The Ottawa Citizen

Americans viewed the attack of 9/11 as an act of war, and no fair-minded person should blame them for doing so. And because there has never been a war in which even the good guys did not make misjudgments, no fair-minded person should have expected the U.S. to wage an error-free war.

But something reasonable people do expect from an advanced democracy like the U.S. is a willingness to confront its own mistakes — to acknowledge them, to regret them and, most important, to learn from them. As the case of Maher Arar continues to demonstrate, the U.S. doesn’t seem to understand this.

Maher Arar has by now become the most famous example of collateral damage from the war on terrorism. Canadians know his story well: Not long after 9/11, U.S. security officials detained Arar during a stopover at JFK airport in New York. The Arab-Canadian engineer was heading back to his home in Ottawa, where he lived, following a family holiday in Tunisia. American security agents believed he had terrorist ties, so they kidnapped him — “extraordinary rendition” is the technical term — and flew him to Syria, where he was tortured.

The Americans were wrong about Arar’s terrorist ties. He had none. Because Canadian security officials played a role in supplying the false information, the Canadian government would eventually pay Arar some $10 million in compensation. Canada held a commission of inquiry. Canada has acknowledged that Arar’s detention in New York and deportation to Syria were a terrible mistake.

The U.S., however, refuses to assume any responsibility. American authorities have suggested, for example, that because Arar was merely passing through the airport, he was technically never on U.S. soil — as if that in any way diminishes the accountability of U.S. agents who orchestrated his rendition. American officials continue to hint coyly that Arar really is a terrorist of some kind, a claim without any evidence.

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Tags: Arar Commission, Canadian government, Democracy, JFK, Maher Arar, New York, Ottawa, Rendit, Rendition, United States

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