I just finished listening to part of this conference. Almalki hardly needs a laywer, he seemed to be the most articulate of anyone at the conference. He claims his cognitive powers have been diminished by torture. It wasn't evident at the conference!
It seems that the report is more positive for the civil cases of the three than I had thought. Iacobucci clearly notes that some of the labelling of the three as terrorists and as associated with Al Qaeda was mistaken or not well established.
The lawyers stressed the fact that the inquiry had established that the three had been tortured- although this had been established earlier in the Arar inquiry. They also noted that Canadian officials had indirectly caused their incarceration and resulting torture.
However, Iacobucci claims that officials were just doing their job as they saw it. So there is nothing malicious about labelling someone a terrorist without good evidence or sending questions to jailors who torture and asking for answers. Maybe it is not malicious but it should be grounds for dismissal. It shows gross incompetence or else being part of a bigger plan which cannot be revealed because it would jeapordize national security through poisoning our relationships with the intelligence agencies of other countries. Note that in the US Arar is still on record as being a member of Al Qaeda, that is why he was deported to Syria to be interrogated and tortured. In my opinion all three cases investigated were examples of adventitious rendition. The three were in Syria and the Canadian authorities took the occasion to give information to Syrian authorities that resulted in their arrests and interrogation. Of course the Iacobucci inquiry failed to reach that conclusion.
Showing posts with label Al Malki. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Al Malki. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Sunday, October 19, 2008
Inside Canada's secret inquiry
This is from the Ottawa Citizen.
The Iacobbuci Inquiry into the cases of three Canadian Muslims tortured in Syria is to report to the government on Monday but it may be a few days before the report is released to the public. I think it is significant that it was not released before the election. The subsequent furor could have influenced the outcome perhaps. In spite of the secrecy of the report I expect that there will be some criticism of Canadian officials. As in the Arar report there will be no action taken against anyone. Perhaps as in the Arar affair some of them may even be promoted. There will be no help for the three in whose name the inquiry was undertaken in clearing their name. In fact the three involved had little role in the inquiry and were given no clue as to what the evidence was against them and they probably never will be. The government is not about to face another inquiry of the sort that Arar had. Revealing the incompetence of intelligence operatives and having to pay compensation for bad treatment is not something the government wishes to continually face!
After this report there will be a flurry of publicity but then Iacobucci can collect his fat fee and everything will go back to the way it was and Almalki, El-Maati, and Nurredin will have to continue to fight to try to clear their names and get any compensation from the government.
Inside Canada's 'secret' inquiry
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, October 18, 2008
CREDIT: Bruno Schlumberger, the Ottawa Citizen
'I think secrecy is the enemy of democracy,' says Abdullah Almalki, 37, an Ottawa father of six and a Carleton University engineering grad who endured 22 months in Syrian jails.
On Monday, the report into the treatment of three Arab-Canadian men who were detained and tortured in a Syrian jail is expected to be handed into the government.
The commission was conducted behind closed doors, and as Andrew Duffy reports, that is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of the men at the centre of this review.
During Justice Dennis O'Connor's inquiry into the Maher Arar case, he heard startling evidence about three other Arab-Canadians who were similarly detained and tortured in Syria.
In his report, Judge O'Connor concluded that what happened to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin raised troubling questions when considered alongside Mr. Arar's experience.
The four Canadian citizens had all been detained and tortured in the same Damascus military prison. All four were under investigation by the RCMP or CSIS at the time for alleged terrorist connections.
Judge O'Connor said that while it was "most unlikely" that Canadian officials had a policy of using foreign agencies to further national security probes at home, the cases nonetheless displayed a "pattern of investigative practices" that pointed to systemic problems.
Those problems, he said, went beyond Mr. Arar's case and needed to be addressed.
"I have heard enough evidence about the cases of Messrs. Almalki, El-Maati and Nureddin to observe that these cases should be reviewed," the judge wrote in September, 2006. He called for a second inquiry to fully investigate.
More than two years later, the federal inquiry that the Arar commission inspired is about to report its findings. Retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci will deliver his report to the federal government on Monday; it is expected to be made public later in the week.
But human rights groups -- and the three men themselves -- yesterday denounced the secretive process employed by Mr. Iacobucci and called for it never to be used again.
"The secrecy was not limited to national security concerns: it extended to everything," said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. "That is virtually unprecedented in Canada and undermined fairness and the public interest from the very outset."
The Iacobucci inquiry has been marked by controversy.
