www.maherarar.ca/mahers%20story.php
here Maher Arar: Chronology of events September 26, 2002 to October 5, 2003 The following is a chronology of events as told by Maher Arar, beginning with his arrival at John F Kennedy Airport in New York on September 26, 2002, and ending with his October 5, 2003 release from Syrian prison. September 26, 2002 Arar boards an American Airlines flight from Zurich to JFK airport in New York, en route to Montreal. He arrives in New York at 2:00 pm, and lines up at the immigration counter. When his name is entered into the computer he is pulled aside. Airport police search his bag and wallet and photocopy his passport. They refuse to answer Arars questions, and will not let him make a phone call. Officials from the New York Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigations say they will question him and then let him catch his connecting flight to Montreal. Arar asks for a lawyer, and is told he has no right to a lawyer because he is not an American citizen. Arar is questioned about his work, his salary, his travel in the US, and about different people. Arar tells them that he only knows him very casually, but that he worked with his brother Nazih at two high tech firms in Ottawa and Hull. He tells them that the Almalki family came from Syria about the same time as his, so the families know of each other. Arar does not know why they are questioning him so much about Abdullah. He tells them he has seen Abdullah a few times and he describes, in detail, the times he can remember. Arar is shocked when they show him the rental lease he signed when he moved to Ottawa in 1997. Arar remembers this and explains he had asked Nazih to sign it, but that Nazih was busy and sent his brother instead. Arar describes the questioning as intense, and says he was pressured to answer all questions quickly. He tells them he has nothing to hide, and tells them everything he knows. He asks repeatedly for a lawyer, but the request is ignored. Arars wrists and ankles are chained and he is taken in a van to a nearby building where others are being held and put in a cell. September 27, 2002 At 9:00 am Maher is taken for more questioning. He has not eaten or slept since he was on the flight from Zurich. He is interrogated for eight hours and is asked many questions including what he thinks about Bin Laden, Palestine and Iraq. He is also asked about the mosques he prays in, his bank accounts, his email addresses and his relatives. An INS official informs him they would like him to voluntarily return to Syria. Arar is asked to sign an immigration form, but they do not show him the contents. At about 8:00 pm he is shackled and put in a van and driven to the Metropolitan Detention Centre. Arar continues to ask why this is happening, and they continue to refuse to answer him or tell him where he is being taken. He is strip searched, and asked to sign more forms for a doctor, and vaccinated. He asks what the vaccine is, but they will not tell him. Arar continues to ask for a lawyer and a phone call, and is ignored. September 28 to October 7, 2002 Arar is not able to sleep until early in the morning, and wakes up at 11:00 am on September 28. This is the first time he has slept since leaving Zurich two days earlier. Arar notices he is being treated differently than other prisoners at the MDC for example, guards will not give him toothpaste or a toothbrush or newspapers. On the second or third day at the MDC, Arar is given a document saying that he is inadmissible to the United States under Section 235C of the Immigration and Nationality Act, because he is not is not a citizen of the United States; he is a native of Syria and is a citizen of Syria and Canada; he arrived in the United States on September 26, 2002 and applied for admission as a non-immigrant in transit through the United States, destined to Canada; and he is a member of an organization that has been designated by the Secretary of State as a Foreign Terrorist organization, to with Al Qaeda aka Al Qaida. Arar continues to ask for a lawyer and phone call, and his requests are denied until October 2 when he is permitted to make a two minute telephone call to his mother-in-law in Ottawa. He tells her he is frightened and he might be deported to Syria, and asks her to get him a lawyer. On October 3 or 4, Arar is asked to fill out a form asking where he would like to be deported to. He writes that he chooses to be sent to Canada, and that he has no concerns about going there. On October 4 Arar receives a visit from Canadian consul Maureen Girvan. Arar shows her the document he has been given, and she notes the contents. He tells her he is frightened of being deported to Syria, and she reassures him that this will not happen. They talk for 30 minutes, and he relates his fears to her, and asks her to help. She advises him not to sign anything without her being present. October 6, 2002 At 9:00 pm on Sunday night, guards come to take Arar from his cell, saying that his attorney is there to see him. Arar is taken to a room where about seven officials are waiting. He is told that they contacted his attorney and that he refused to come (thisis strange because Arars lawyer is a woman). They ask why Arar does not want to go to Syria, and Arar tells them he is afraid he will be tortured there. He says he did not do his military service before leaving Syria, he is a Sunni Muslim, and his mothers cousin was accused of being part of the Muslim Brotherhood and imprisoned. This session continues until 3:00 am, when he is taken back to his cell. October 8, 2002 Arar is woken at 3:00 am and is told he is leaving. A woman reads to him from a document, saying that based on classified information that they could not reveal to him, and because he knows a number of men, including Abdullah Almalki, Nazih Almalki, and Ahmad Abou-el-Maati, the INS Director has decided to deport him to Syria. He is chained and taken to a waiting car, and driven to an airport in New Jersey. They fly to Washington, and the people with him disembark, and a new team gets on the plane. Arar overhears the men talking on the phone saying that Syria is refusing to take him directly, but Jordan will take him. They fly to Portland, to Rome, and then to Amman, Jordan. On the trip to Amman Arar is given a sweater and jeans to wear. He does not know then that he will wear these clothes until the end of December. October 9, 2002 The jet lands in Amman, Jordan at 3:00 am There are six or seven Jordanians waiting for him. He is beaten intensely every time he tries to move or talk. Thirty minutes later they arrive at a building where they remove his blindfold and ask him routine questions, before taking him to a cell. In the afternoon they take his fingerprints and photographs and he is blindfolded and put in another van. About forty-five minutes later, they stop and he is put in a different car. He is forced to keep his head down, and he is beaten again. Over an hour later they arrive at what Arar believes was the Syrian border. He is handed over to a new team of men, and put in a new car which travels for another three hours to Damascus. At about 6:00 pm he is taken into a building which he later finds out is the Far Falestin or the Palestine Branch of the Syrian military intelligence. They put him on a chair, and the colonel begins the interrogation. Arar answers the questions but is threatened with a metal chair in the corner. He later learns that this chair is used to torture people. Arar decides he will confess to anything they want in order to stop the torture. The interrogation lasts for four hours without any violence only the threat of violence is used. October 10, 2002 Early in the morning on October 10 Arar is taken downstairs to a basement. The guard opens the door and Arar sees for the first time the cell he will live in for the following ten months and ten days. It is three feet wide, six feet deep and seven feet high. It has a metal door, with a small opening which does not let in light because of a piece of metal on the outside for sliding things into the cell. There is a one by two foot opening in the ceiling with iron bars. This opening is below anothe...
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