Whom Can You Trust?

The Canadian government wants to know why one of its citizens, Maher Arar, is still on a US terror watch list. From the Globe and Mail (Toronto):

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said yesterday [Jan 18] there was "nothing new" in the American dossier on Maher Arar that would justify keeping him on a terrorist watch list, although a top U.S. administration official indicated an explanation may be forthcoming.

"He should not be on the watch list," Mr. Day said after pressing the issue with U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff. "We have seen some recent information that has not altered our opinion at all."

Mr. Chertoff refused to comment on why Mr. Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, still cannot enter the United States or fly over its territory. Barely a kilometre away in Washington, Democrat Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was also demanding an explanation from U.S. Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez.

"I'm hoping that we can get you the information next week," Mr. Gonzalez told Mr. Leahy, a Vermonter who proudly wears his close Canadian ties.

"I'm somewhat upset," said Mr. Leahy as he ripped a strip off the Attorney-General in an outburst rarely matched in the often combative but usually genteel Senate committee hearings. It was a harbinger of things to come now that Democrats control both houses of Congress and will bring a new and tougher tone to oversight hearings.

"Before you get more upset, perhaps you should wait to receive the briefing," said Mr. Gonzalez.

Mr. Arar was detained in New York in 2002 as a suspected terrorist and shipped to Syria where he was jailed and tortured.

[...]

The Canadian government, stung and embarrassed by the findings of a judicial inquiry that concluded it had repeatedly failed Mr. Arar, has belatedly sought to advocate on his behalf with the Bush administration.

First Foreign Affairs Minister Peter MacKay and now Mr. Day have tried to budge the Bush administration's view that Mr. Arar still poses a serious security risk.

"Why is he on a government watch list if he's been found completely innocent by this Canadian commission?" demanded Mr. Leahy.

Not only that, the Canadian government has apologized for turning Mr. Arar over to the Americans, and the head of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police resigned under fire for the incident. But according to the topsy-turvy Colonel Flagg mentality of the Bush administration, Mr. Arar hasn't proved his innocence to their satisfaction.

If you can't trust the Canadians, whom can you trust? In the paranoia of the Bush administration, apparently no one, and they're still saying Mr. Arar belongs on the watch list. But then, so does the President of Bolivia and a Nazi sympathizer who's been dead for a while.

As several Canadian friends have pointed out, only the US Department of Homeland Security can make someone like Stockwell Day, Canada's ambassador for the right-wing nutsery, look good.

Sheesh.

Update: Crooks & Liars has the video of Sen. Leahy giving Attorney General Gonzales the grilling he deserves on the Arar case.