One intervenor, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, withdrew from the inquiry in December 2007 to protest what it said was a "dangerous precedent for closed-door, secret inquiries."
The inquiry interviewed 40 witnesses in-camera and collected 40,000 documents. None of the documents were released to the public and none of the witnesses were cross-examined by lawyers for the three men. Even the witness list remains confidential.
The three men testified about their experiences with torture, but they were not allowed to read the final submissions delivered by their own lawyers -- in case Mr. Iacobucci decided to recall them as witnesses.
The men say they've been treated as outcasts by an inquiry that is supposed to discover the extent of the Canadian complicity in their torture.
"It is a strange and alarming process," said Mr. Almalki, 37, an Ottawa father of six and a Carleton University engineering graduate who endured 22 months in Syrian jails.
Mr. Almalki was repeatedly interrogated and tortured, he said, based on information that could only have originated with Canadian security agencies.
The Arar report has confirmed that the RCMP sent questions to the Syrians to be put to Mr. Almalki. But he contends that Canadian officials continued to pass information to the Syrians even after Mr. Arar warned the federal government that the Syrians were torturing detainees.
Mr. Almalki said the inquiry's secrecy has frustrated his ability to test the truth of what government officials have said about him, his alleged terrorist connections and what happened to him in Syria.
"I think secrecy is the enemy of democracy," said Mr. Almalki, who has repeatedly denied any connection to al-Qaeda.
Mr. El-Maati, a Toronto truck driver who was held in Syria and Egypt for more than two years, told reporters yesterday that the process has inspired no confidence: "How can we trust the findings of an inquiry that has only heard one side of the story?"
Mr. Iacobucci has defended the secretive process as necessary to fulfil his mandate. His terms of reference emphasized "the internal or private nature" of the inquiry, Mr. Iacobucci has said, and the need to protect national security information.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day created the inquiry in December 2006 to examine the actions of Canadian officials that may have led to the detention and mistreatment of the three men.
The internal inquiry was in keeping with Mr. O'Connor's opinion that public inquiries into national security cases can be "time-consuming and expensive" exercises. The Arar inquiry included protracted legal argument about what information had to be shielded for the sake of national security.
But Mr. Almalki's lawyer, Jasminka Kalajdzic, said Mr. Iacobucci's mandate did not require complete secrecy. That approach, she said, was ultimately for the sake of expediency, not national security.
"In the more than 400 inquiries convened in our country since Confederation," she said, "this is the only one where the public has been excluded for reasons other than national security confidentiality."
Mr. Neve said the inquiry went "terribly wrong" from the start with a mandate that made it chiefly about Canadian officials. It meant, he said, that the inquiry functioned as if it was not about the men named in its title and so afforded them few legal rights.
In her new book, Dark Days, Ottawa human rights activist Kerry Pither contends that the three men were imprisoned in Syria because of an orchestrated campaign by Canadian security agencies to neutralize people they wrongly believed to be terrorist threats. To be credible, she said, the Iacobucci inquiry must tell Canadians why the men were labelled Islamic extremists.
"Because how they were labelled in communications with the media and with foreign governments would most certainly have had an impact on the decision to detain in Syria, the length of their detention and how they were treated," she said. "It would also have an impact on Canadian officials and how hard they worked for their release."
For his part, Mr. Almalki has a list of 30 questions he wants answered by the inquiry. Among them: Who sent information about him to the Syrians and why? Why did Canadian diplomats and security agents meet with Syrian military intelligence, the organization responsible for his torture? Why did no Canadian Embassy officials visit him while he was in Sryian custody?
Mr. Almalki said there remains, too, a basic question about the role of Canadian officials: "Is it that they didn't care I would be tortured or did they want me to be tortured?"
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
The Iacobbuci Inquiry into the cases of three Canadian Muslims tortured in Syria is to report to the government on Monday but it may be a few days before the report is released to the public. I think it is significant that it was not released before the election. The subsequent furor could have influenced the outcome perhaps. In spite of the secrecy of the report I expect that there will be some criticism of Canadian officials. As in the Arar report there will be no action taken against anyone. Perhaps as in the Arar affair some of them may even be promoted. There will be no help for the three in whose name the inquiry was undertaken in clearing their name. In fact the three involved had little role in the inquiry and were given no clue as to what the evidence was against them and they probably never will be. The government is not about to face another inquiry of the sort that Arar had. Revealing the incompetence of intelligence operatives and having to pay compensation for bad treatment is not something the government wishes to continually face!
