From the mouths of babes…
Accused terrorist Omar Khadr identified Maher Arar as someone he recognized from an al-Qaida-run “safe” house in Afghanistan, an FBI agent testified in a Guantanamo Bay military commission Monday.
Robert Fuller, who interrogated the Canadian-born terror suspect in October 2002, said Khadr made the identification from a black-and-white photo of Arar provided by FBI in Massachusetts – a state where Arar, now an Ottawa resident, once lived.
“He identified him by name,” Mr. Fuller testified. “He said he had never seen him in Canada.””
A Canadian friend of mine, who has lived in the U.S. for the past decade, sent me this CBC story and asked me to read some of the comments. He then asked whether the vile anti-American, extremely radical left comments were representative of the Canadian Zeitgeist these days.
I said I didn’t think so, though they’re certainly representative of many CBC News fans. Sigh.
Arar moved to Kamloops, B.C. where one or two of the Air India terrorists, who brought down the plane over Lockerbie, live. I wonder what Arar was doing in Kamloops, B.C.? Things that make me go hummm?
I have tried to tell people for about 3 years now that Arar himself said he was refused entry to the USA when he fled Tunisia and left his loving family there , he was not deported to Syria .
Check out this link to the Arar website and click on the 3rd item down where a detailed Lawsuit for $25 million is filed against JORDAN where Arar said he was sent to , and NOT Syria.
http://www.maherarar.ca/documentation.php
Arars claims for Syria was full of holes and I never belived him because my gut feeling was that Syria asked him to go to canada as a refugee and the Cover-Story was that he opposed the Military Service and feld before he turned 19 .
Arar got caught globe-trotting and living near the Boston Airport prior tot he 9/11 hijackers getting planes from that Airport , Boston also had a Mosque with Al-Qaeda ties and the FBI saw Arar at that Mosque, Arar also attended the Mosque in Ottawa where Momin Khawaja attended who is now convicted for Terroism plots to the UK .
Tunisia didn’t want him back on a plane from JFK, but since his wife was Palestinian and Pro-Sharia Law with a relative tied to the Muslim Brotherhood….it was JORDAN that welcomed him in to meet up with his family.
Arar told of how Arab kidnappers grabbed his in Jordan and tortured him BEFORE being driven to Syria.
When the Media questioned his Statement to the press in 2003 after he was filing a lawsuit against canada in 2004 , his Lawyer excused away the changes to his story by saying he was in shock from the torture and had a false memory that mixed up the events and timeline.
OH REALLY……so we have the Muslim who cried Islamophobia , and now we have Maher and Omar fighting each other to claim the other Muslim is the liar.
I think they are BOTH liars because the Al-Qaeda
manual coaches Terrorist to claim they are Tortured if captured, then get outside help to exploit the Press and claim they wont get a fair trial from racism or Anti-Muslim bigotry by the USA who secretly backs the torture via the CIA.
Maher Wife and the Khadrs have Alleged torture and they found Useful-Idiots in the NDP and Liberals who want Power more than they want to protect us peons and idiot taxpayers.
Omars Sister was on the radio this past weekend and exploited the media by saying that her brother was tortured and won’t get a fair trial.
Gee, do you think they read the Terrorist Manual?
Something has gone off the rails in what these two are feeding us, and what wives, mothers, politicians, and investigators have been pushing on us.
When William Sampson was released from his hell hole in Saudi Arabia, we *knew* without one shred of a doubt he had experienced brutal torture. For real!
I’m not sure why everyone is babbling on about torture in the first place? We sure as hell didn’t torture him. Whether he was tortured or not, why are we outfitting some bloody foreign national with a questionable history with a life of luxury?
Does any Canadian on this thread actually believe that if he or she globe-trotted around the world and put themselves in the dangerous position to be tortured that the Canadian government would pay out millions of dollars once freed? Anywhere at any time?
Give it a rest………..Canada got screwed by a master manipulator and the moronic self interested lefties that sold his pathetic story. Thanks Layton and the rest of the NDP Nazi sympathizers.
Arar and his NDP wife need to give back the $11,000,000 ($10,500,000 rounded to the nearest million) and then maybe it could be given to William Sampson for his genuine pain and suffering.
