In the war on terror America was happy to send suspects to Syria. Now the US cries torture
A VERY GOOD COMMENT
A VERY GOOD COMMENT
Mehdi Hasan
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 February 2012
"In recent weeks, US officials have been falling over one another to denounce the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. President Obama has accused it of committing "outrageous bloodshed" and called for Assad to stand down; Hillary Clinton has referred to the Syrian leader as a "tyrant"; Elliot Abrams, deputy national security adviser under George W Bush, has called Syria a "vicious enemy".
I can't help but wonder what Maher Arar must make of such comments. Arar, a telecommunications engineer born in Syria, moved to Canada as a teenager in 1987 and became a citizen in 1991.
On 26 September 2002, he was arrested at JFK airport in New York, where he had been in transit, on his way home to Canada after a family holiday abroad. Following 13 days of questioning, the US authorities, suspecting Arar of ties to al-Qaida based on flawed Canadian police intelligence, "rendered" him not to Canada, where he lived, but to his native Syria, from where his family had fled 15 years earlier.
For the next 10 months, he was detained without charge in a three-foot by six-foot Syrian prison cell where, according to the findings of an official Canadian commission of inquiry, he was tortured. Arar says he was punched, kicked and whipped with an electrical cable during 18-hour interrogation sessions. He received C$10.5m in compensation from the Canadian government and a formal apology from prime minister Stephen Harper for the country's role in his ordeal.
A decade on, the question remains: why did the US deport Arar to a "vicious enemy" country run by a "tyrant"? Was it because Canada couldn't use torture to interrogate Arar, so they decided to send him to Syria, which would? Human- rights groups have long believed the unstated aim of so-called "extraordinary rendition" was to subject terror suspects to aggressive methods of interrogation abroad that are illegal in America.
US officials cannot feign ignorance. They had every reason to believe the Syrians would abuse Arar. Six months earlier, in March 2002, the US state department's human rights report on Syria had concluded that "continuing serious abuses include the use of torture in detention". Arar claims his Syrian torturers were supplied with specific questions by the US government; he was asked the exact same questions in Damascus he had been asked in New York.
After his release, in October 2003, both Syria and Canada publicly cleared Arar of any links to terrorism. But the US government – first under Bush, and now under Obama – refuses to discuss the matter, let alone apologise. The Arar case wasn't a one-off. According to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, who has spent much of the past decade investigating what she calls "the dark side" of the war on terror, Syria was one of the "most common" destinations for rendered suspects. Or, in the chilling words of former CIA agent Robert Baer, in 2004: "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria.".....
The evidence is overwhelming: in the months and years after 9/11, the US collaborated closely with Syria, which became an ally in the war on terror and a frequent destination for victims of extraordinary rendition. Syrian torturers worked hand in hand with US interrogators.
These days, however, US politicians from across the spectrum piously condemn the Syrian regime for its crimes against humanity; two weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution condemning Assad for "gross human rights violations" and the use of "torture". Who says Americans don't do irony, eh?
And Arar? He's still on a US no-fly list. Some things, it seems, never change."
guardian.co.uk, Sunday 19 February 2012
"In recent weeks, US officials have been falling over one another to denounce the brutality of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. President Obama has accused it of committing "outrageous bloodshed" and called for Assad to stand down; Hillary Clinton has referred to the Syrian leader as a "tyrant"; Elliot Abrams, deputy national security adviser under George W Bush, has called Syria a "vicious enemy".
I can't help but wonder what Maher Arar must make of such comments. Arar, a telecommunications engineer born in Syria, moved to Canada as a teenager in 1987 and became a citizen in 1991.
On 26 September 2002, he was arrested at JFK airport in New York, where he had been in transit, on his way home to Canada after a family holiday abroad. Following 13 days of questioning, the US authorities, suspecting Arar of ties to al-Qaida based on flawed Canadian police intelligence, "rendered" him not to Canada, where he lived, but to his native Syria, from where his family had fled 15 years earlier.
For the next 10 months, he was detained without charge in a three-foot by six-foot Syrian prison cell where, according to the findings of an official Canadian commission of inquiry, he was tortured. Arar says he was punched, kicked and whipped with an electrical cable during 18-hour interrogation sessions. He received C$10.5m in compensation from the Canadian government and a formal apology from prime minister Stephen Harper for the country's role in his ordeal.
A decade on, the question remains: why did the US deport Arar to a "vicious enemy" country run by a "tyrant"? Was it because Canada couldn't use torture to interrogate Arar, so they decided to send him to Syria, which would? Human- rights groups have long believed the unstated aim of so-called "extraordinary rendition" was to subject terror suspects to aggressive methods of interrogation abroad that are illegal in America.
US officials cannot feign ignorance. They had every reason to believe the Syrians would abuse Arar. Six months earlier, in March 2002, the US state department's human rights report on Syria had concluded that "continuing serious abuses include the use of torture in detention". Arar claims his Syrian torturers were supplied with specific questions by the US government; he was asked the exact same questions in Damascus he had been asked in New York.
After his release, in October 2003, both Syria and Canada publicly cleared Arar of any links to terrorism. But the US government – first under Bush, and now under Obama – refuses to discuss the matter, let alone apologise. The Arar case wasn't a one-off. According to the New Yorker's Jane Mayer, who has spent much of the past decade investigating what she calls "the dark side" of the war on terror, Syria was one of the "most common" destinations for rendered suspects. Or, in the chilling words of former CIA agent Robert Baer, in 2004: "If you want a serious interrogation, you send a prisoner to Jordan. If you want them to be tortured, you send them to Syria.".....