After this report there will be a flurry of publicity but then Iacobucci can collect his fat fee and everything will go back to the way it was and Almalki, El-Maati, and Nurredin will have to continue to fight to try to clear their names and get any compensation from the government.
Inside Canada's 'secret' inquiry
The Ottawa Citizen
Saturday, October 18, 2008
CREDIT: Bruno Schlumberger, the Ottawa Citizen
'I think secrecy is the enemy of democracy,' says Abdullah Almalki, 37, an Ottawa father of six and a Carleton University engineering grad who endured 22 months in Syrian jails.
On Monday, the report into the treatment of three Arab-Canadian men who were detained and tortured in a Syrian jail is expected to be handed into the government.
The commission was conducted behind closed doors, and as Andrew Duffy reports, that is leaving a bitter taste in the mouths of the men at the centre of this review.
During Justice Dennis O'Connor's inquiry into the Maher Arar case, he heard startling evidence about three other Arab-Canadians who were similarly detained and tortured in Syria.
In his report, Judge O'Connor concluded that what happened to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El-Maati and Muayyed Nureddin raised troubling questions when considered alongside Mr. Arar's experience.
The four Canadian citizens had all been detained and tortured in the same Damascus military prison. All four were under investigation by the RCMP or CSIS at the time for alleged terrorist connections.
Judge O'Connor said that while it was "most unlikely" that Canadian officials had a policy of using foreign agencies to further national security probes at home, the cases nonetheless displayed a "pattern of investigative practices" that pointed to systemic problems.
Those problems, he said, went beyond Mr. Arar's case and needed to be addressed.
"I have heard enough evidence about the cases of Messrs. Almalki, El-Maati and Nureddin to observe that these cases should be reviewed," the judge wrote in September, 2006. He called for a second inquiry to fully investigate.
More than two years later, the federal inquiry that the Arar commission inspired is about to report its findings. Retired Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci will deliver his report to the federal government on Monday; it is expected to be made public later in the week.
But human rights groups -- and the three men themselves -- yesterday denounced the secretive process employed by Mr. Iacobucci and called for it never to be used again.
"The secrecy was not limited to national security concerns: it extended to everything," said Alex Neve, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada. "That is virtually unprecedented in Canada and undermined fairness and the public interest from the very outset."
The Iacobucci inquiry has been marked by controversy.
One intervenor, the B.C. Civil Liberties Association, withdrew from the inquiry in December 2007 to protest what it said was a "dangerous precedent for closed-door, secret inquiries."
The inquiry interviewed 40 witnesses in-camera and collected 40,000 documents. None of the documents were released to the public and none of the witnesses were cross-examined by lawyers for the three men. Even the witness list remains confidential.
The three men testified about their experiences with torture, but they were not allowed to read the final submissions delivered by their own lawyers -- in case Mr. Iacobucci decided to recall them as witnesses.
The men say they've been treated as outcasts by an inquiry that is supposed to discover the extent of the Canadian complicity in their torture.
"It is a strange and alarming process," said Mr. Almalki, 37, an Ottawa father of six and a Carleton University engineering graduate who endured 22 months in Syrian jails.
Mr. Almalki was repeatedly interrogated and tortured, he said, based on information that could only have originated with Canadian security agencies.
The Arar report has confirmed that the RCMP sent questions to the Syrians to be put to Mr. Almalki. But he contends that Canadian officials continued to pass information to the Syrians even after Mr. Arar warned the federal government that the Syrians were torturing detainees.
Mr. Almalki said the inquiry's secrecy has frustrated his ability to test the truth of what government officials have said about him, his alleged terrorist connections and what happened to him in Syria.
"I think secrecy is the enemy of democracy," said Mr. Almalki, who has repeatedly denied any connection to al-Qaeda.
Mr. El-Maati, a Toronto truck driver who was held in Syria and Egypt for more than two years, told reporters yesterday that the process has inspired no confidence: "How can we trust the findings of an inquiry that has only heard one side of the story?"
Mr. Iacobucci has defended the secretive process as necessary to fulfil his mandate. His terms of reference emphasized "the internal or private nature" of the inquiry, Mr. Iacobucci has said, and the need to protect national security information.
Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day created the inquiry in December 2006 to examine the actions of Canadian officials that may have led to the detention and mistreatment of the three men.