‘Talk about selling our heritage for a bowl of porridge. If you’re Anglo-Saxon, responsible and accountable, you pay all of your bills and pay for every penny of health care for your family. If you’re a terrorist immigrant, then responsible, accountable (and broke) Canadians pay … and pay … pay … and pay … and pay …
What the He** is WRONG with us?
Well, well, well…
Now what?
Probably nothing. As usual.
arar should have been left in syria. the bastard ia a liar and we will have to deal with him some day. as far a kadar is concerned. shoot the bastard.
Hmmm…liberals, dippers and muslims. I don’t see a difference. Do you see a difference?
We have no proof whether Arar was tortured or not tortured.
He said he was and some of our big brains deducted his word was worth $11 million of our dollars. They apparently never heard of the old adage “when in doubt, don’t”.
There are some others looking for payouts as well, from the same background of course.
William Sampson,Canadian, immigrant from Great Britain, Anglo-Saxon, was tortured. He got zilch.
He wasn’t looking for money, just a bit of help, he got none.
Wonder how the Left will be spinning the news that the Khadr terrorist spawn identified Arar by name from a picture as being at one of the Al-Qaeda training camps? Will they just say it’s a common name?
Arar has lived in the US as well. Appears these fellows have a tough time settling down, love to move around and travel the world. WHY?
Bottom line, we are saps and suckers.
Dear Mr. “The Roll”
Here is the Syria thing that makes no sense to me. I agree with what you say about the Ba’athists, about being secular, but I think the rules have changed. Syria is backed by a religous state Iran and Syria itself supports a religious political terrorist group Hezbollah in Lebanon. Clearly the distinction between a religous and secular state in the moslem world is much more blurry than it has been in the past.
Your statement that Arar is a threat to secular Syria is what perhaps makes less sense than you might have thought. Syria and Hezbollah operatives and Hamas also are welcomed guests in Syria which itself is at odds with other arab moslem countries. The Syrians may or may not still have issues with the Moslem Brotherhood, but why would they try to take over a country which is so useful to Iran if they are busy in Egypt?
Does that comment live up to your standards of intelligent debate?
In Canada you are screwed if:
– You are white (Especially male)
– Christian
– Work in the private sector (No job security unlike public sector who are also threated like royalty ie: Governments will run deficits rather than laying off civil servants)
– Middle class (Pay the highest taxes in the develloped world with very few possible deductions available)
– Conservative minded/voter (You have very little avenue to voice your opinions other than some AM radio and blogs and your attempts at forcing debate is always squashed and ridiculed by the dominant left)
Above is my life’s overview = Totally screwed.
Canada first started as:
– A Conservative founded country by predominantly white Christian settlers who worked and lived off their private homesteads.
Obviously something went terribly wrong.
At 50, my bones are a bit achy, but give me the right leader with the right causes to follow and I will fight to the death in his revolution…I’m at that point.
I think in this instance I will take the word of an FBI agent over the wild-eyed raving speculations of the denizens of CBCPravda. They accuse the Americans of fabricating evidence? If they had indeed done so, you can bet that they’d have done a more thorough job of it! Khadr fingering Arar and naming him is likely true because Khadr had nothing to gain, and that testimony lacks the thoroughness of an actual frameup.
If anyone is lying here it is Arar. There has never been any evidence presented that he was in fact tortured. Also he’s been pretty coy about what he was doing jetting around the Middle East before he returned to N America and was picked up by the Americans.
Ezra has more:
http://ezralevant.com/2009/01/maher-arar-liar.html
Deal?
We get you hooked up to a polygraph.
You pass, you get to keep the $10.5 million.
Fair?
You fail?
Hello Syria!
Ulianov,
Let me hold your state funded cheap plastic jug of vodka while you go stand in line for 3 hours for your weekly ration of sandpaper grade ass wipes.
A series of photographs were placed in front of Kid Khadr.
He was asked if he recognized anybody.
Kid Khadr pointed to one picture and even named him … Maher Arar.
The only torture involved is ulianov and its ilk twisting and tortuing the facts.
There was massive failure by the Canadian government in the late 90’s and early part of this decade to adequately service Canadians held in foreign prisons,
Sampson, Arar and Kazemi (Iran).
These failures were under the LIBERAL government.
Whetehr Arar was guilty or not….there was no idication the judge was anything other than straight up.
