Decision on deporting Arar called ‘extraordinary’

OTTAWA— A former CIA analyst says the decision to send Canadian Maher Arar to Syria must have come from the highest levels of the U. S. administration. But Flynt Leverett testified yesterday at the Arar inquiry he was mystified as to who would have made that call.

Arar was detained as a terrorism suspect at New York’s JFK Airport on Sept. 26, 2002 during a stopover as he tried to return home to Canada. Despite the fact he was travelling on his Canadian passport, U. S. officials sent the Syrian- born engineer to Damascus after holding him for 12 days.

“ Under those circumstances, why the U. S. government would have chosen to deport Mr. Arar to Syria rather than to Canada — I find this extraordinary,” Leverett said. “ Indeed, it’s so extraordinary it is really hard for me to figure out who made the decision.”

In Syria, Arar was tortured and held for a year without charges. The inquiry is probing how Canadian officials were involved in Arar’s case.

Leverett served on U.S. President George W. Bush’s National Security Council during the time Arar was detained in Syria, but had no direct involvement in the case. He left the U. S. government in 2003 after disagreeing with its anti- terrorism policies.

Leverett testified that during his nine years with the CIA, he had no knowledge of the agency’s policy of rendition, whereby U. S. officials circumvent domestic laws to deport terrorism suspects to countries known for harsh interrogation. He also said that, as an analyst, he often did not know whether intelligence he received had been garnered under torture.

Leverett and Henry Hogger, a former British ambassador to Syria, were hired as expert witnesses to testify on behalf of Canada’s former ambassador in Syria and a retired Canadian consul. Ambassador Franco Pillarella, now posted in Romania, testified this summer that he was unaware of Syria’s record of human rights abuses.

Pillarella’s relationships with Syrian intelligence officials have been questioned. Hogger testified yesterday that Pillarella’s access to General Hassan Khalil, the former head of Syria’s military intelligence, was unique.

But, Hogger said, this relationship helped with Arar’s release, rather than hindered it.