The internal inquiry was in keeping with Mr. O'Connor's opinion that public inquiries into national security cases can be "time-consuming and expensive" exercises. The Arar inquiry included protracted legal argument about what information had to be shielded for the sake of national security.
But Mr. Almalki's lawyer, Jasminka Kalajdzic, said Mr. Iacobucci's mandate did not require complete secrecy. That approach, she said, was ultimately for the sake of expediency, not national security.
"In the more than 400 inquiries convened in our country since Confederation," she said, "this is the only one where the public has been excluded for reasons other than national security confidentiality."
Mr. Neve said the inquiry went "terribly wrong" from the start with a mandate that made it chiefly about Canadian officials. It meant, he said, that the inquiry functioned as if it was not about the men named in its title and so afforded them few legal rights.
In her new book, Dark Days, Ottawa human rights activist Kerry Pither contends that the three men were imprisoned in Syria because of an orchestrated campaign by Canadian security agencies to neutralize people they wrongly believed to be terrorist threats. To be credible, she said, the Iacobucci inquiry must tell Canadians why the men were labelled Islamic extremists.
"Because how they were labelled in communications with the media and with foreign governments would most certainly have had an impact on the decision to detain in Syria, the length of their detention and how they were treated," she said. "It would also have an impact on Canadian officials and how hard they worked for their release."
For his part, Mr. Almalki has a list of 30 questions he wants answered by the inquiry. Among them: Who sent information about him to the Syrians and why? Why did Canadian diplomats and security agents meet with Syrian military intelligence, the organization responsible for his torture? Why did no Canadian Embassy officials visit him while he was in Sryian custody?
Mr. Almalki said there remains, too, a basic question about the role of Canadian officials: "Is it that they didn't care I would be tortured or did they want me to be tortured?"
© The Ottawa Citizen 2008
Friday, October 19, 2007
Calls for Iacobucci Inquiry to be made public.
There is no way that Iacobucci will make the inquiry fully public. It is called an Internal Inquiry and he interprets that given the circumstances that it will specifically not be a full public inquiry. Iacobucci does have as Day notes the power to hold public hearings but he has chosen not to do so except at the stage before witnesses were called and interrogated. A total cloak of secrecy has covered the inquiry since the end of May.
THere is a good TV interview with AL Malki on CBC.
Three Arab-Canadians who allege Canadian officials contributed to their torture overseas called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday to make the federal inquiry into their cases fully public.
Headed by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, the inquiry is examining the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who say they were wrongly labelled as terrorists by Canadian authorities and tortured in Syria and Egypt.
The appeal by the three men came a day after Amnesty International and a coalition of other rights groups said the inquiry is being stymied by overprotective guidelines established by the Conservative government.
At a news conference in Ottawa Friday, the men and their lawyers said they are frustrated that Iacobucci has held most of the inquiry in camera since it began in March.
Iacobucci has also denied lawyers for the three men access to the hearings, saying it would be too difficult to obtain special security clearance for them. The government has also cited the need to protect national security and quicken the inquiry process as a justification for keeping proceedings out of the public eye.
But Almalki, an Ottawa-based communications engineer, said his reputation and professional life have been "thrown out the window" since he was held for 22 months after his arrest in Syria in 2002.
He said the powerlessness he feels over being shut out of the process reminded him of the time he spent in a "grave-like" underground cell.
"We want a true public inquiry," Almalki told reporters Friday. "I am not able to put a single question to a single witness or see a single document. Why the secrecy?"
Asked about the inquiry in Ottawa Friday, the prime minister said Iacobucci has been given a "wide mandate," but has to weigh national security concerns in his role.
"Justice Iacobucci has all the power necessary to decide whether something should be held in private or whether it can be held in public," Harper said. "The government isn't going to interfere in how he conducts the inquiry."
'My life is in limbo'
Paul Copeland, Almalki's lawyer, cited the in camera testimony at the Maher Arar inquiry that was later held again within the public eye as an example of what he hoped would ultimately occur in Iacobucci's own proceedings.
"Our impressions are that there will be no such hearings at the inquiry," Copeland told CBC News on Friday. "What we have is anything but open and transparent. We know almost nothing about what's going on."
In an e-mail to CBCNews.ca, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the Iacobucci inquiry was a "clear indication" the Conservative government is taking steps to implement the recommendations made by the commissioner of the Arar inquiry, Justice Dennis O’Connor.
Day said the government is fully committed to working with Iacobucci and his counsel "to support the internal inquiry in fulfilling its mandate in a timely and efficient manner."
