There is visceral anger across Canada and the United States over his treatment by the governments of all three countries. His forcible removal from a plane in New York while returning to his home in Canada after a visit to Tunisia, his deportation to Syria by America despite his Canadian citizenship, the role Canadian security services played in fingering him as an Al Qaida suspect, and the treatment he received in Syria are all raising questions which Ottawa, Washington and Damascus are not keen to answer.
The Arar case is threatening to expose all three governments, their machinations and their double standards when it comes to Arabs and Muslims. Ottawa clearly has something to hide because it is reluctant to accede to demands for an independent inquiry.
For Chretien, Arar's demand for an inquiry amounts to nothing more than "another fishing expedition." Hehas rejected such calls even when his Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham called upon the Saudi government to accounting of the alleged torture of William Sampson, a Canadian who was recently freed from a Saudi jail after being wrongfully convicted for a car bombing that killed a British national.
Ottawa was also rightly incensed when the Iranian-born Canadian photojournalist Zahra Kazemi, was put in a Tehran prison and later beaten to death. Graham insisted that the Iranian government explain the circumstances of her death, and even withdrew the Canadian ambassador in Tehran for time, demanding action against her assailants.
But in the matter of Arar's imprisonment, the government has demonstrated no comparable outrage. "We have revealed all the facts that we know about it," Prime Minister told the Commons last week. "There is no need for an inquiry."
In the United States too, there is growing anger among Arabs and Muslims about Arar. People who have suffered harassment under the draconian Patriot Act are demanding Congress and Attorney-General John Ashcroft, to investigate. They are especially keen to know whether the deportation violated American laws.
The Center for Constitutional Rights wrote to Congress intelligence committees pressing for a review of Arar's case. The center said Ashcroft should begin a criminal investigation.
Why are all these countries quiet on this? What makes the Canadian government so unconcerned? Could it be because Canada concurred in the deportation?
US Secretary of State Colin Powell, and American Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci both suggested that Canada was not unhappy with the US for apprehending and dealing with Arar.
There were also reports that the Canadian consulate in New York may have even given the nod to the Americans to deport Arar to Syria instead of Canada. A retiring foreign ministry official has just said that Ottawa gave out mixed signals on Arar to the Americans.
Arabs and Muslims and civil rights groups are particularly irked by Arar's story because it seems to fit with several recent America media reports that have said that US law enforcement agencies are now contracting-out suspected terrorist "interrogations" to countries in the Middle East and Asia as US laws prohibit harsh interrogation methods of prisoners.
Syrian officials say Arar was not charged with anything and released because their interrogators found no basis for the US claim that he was an Al Qaida suspect. But that was after 11 months of beatings and solitary confinement.
Some diplomatic observers believe that Damascus decided to release Arar only to show its displeasure with Washington over US allegations that Syria is allowing Al Qaida fighters to cross over to Iraq through its land routes.
"Arar came home in the end only because Syria got miffed by US allegations and ended intelligence co-operation with Americans on Al Qaida terrorism," explained a diplomat in Ottawa. "Arar was a beneficiary of this diplomatic friction." Now that Arar is home, everyone is keen to sweep the issue under the carpet and move on, the diplomat, who requested anonymity, said.
"It looks like Arar was another innocent Arab who was a victim of the paranoia that is driving politics in this part of the world. Neither the Canadian government nor the U.S. nor the Syrians would want all this to be aired at a public inquiry."
Many analysts agree. They see no prospect of Ottawa letting out the name of the police or intelligence official who provided the Americans with the information about Arar that led to his name being included in the Watch List.
Similarly, the US is unlikely to jeopardise its intelligence-sharing arrangement with Canada by ratting on the Canadian police or security agency that tipped them off. There is a larger issue though. By denying him due process, Arar continues to be victimised.
His civil liberties were violated, his Canadian citizenship failed to protect him.
While the people who fingered him as a terrorist suspect are free to continue rail-roading innocent Arabs and Muslims on the grounds of mere suspicion, Arar and his wife and two children have to live under a cloud of suspicion. He has not been given a chance to clear his name.
That's one part of it. The other is the matter of trust that people have in their governments. How can democratic, constitutional governments that claim to protect civil liberties, which are at the very core of their foundations, subscribe to covert programmes that send their citizens, even suspected terrorists, to other countries to be tortured for information?
"There is good reason to believe that the United States knew and wanted Arar tortured to obtain information," says Jeffrey Fogel, Legal Director at the Centre for Constitutional Rights. "This practice of rendering cannot and must not be allowed to continue."
The writer can be contacted at nkaneira@gulfnews.com
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