U.S. Questioned About Arar Torture Case

U.S. Questioned About Arar Torture Case : "Days before the Bush administration put Canadian citizen Maher Arar on a plane for Syria, Canadian law enforcement officials advised their U.S. counterparts that evidence of terrorist links by Arar was not definitive.

Why the Bush administration still shipped Arar to Syria -- where he was tortured -- and whether he remains on the United States' terror watch list are still unknown. Administration officials refuse to talk about the case.

It has been a month since a Canadian commission cleared Syrian-born Arar of all suspicion of terrorist activity, yet Arar still can't get into the United States, one of his lawyers, Michael Ratner, said Thursday.

John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, asked Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to clear Arar's name and let him come into the United States this week to receive a human rights award.

Gonzales did not reply, Cavanagh said. At the Justice Department, a spokesman said he was unaware of the letter and could not comment."

(Via Salon.)