Canada to compensate torture victim

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper has apologized and offered $8.9 million in compensation to Maher Arar, a Canadian software engineer who, based on incorrect information, was deported by US officials to Syria in 2002, where he was imprisoned and tortured for a year. After being identified by Canadian police as an Islamic extremist in faulty intelligence shared with US authorities, Arar was detained by US agents during a stopover at New York's John F. Kennedy Airport. They interrogated him for 11 days, then sent him to his native Syria, where he was tortured into making false confessions that he was involved with the al-Qaida terrorist network. The United States has refused to remove Arar from a terrorism watch list, however, and Harper said he had asked President Bush to clear him. Arar's wife and children are also on the list, and all are banned from flying into or over US territories. "We were clear, we don't believe Mr. Arar should be on the watch list," Harper said. "We will not drop this matter just because there is a disagreement and they don't like our position." Harper also formally apologized to Arar, his wife and two children. "On behalf of the government of Canada, I wish to apologize to you, Monia Mazigh and your family for any role Canadian officials may have played in the terrible ordeal that all of you experienced in 2002 and 2003," Harper said. Arar accepted the apology at a separate, emotional news conference, saying the official acknowledgment of his innocence "means the world to me." "The struggle to clear my name has been long and hard," he said. "My kids have suffered silently, and I think I owe them a lot. I feel now I can devote more time to them, more time for being a good father and to rebuild my life." Arar said he would like to use the compensation money somehow to help ensure that others don't end up in the same situation. "This struggle has taught me how important it is to stand up for human rights," he said. "I feel proud as a Canadian, and I feel proud of what we've been able to achieve." Arar's case has become one of the best-known examples of what is known as extraordinary rendition, a covert US practice of sending terrorism suspects to other countries for detention and interrogation. Often those countries have more relaxed rules regarding the use of torture than the United States. Among his ordeals, Arar says that he was repeatedly beaten and whipped with a black cable. Arar tried to sue US officials and agencies over his detention and deportation, but the US District Court of Appeals dismissed his suit last February, ruling that the action was protected on national security grounds. Arar is appealing the decision. In Washington, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) issued a statement saying he was seeking answers as chairman of the Senate judiciary committee as to why Arar was sent to Syria. "The question remains why. Even if there were reasons to consider him suspicious, the US Government shipped him to Syria where he was tortured, instead of to Canada for investigation or prosecution," Leahy said. He complained that US officials "knew damn well, if he went to Syria, he'd be tortured. It's beneath the dignity of this country to send somebody to another country to be tortured."