“If Chairman Iacobucci feels constrained by the terms of reference, he can approach the prime minister," Day said.
Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin all spent time in prison, where they say they were tortured and accused of links to al-Qaeda. All were eventually freed and allowed to return to Canada.
All believe that Canadian police or intelligence officers provided information to their foreign captors.
Kuwait-born El Maati was a truck driver who said he was tortured in both Egypt and Syria.
"I'm still waiting for real answers, so I can get on with my life," he said Friday.
Nureddin was the principal of an Islamic school in Toronto and was arrested at the Syrian border as he was returning from visiting relatives in northern Iraq in 2004.
"In many ways, my life is in limbo," Nureddin told reporters Friday.
"Not being able to participate in an inquiry into why I was tortured ... makes this limbo another form of torture."
While all three were investigated by CSIS on suspicion of links to terrorism, none was ever arrested here nor had any restrictions placed on their movements in Canada.
THere is a good TV interview with AL Malki on CBC.
Three Arab-Canadians who allege Canadian officials contributed to their torture overseas called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper on Friday to make the federal inquiry into their cases fully public.
Headed by former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci, the inquiry is examining the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, who say they were wrongly labelled as terrorists by Canadian authorities and tortured in Syria and Egypt.
The appeal by the three men came a day after Amnesty International and a coalition of other rights groups said the inquiry is being stymied by overprotective guidelines established by the Conservative government.
At a news conference in Ottawa Friday, the men and their lawyers said they are frustrated that Iacobucci has held most of the inquiry in camera since it began in March.
Iacobucci has also denied lawyers for the three men access to the hearings, saying it would be too difficult to obtain special security clearance for them. The government has also cited the need to protect national security and quicken the inquiry process as a justification for keeping proceedings out of the public eye.
But Almalki, an Ottawa-based communications engineer, said his reputation and professional life have been "thrown out the window" since he was held for 22 months after his arrest in Syria in 2002.
He said the powerlessness he feels over being shut out of the process reminded him of the time he spent in a "grave-like" underground cell.
"We want a true public inquiry," Almalki told reporters Friday. "I am not able to put a single question to a single witness or see a single document. Why the secrecy?"
Asked about the inquiry in Ottawa Friday, the prime minister said Iacobucci has been given a "wide mandate," but has to weigh national security concerns in his role.
"Justice Iacobucci has all the power necessary to decide whether something should be held in private or whether it can be held in public," Harper said. "The government isn't going to interfere in how he conducts the inquiry."
'My life is in limbo'
Paul Copeland, Almalki's lawyer, cited the in camera testimony at the Maher Arar inquiry that was later held again within the public eye as an example of what he hoped would ultimately occur in Iacobucci's own proceedings.
"Our impressions are that there will be no such hearings at the inquiry," Copeland told CBC News on Friday. "What we have is anything but open and transparent. We know almost nothing about what's going on."
In an e-mail to CBCNews.ca, Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said the Iacobucci inquiry was a "clear indication" the Conservative government is taking steps to implement the recommendations made by the commissioner of the Arar inquiry, Justice Dennis O’Connor.
Day said the government is fully committed to working with Iacobucci and his counsel "to support the internal inquiry in fulfilling its mandate in a timely and efficient manner."
“If Chairman Iacobucci feels constrained by the terms of reference, he can approach the prime minister," Day said.
Almalki, El Maati and Nureddin all spent time in prison, where they say they were tortured and accused of links to al-Qaeda. All were eventually freed and allowed to return to Canada.
All believe that Canadian police or intelligence officers provided information to their foreign captors.
Kuwait-born El Maati was a truck driver who said he was tortured in both Egypt and Syria.
"I'm still waiting for real answers, so I can get on with my life," he said Friday.
Nureddin was the principal of an Islamic school in Toronto and was arrested at the Syrian border as he was returning from visiting relatives in northern Iraq in 2004.
"In many ways, my life is in limbo," Nureddin told reporters Friday.
"Not being able to participate in an inquiry into why I was tortured ... makes this limbo another form of torture."
While all three were investigated by CSIS on suspicion of links to terrorism, none was ever arrested here nor had any restrictions placed on their movements in Canada.
Monday, March 19, 2007
Iacobucci Inquiry to begin.