I wouldnt go only by Khadr’s eyewitness accounts, who knows, the guy is likely Batshit crazy even before he was captured. You would like some other type of confirmation.
BUT it sure as heck explains what happened and why arar is on a no entry list.
You dont think his settlement money isnt tracked? If not by us then certainly by any one of our “echelon” partners. I am and was troubled as to why he was travelling on his Syrian passport. WTF would do that….people dont get when you travel under a countries passport then you are claiming the protection and or responsibilities of that citizenship. He would have been better to hvae been travelling under a Canadian passport. But Hotel Canada means otherwise.
While I am not sure the whole arar thing is told, for the moment he has been vindicated and khadr’s finger pointing doesnt mean a conviction, just leaves a loose thread. As I said, Khadr was likely brain addled anyway being fed non stop Islamist propoganda iin his mothers milk anyway.
But lets not forget which government failed to protect a large number of canadian citizens…of course this came after they did protect one, Papa Khadr…who made contributions to the Liberal party and therefore warranted intervention from Chretien. poor Bill sampson never contributed to JC’s campaigns so he was allowed to rot.
Stephen:
Then, how do you explain that Khadr identified Arar by NAME?
What’s with the fence-sitting doubts?
How much clearer can the statement by the FBI agent be?
I guess I have some faith in the Canadian judge, who by all accounts is a fair and prudent jurist. Of course a judge decides ONLY on the evidence placed in front of him.
My doubts on the FBI stuff
1) No notes or video to back up a verbal
2) Not clear if the name was proffered by the FBI agent first…this is the problem with no notes or video
3) Khadr isnt a terribly reliable witness for himself or against anybody else. I am pretty sure he is guily of the grenade throwing but outside of that…wouldnt trust him to tell me the time.
BTW I am not soft on him, I am the one going around correcting the misguided notion that he is a child soldier, he isnt by the standards used to convict charles taylor of recruiting Child Soldiers…..
We have conflicting evidence, or better stated conclusions. With the caveat that the Canadian inquiry was not presented with this evidence and it,the evidence, hasnt been tested properly.
There needs to be other evidence other than a jailhouse naming under less than ideal circumstances.
I am not trying to be political but I think anyone who cares about how the state’s power is used should be concerned with ensuring there is proper tested evidence.
So I am just not as ready as some to demand repayment yet based on the testimony of what Khadr said. But the questions raised need to answered….pull at the thread and see what happens.
Read the book by Paul Palango…Dispersing the Fog..Mahar …and the RCMP are discussed to some lenght
Have fun in court, indeed. It took only a few hours for the media to squelch this interrogator’s lie.
My fave? Khadr would have been about seven years old when he “remembered” Arar. He also “remembered” seeing Arar when the latter is known to have been in North America.
http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/Khadr+Arar+less+emphatic+than+suggested+court+told/1197989/story.html
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20090119.wgitmo0119/BNStory/International/home
Arar has the means to sue for defamation–no PayPal button required–and I, for one, hope that he does.
Ah good, another fellow whose only source of news is SDA.
TJ,
“If the Syrians were the ones who tortured him, and you seem quite certain that they did, where is the roaring outrage against Syria? I have not heard much on that front.”
The Canadian govenrment launched all the usual protests. However, as is the case with a number of Middle Eastern countries, Canada’s voice carries precious little weight. To put it mildly, they don’t care what Canada has to say. We can’t hurt them either – we don’t have many links with them to begin with. What are we going to do?
Besides, it is unclear if Syria even recognizes Arar’s Canadian citizenship. A number of Middle Eastern countries focus on national origin, not passport – therefore if you are of Syrian descent, you are treated as a Syrian regardless of the passport you carry. If the Americans recognize Arar as Syrian, not Canadian, and deport him, accordingly, to Syria, its hardly surprising the Syrian don’t see him as Canadian.
I’m tired of explaining the basics. GYM or TJ or whatever you are going to call yourself in your next post, the basic gist remains – if you don’tknow anything about the matter at hand, either learn up beforehand or keep shut.
