Last week, Maher Arar was honored with an international human rights award, but the US government would not let him travel to Washington to accept it. Why? Because Arar, who currently lives in Kamloops, B.C. Canada, is on the US “no-fly list”. British actress Vanessa Redgrave, who would’ve presented the award to Arar, demanded that Washington remove him from their electronic database. Even after being exonerated in a Canadian judicial inquiry, Mr. Arar is still branded as a terrorist threat.

The award was to honor Arar’s work in trying to eradicate torture throughout the world. During a videotaped acceptance speech, Arar broke down in tears as he described his own imprisonment and torture under the approval of US authorities.

On September 26th, 2002, Arar was detained during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York as he was returning home to Canada. He was held for two weeks inside the US, then flown to Jordan on a private plane. From there he was driven across the border into Syria where he was tortured and held in a dark cell for over 10 months. Arar said life in the cell was “impossible” and admits that he contemplated suicide once he realized he was in Syria. “Since my release, I have been suffering from anxiety, constant fear and depression. My life will never be the same again. But I promised myself one thing, that I will continue my quest for justice as long as I have a breath.” Arar said he simply wants the US authorities responsible for sending him to Syria to admit their wrongdoing and be held accountable for their actions.

When speaking about Redgrave, the presenter of Arar’s award, US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said she had “turned justice upside down.” John Cavanagh, director of the IPS (Institute for Policy Studies), has said that he wrote Gonzales to ask that Arar be removed from the no-fly list, yet has received no reply. Arar said he wants US officials to accept the findings of the Canadian report and remove his name and his wife’s from the list. He is currently appealing a US lawsuit that was dismissed by a federal judge.

Arar said he has one question for President Bush: “Knowing that Syria tortures people… why did they send me to that country?” The Canadian report says that US officials violated the Vienna convention on Consular Relations by shipping Arar to Syria without informing Canada. Arar has also said that Canada shares some of the blame for giving the US false information about him which they acted on without evidence. Michael Ratner, president of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said the United States has made the term torture acceptable since 9/11. Ratner said torturing in the name of national security has set “the world back 500 years”.

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