny cell and brutally beaten with a metal cable.

Now federal aviation records examined by The New York Times appear to corroborate Mr. Arar's account of his flight, during which, he says, he sat chained on the leather seats of a luxury executive jet as his American guards watched movies and ignored his protests. The tale of Mr. Arar, the subject of a yearlong inquiry by the Canadian government, is perhaps the best documented of a number of cases since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which suspects have accused the United States of secretly delivering them to other countries for interrogation under torture. Deportation for interrogation abroad is known as rendition.

In papers filed in a New York court replying to Mr. Arar's lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers say the case was not one of rendition but of deportation. They say Mr. Arar was deported to Syria based on secret information that he was a member of Al Qaeda, an accusation he denies.

The discovery of the aircraft, in a database compiled from Federal Aviation Agency records, appears to corroborate part of the story Mr. Arar has told many times since his release in 2003. The records show that a Gulfstream III jet, tail number N829MG, followed a flight path matching the route he described. The flight, hopscotching from New Jersey to an airport near Washington to Maine to Rome and beyond, took place on Oct. 8, 2002, the day after Mr. Arar's deportation order was signed.



http://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/international/americas/30plane.html

[mhr]

1. In Normal Times This Would Be A Smoking Gun!

eom

[meganmonkey]

11. It's really scary how very far from Normal we are right now

:hide:

[truebrit71]

12. No kidding...!!!

.

[TahitiNut]

2. Another criminal act followed by denials laced by lies and deceit.

Blatant criminality is pervasive at the highest levels of this regime. And 'the people' shrug. :puke:

[babylonsister]

3. Wow. I hope this doesn't go away. NY Times might

stir up some momentum.
But wow. :wow:

I do wish the justice department would put up or shut up. Deport a Canadian engineer on what evidence?

[punpirate]

4. What evidence?

Why, secret evidence, of course.... :grr:

I wonder if Justice has had a rubber stamp made up for all the subpoenas duces tecum they going to receive for suits against the government for this sort of thing.

[paineinthearse]

5. Related DU torture jet posts

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1327253

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1287456

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1274461

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1251605

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=1133594

.......and several others. Just search "gulfstream".

[babylonsister]

6. Hey, pita, I'm glad you're

keeping track of this!

[Boo Boo]

7. Deported. Yeah, right.

The man's a frigging Canadian. They have no "secret" evidence that he's al Qaeda. What they have is a distant cousin that is listed by Syria as being a member of an anti-government Syrian group with purported ties to al Qaeda. If I have a distant cousin that's a member of some white supremest anti-government group in this country, does that mean I have ties to that group?

They rendered this guy to Syria to be tortured. The law that has been broken carries a maximum penalty of death. There's no question that this law has been broken repeatedly by this administration. It's quite obvious from the Gonzales memos, and other related memos, that the Bushies were well aware of this law and worried that they might be subject to it in the future.

Wasn't this guy Time Magazine Canada's Man of the Year?

[Moderator]

8. kick to combine

[Spazito]

9. Flight log backs Arar's claim U.S. spirited him abroad on small plane

NEW YORK (CP) - U.S. aviation records appear to corroborate the account of a Canadian who says U.S. officials flew him out of the country on an executive jet after grabbing him as he changed planes in New York, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

Maher Arar, 35, a Syrian-born Canadian telecommunications engineer who lives in Ottawa, said he was detained at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport, where he made a stop on his way home to Canada after a vacation in Tunisia in 2002.

He was held for about two weeks, then put on a small jet in New Jersey to be flown out, he said. U.S. officials suspected him of having connections with al-Qaida but he has consistently denied any link with the terrorist group.

After a year in confinement in Syria, Arar was released without any charges in October 2003. His complaints of brutality and torture while in Syrian custody have been the subject of a yearlong inquiry in Canada, but U.S. authorities have refused to participate. Arar has launched a lawsuit against the U.S. government.

more

http://www.canada.com/national/story.html?id=ab53adac-2c3e-4809-a22c-e6d4ae5f88d5

[Spazito]

10. KIck

with an apology for duplicating before doing a search. Sorry about that.