I put my faith in the Canadian government. You lot clearly don’t. If you have such issues with all of this, demand an explanation. There is a Freedom of Information Act – use it. If the nature of the information is too sensitive, either learn to trust your elected representatives, or badger them into releasing the information anyway. Don’t like how your MP is going about it? Vote against him. Better yet, run for office. Of course, using these mechanisms requires some knowledge of their existence, and most here talk big, but generally don’t know a thing about what they are talking about.
dumbguy,
Finally a civil and thought out response – a real rarity on this thread. You are right that lines are being blurred with Syria supporting Hizbollah, but in doing so you are blurring the line between state-sponsored groups like Hezbollah, and Al Qaeda.
Hezbollah is a Shia group that relies on government patronage. It is not anti-Syrian state. Its agenda is not the same as that of Al Qaeda or the Muslim Brotherhood, both of which are blatantly anti-government and seek to create a pan-Islamic state. The big issue with Hezbollah is its anti-Israel stance, which ostensibly derives from its Islamic fundamentalist approach, but the odd thing there is that Hezbollah is not actively engaged in hostile activities against the general Sunni or Christian population. Contrast that with Al Qaeda or the MB (particulalry in Egypt). Indeed, some sections of the Sunni and Christian population support it.
“William Sampson,Canadian, immigrant from Great Britain, Anglo-Saxon, was tortured. He got zilch.”
William Sampson rejected Canadian representation and demanded British representation. As a dual citizen, he could demand either. That said, the Canadian diplomatic corps in Saudi Arabia should be strung up by their toes. I agree with you – they were inept as hell. However, one must remember that the Canadian government played no part in putting Sampson in Saudi Arabia. In Arar’s case, Canadian agencies were involved.
The Canadian government compensated Arar for wrongdoing on their part. If a Canadian is put in a dangerous position by the Government of Canada, then he/she sure as hell can demand that he/she be compensated. Arar didn’t show up in Syria of his own volition. The Canadian government wouldn’t have given him a cent if it wasn’t, in some way, involved.
“We get you hooked up to a polygraph.
You pass, you get to keep the $10.5 million.”
Do you actually believe that he was given money without a thorough investigation? If so, the Harper government has plenty to answer for.
“Both Harper and Day saw the files on Arar and they still consider him innocent.”
A point lost on too many of our ‘well-informed’ commentators here.
Sorry, got to the party late and did not read over the 70 plus so if this has been discussed move on…
I have to think the RCMP or others must have had some info on this guy, but by using it it may have compromised some other intelligent gathering stream. Now maybe that stream dried up or never was any good or it saved a life of some spy or circumstances changed or the info became outdated, among any number of things( too many “or”‘) but I find it hard to believe that it played out the way it did.
Arar = $10million of your tax dollars.
For WHAT ?
Everything about Arar is a fabrication… his whole story is wrong and stinks. Every person and goup involved with Arar stinks.
Every last person who has defended him has engaged in revisionism at some point in their arguments and even our own security agencies have no good answers about who and what he is.
We should be able to sue for our money back and for disclosure of all the facts regarding this disgrace.
It’s a FRAUD that has been perpetrated on Canadians and we damned well deserve answers.
Maybe stockwell day believed and signed off on arar because arar happened to be living and working in canada when omar saw him in a training cam[. Sheesh! how stupid are you people.
Arar = $10million of your tax dollars.
For WHAT ?
A shot at Bush and the Americans…
To a lefty, 10 million is CHEAP if it makes the Americans look bad.
“A shot at Bush and the Americans…
To a lefty, 10 million is CHEAP if it makes the Americans look bad.”
Yeah thats why Harper signed the check. Damn lefty.
You poor sensitive American. I guess you don’t understand how things work in Canada. Worry about your own country.
When the US had him deported to Syria with RCMP assistance, what about that was hard to understand. It was clear they was Al Queda all the way. It was an easy con on Canada who are all too anxious to poke a stick in the eye of the Americans. Makes sense to poke ’em in the eye. Why, it is sure to throw off their aim while they are on the parapet protecting us. Yeah, that makes sense.
The left are always crying about how the Harper government are ‘ignoring’ children in this country. Here’s a chunk of dough they can take back from the Arar liars and put it towards something in this country that is deserving. OR, horror of horrors to the left, to military families. OR to the defense of our Military hero accused of killing taliban in a firefight in a time of war. IT sure does not belong with terrorists who would hack off your head and that of your family and friends in broad daylight for the simple reason you don’t fall down and worship Islam.