The evidence is overwhelming: in the months and years after 9/11, the US collaborated closely with Syria, which became an ally in the war on terror and a frequent destination for victims of extraordinary rendition. Syrian torturers worked hand in hand with US interrogators.
These days, however, US politicians from across the spectrum piously condemn the Syrian regime for its crimes against humanity; two weeks ago, a bipartisan group of senators introduced a resolution condemning Assad for "gross human rights violations" and the use of "torture". Who says Americans don't do irony, eh?
And Arar? He's still on a US no-fly list. Some things, it seems, never change."
كيف انقلبت أميركا على سوريا؟
"أعرب مقال نشرته صحيفة ذي غارديان البريطانية عن الاستغراب من التحول في الموقف الأميركي تجاه سوريا، مشيرا إلى أن دمشق أصبحت "العدو الشرير" في نظر واشنطن بعد أن كانت حليفتها في ما يسمى بالحرب على الإرهاب.
ويقول الكاتب مهدي حسن في مقال نشرته إن المسؤولين الأميركيين هرولوا واحدا تلو الآخر في الأسابيع الأخيرة لإدانة ما وصفوه بوحشية نظام الرئيس السوري بشار الأسد، فاتهمه الرئيس باراك أوباما بارتكاب "حمام دم" ودعاه للتنحي، في حين وصفته وزيرة خارجيته هيلاري كلينتون بالطاغية.
ووصف إليوت أبرامز نائب مستشار الأمن القومي في عهد الرئيس السابق جورج بوش، سوريا بأنها "العدو الشرير".
وهنا يتساءل كاتب المقال عما يمكن أن يقوله ماهر عرار –المواطن الكندي من أصل سوري- الذي سلمته السلطات الأميركية لدمشق للاستجواب في الزنازين السورية.
ويقول حسن إن عرار اعتقل في مطار نيويورك في 26 سبتمبر/أيلول 2002، وتم ترحيله بعد 13 يوما من الاستجواب من قبل السلطات الأميركية إلى موطنه الأصلي -وليس إلى كندا التي يحمل جنسيتها- للاشتباه بتورطه مع تنظيم القاعدة بناء على معلومات استخبارية مغلوطة قدمتها السلطات الكندية.
وعلى مدى عشرة أشهر، احتجز عرار في زنزانة صغيرة وتعرض للتعذيب وفقا للجنة تحقيق كندية.
والسؤال الذي سيبقى مطروحا -والكلام للكاتب- هو: لماذا لجأت أميركا إلى تسليم عرار إلى بلد وصفته بأنه "عدو شرير" ويديره "طاغية"؟
ويرى الكاتب -الذي يعمل في القناة التلفزيونية الرابعة في بريطانيا- أن منظمات حقوق الإنسان تعتقد منذ زمن أن الهدف غير المعلن لما يسمى "بتسليم المعتقلين" هو إخضاع المشتبه بضلوعهم في الإرهاب لمختلف صنوف التعذيب والاستجواب في الخارج، لأنها تعد غير قانونية في أميركا.
ويفند ما قد يدعيه المسؤولون الأميركيون من الجهل بذلك، مشيرا إلى أن لديهم كل الأسباب التي تجعلهم يعتقدون أن سوريا ستسيء معاملة عرار.
فقبل ذلك بستة أشهر، أي في مارس/آذار 2002، خلص تقرير حقوقي لوزارة الخارجية الأميركية بشأن سوريا إلى "استمرار خطير لإساءة المعاملة، بما في ذلك التعذيب في المعتقلات".
ويؤكد عرار أن جلاديه السوريين تلقوا أسئلة محددة من الحكومة الأميركية، حيث طُرحت عليه في دمشق نفس الأسئلة التي طرحت عليه في نيويورك.
حالة أخرى
ويقول الكاتب إن قضية عرار لم تكن الأولى من نوعها، فوفقا للصحفية جين ماير من مجلة نيويوركر، فإن سوريا كانت إحدى "الجهات المشتركة" لتلقي المشتبه بهم.
وينقل كذلك ما قاله مدير المخابرات المركزية الأميركية السابق روبرت باير عام 2004 "إذا كنت تريد استجوابا جديا فأرسل المعتقل إلى الأردن، أما إذا كنت تريد تعذيبه فابعثه إلى سوريا".
وقضية محمد حيدر زمار -وهو مواطن ألماني من أصل سوري اتهم بتجنيد عناصر للقاعدة- حالة أخرى حيث اعتقل في المغرب في أكتوبر/تشرين الأول 2001، ونقلته المخابرات الأميركية إلى سوريا حيث وضع في حجز انفرادي بفرع فلسطين سيئ الصيت.
ويشير إلى أن مجلة تايم قالت في يوليو/تموز 2002 إن "المسؤولين الأميركيين في دمشق نقلوا أسئلة مكتوبة إلى السوريين الذين بدورهم نقلوا لهم الإجابات".
وأضافت المجلة أن "المسؤولين في وزارة الخارجية كانوا يفضلون هذه الطريقة، لأن ذلك يساعد الحكومة الأميركية على أن تنأى بنفسها عن أي تعذيب يقوم به السوريون بحق زمار".
ويخلص الكاتب مهدي حسن إلى أن ثمة أدلة قاطعة على أن الولايات المتحدة تعاونت عن كثب في الأشهر والسنوات التي تلت أحداث 11 سبتمبر/أيلول، مع سوريا التي غدت حليفا في الحرب على الإرهاب ووجهة لضحايا "تسليم المعتقلين".
ويختم مقاله متسائلا: من يقول إن الأميركيين دائما يعنون ما يقولون؟
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