why is arar suing jordan and syriya and not canada & usa? he should have not been there in the first place. he should sue USA for deporting him to syria and Canada for not doing enough to ensure his early release.
This story just keeps getting weirder.
In search of an explanation, The Guardian
…] The pressure on the prime minister, Paul Martin, to hold a public inquiry increased this week after 10 RCMP officers combed through [Ottawa Citizen] reporter Juliet O’Neill’s home and office, looking for the name of her source for a November story outlining the RCMP security dossier on Mr Arar.
They rifled through her underwear drawer, and told her that she was likely to face charges under the Security Information Act, which was passed in the aftermath of the September 11 2001 terrorist attacks on the US.
However, the raid was denounced as a heavy-handed attempt to intimidate journalists reporting on Mr Arar’s case.
Ms O’Neill, a respected and experienced reporter, works for the Ottawa Citizen. The front page story she wrote analysed why the Canadian government was balking at holding a public inquiry into Mr Arar’s case.
It included details on the security dossier about him, quoting leaked documents that purported to link him to an al-Qaida terrorist support group in Ottawa. Her story also said Mr Arar told Syrian interrogators that he had trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan.
Mr Arar said all that information was false, and that he had made it up to satisfy the Syrian interrogators who were torturing him.
It appeared to have been leaked in order to bolster the case of the Mounties, who provided information about Mr Arar to security officials before he was deported. At least one government minister has speculated that “rogue” elements within the RCMP might have played a role in Mr Arar’s deportation to Syria.
Ms O’Neill was not the only reporter who used the leaked information in a story, but she appears to have been the only one who specifically referred to leaked documents.
Two weeks ago, Mr Martin angrily denounced continuing leaks from the RCMP and security officials smearing the reputation of Mr Arar. This may have been what prompted the bizarre, yet disturbing, spectacle of RCMP officers going through a reporter’s underwear drawer in an attempt to find the name of a fellow officer who had leaked information.
In any case, Mr Martin, speaking during a trip to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, had to reassure reporters that Canada was not a “police state”, and that Ms O’Neill was “clearly” not a criminal.