By Stephen Brown
A recently disclosed plot revealed al-Qaeda had selected an American target in Canada to announce its return to North American soil. A story in Canada’s national newspaper, The National Post, said al-Qaeda terrorists were plotting to attack the American embassy in Ottawa before a tip from Syrian intelligence led to the terrorists’ arrest. Flynt Leverett, a former CIA analyst who served until recently on the National Security Council and is now a fellow at the Brookings Institute, confirmed the plot’s existence. Ironically, the revelation of the Ottawa embassy plot occurred during a disturbing development in Canada’s War on Terror.
The matter concerns a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, an Ottawa engineer, who was arrested in New York last September and deported to Syria. Arar, a suspected terrorist, was returning to Canada from Tunisia when the arrest occurred. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police had provided information to American authorities that led to the Syrian-Canadian's detention and deportation, a fact confirmed by both U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Paul Cellucci, America's ambassador to Canada. Powell said the RCMP had indicated Arar was connected to al-Qaeda, while Cellucci confirmed the deportee was the subject of a joint Canadian-American investigation before his arrest. Moreover, American authorities also claim the RCMP asked them to deport Arar because it didn't want him back in Canada.
However, anti-American forces in Canada's Liberal government are outraged that the United States deported a Canadian citizen, carrying a Canadian passport, to another country. And they are even angrier that the RCMP facilitated his removal from North America without first getting clearance from proper government channels. Wayne Easter, the Liberal cabinet minister responsible for the RCMP, even went so far as to call the Mounties who passed on the information "rogue elements." Liberal Prime Minister Jean Chretien was also furious with the deportation and has personally intervened in the matter. He sent a personal representative to Syria with a letter for President Bashar Assad asking that Arar be freed. Arar's wife, who denies her husband is a terrorist, also received a letter from Chretien.
| What'd they expect her to say? "My husband? Oh, yes. He's very dangerous!"? |
Amnesty International and the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR) have also gotten in on the act. They have called for an inquiry into the RCMP.
Amnesty claims the RCMP had Arar deported to a country with an abysmal human rights record where, according one human rights group, he has been tortured. CAIR wants the RCMP investigated for depriving a Canadian citizen of his civil rights.
Read the rest — and marvel / curse... |