Today's NYT has a brief story with more substantiation via flight records of Maher Arar's contention that he was illegally transferred to the hands of the Syrian government for purposes of interrogation (this comes on the heels of similar stories in the Chicago Tribune and LA Times on planes used for similar purposes). Darkly in the piece something became clear:

In papers filed in a New York court replying to Mr Arar's lawsuit, Justice Department lawyers say the case was not one of rendition but of deportation. They say Mr Arar was deported to Syria based on secret information that he was a member of Al Qaeda, an accusation he denies.

[emphasis added]

Facts so secret, even Mr Arar didn't know.

Posted by esinclai at March 30, 2005 06:26 AM |