You can trust the U.S. some of the time, and sometimes you can't. The rest of the world needs to learn the difference.
Posted on 07/31/2003 6:43:10 AM PDT by Doctor13
If Canadians require further evidence why our allies in the war against terrorism no longer trust us, they need look no further than the Maher Arar case.
This is the man U.S. authorities apprehended at Kennedy airport in New York last September, alleging he was an al-Qaeda operative. Mr. Arar is a Canadian citizen, but he also is a citizen of Syria and as such under U.S. immigration law -- Canadian law has a similar provision -- was subject to deportation to either Canada or Syria. U.S. authorities chose to send him to Syria. We can only guess why.
At the time there was an outcry by the Canadian media, and members of the Chrétien government protested his removal to Syria. There was no acknowledgement that given Mr. Arar was a dual citizen Canada had no official right to make demands on the Syrian government about his detention upon returning there. Although thousands of Canadians hold dual citizenship, their passport warns them that if they are in the country of their first citizenship they cannot expect consular assistance from the federal government if they get into trouble. Despite this, and the allegations that he is a terrorist, our government has gone to extraordinary lengths to demand Mr. Arar's release and his return to Canada.
On a visit to Ottawa in November, 2002, the U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell informed Bill Graham, our Foreign Minister, that Mr. Arar was suspected of being an al-Qaeda agent. More startling, Mr. Powell also told the Foreign Minister that the information linking Mr. Arar to the terrorist organization was passed to the FBI by Canadian intelligence sources! At the time this raised the puzzling question of why Canada's Foreign Minister had to be given this information by his American counterpart. If U.S. authorities were told about Mr. Arar's alleged al- Qaeda connections, why didn't Mr. Graham know about it?
Notwithstanding Mr. Powell's information, Canada continued to demand Mr. Arar's release. In March, 2003, Marlene Catterall, the Liberal MP for Ottawa West, travelled to Damascus to see Mr. Arar and to make representations for his release. The Prime Minister wrote to Monia Mazigh, Mr. Arar's wife, in June of this year promising continuing efforts to get her husband back to Canada. As if this were not enough, Prime Minister Jean Chrétien also wrote to the President of Syria, Bashar Assad, seeking Mr. Arar's release. Senator Pierre De Bane delivered the letter last week on the Prime Minister's behalf. It is doubtful many other Canadians who have found themselves in trouble in a foreign country have received this much attention from our government's highest political representative.
On July 28, an article in The New Yorker told of how after 9/11, the Syrian President began to pass information about al-Qaeda agents to the United States. The article also stated that Syrian information was instrumental in averting a terrorist strike against the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. One can only guess, therefore, at President Assad's reaction to our Prime Minister's letter asking for the release of a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist. When asked about the alleged plot against the U.S. Embassy, our Foreign Minister said he was not aware of it. Mr. Graham hastened to add, however, that Canadian security authorities do not always keep the Cabinet informed of intelligence information. This latter comment was not only puzzling, but also disturbing. It has now been clarified.
On Tuesday, Solicitor General Wayne Easter explained that there was no "official" decision to provide U.S. authorities with information about Mr. Arar. He did not rule out, however, the possibility that some RCMP officers might have alerted U.S. authorities without prior approval. He went on to say this was the reason the Prime Minister has been so determined to have Mr. Arar released. In other words, our Prime Minister was upset that our national police force alerted U.S. authorities about a suspected al-Qaeda terrorist! Are we to assume that this information would have been deliberately withheld from our American ally had not a few individual officers felt compelled to pass it along to their U.S. counterparts?
Sadly, the Arar case is just one more example of how our government has mismanaged the war against terrorism. The hesitation before listing as terrorist organizations, Hamas, Hezbollah, the al-Aqsa Martyr's Brigade and the refusal even today to list the Tamil Tigers is indicative of a government indifferent to terrorism.
Our political leaders seem to be saying as long as Canadians are not being blown up we don't care about other people. Our reputation as an ally in the war against terror has been shattered.
James Bissett is a former Canadian ambassador to Yugoslavia 1990-92.
You can trust the U.S. some of the time, and sometimes you can't. The rest of the world needs to learn the difference.
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