It remains to be seen how much the public will be allowed to see of the evidence against the three. From the nature of the inquiry it seems unlikely that there will be all that much done in public. The lawyers for the three may not even see much of the evidence on national security grounds. This often means that it would be counter to national security to reveal the incompetence of our intelligence persons.
Inquiry into torture of three Cdns. to begin
Updated Sun. Mar. 18 2007 2:16 PM ET
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- Canadians will finally get a glimpse of how former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci plans to proceed in his investigation into the detention and torture abroad of three Canadians accused of terrorist ties.
It can't come soon enough for supporters of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, all of whom believe the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP played a part in their mistreatment in Syria and Egypt.
Their stories bear striking similarities to the more highly publicized ordeal of Maher Arar -- prompting charges by human rights groups that Ottawa is deliberately farming out the interrogation of suspects to regimes with a history of abusing prisoners.
Iacobucci was appointed in December to probe the actions of CSIS, the Mounties and the Foreign Affairs Department, under a mandate conferred by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
The official business at the first public session of the inquiry Wednesday will be to hear submissions from lawyers for the three men, along with any other interested parties who want a voice in the investigation.
More revealing, however, may be the opening statement by Iacobucci, who's expected to outline how he plans to sort out the affair, how long it will take, and how he hopes to preserve the credibility of a process that will take place mostly behind closed doors.
"He's determined that this will be an independent inquiry, the results of which will make the public confident that he's gotten to the bottom of it,'' says John Laskin, the chief counsel for the commission.
"We're very much committed to doing something credible and fair and thorough.''
But it appears the public may have to take Iacobucci's word for that, since much of the documentation and oral testimony will be dealt with in private for national security reasons.
The inquiry's terms of reference do allow the judge to hold public sessions if he deems them "essential'' to carry out his mandate. But Laskin admits most of the work will be "presumptively private,'' and that worries counsel for the three complainants.
"The question is, will we actually get to see any of the evidence and test some of it,'' says Paul Copeland, the lawyer for Almalki.
"They've spent at least nine years now investigating Mr. Almalki, first CSIS and then the RCMP. No charges were ever laid (but) they labelled him, in a variety of the investigations, as high-level al-Qaida. They have branded him in a way that's terrible.''
Almalki, an Ottawa electronics engineer, was first interviewed by CSIS in 1998 and had his file turned over to the RCMP following the 9/11 attacks in the United States in the fall of 2001. He's had his house searched and been targeted for wiretaps and electronic surveillance.
The original interest by CSIS related to communications equipment allegedly shipped by Almalki's export firm to Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan. He says the equipment was intended for sale to the Pakistani military.
Almalki was also of interest to investigators because he once worked for a charitable organization run by Omar Said Khadr, a Canadian citizen identified, before his death in a shootout with Pakistani troops, as a key aide to al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. Almalki says he didn't like Khadr and quit the charity after a short stint.
Nevertheless, he became the main target of an RCMP counter-terrorist investigation known as Project A-O Canada -- the same operation that fingered fellow Ottawa resident Maher Arar, who was subsequently arrested by U.S. authorities and deported to face torture in Syria.
Arar's name was cleared last year by another inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O'Connor, who found he was the victim of misleading information passed to the Americans by the Mounties.
Almalki was arrested by Syrian authorities on a visit to Damascus in 2002 just a few months before Arar's imprisonment. He says he was tortured repeatedly during his 20 months in jail, only to be released without charge in the end.
El Maati, a Toronto truck driver, was also a target of both CSIS and the RCMP for several years before his arrest on a trip to Syria in late 2001. He was later transferred to Egypt and says he was tortured in both countries -- at one point signing a false confession of a non-existent plot to attack the Parliament buildings in Ottawa.
El Maati, who like Almalki was eventually freed without charge and returned to Canada, has admitted he was once an ambulance driver for Afghan insurgents, but that was during Soviet occupation of the country.
His brother Amer has been identified by U.S. authorities as an al-Qaida operative suspected of plotting a plane hijacking that never materialized. El Maati says he hasn't seen his brother in years, and the rest of the family in Toronto has also lost contact with him.
Nureddin, a Toronto geologist, spent 34 days in custody in Damascus in December 2001 and January 2002 after being arrested as he crossed the border from Iraq to Syria.
He had been the principal of an Islamic school in Toronto that was under CSIS surveillance, and had been questioned by the security service before leaving Canada. He says he was asked the same kind of questions -- under torture -- during his captivity in Damascus.
His lawyer, Barbara Jackman, who also represents El Maati, says she's mystified about why Canadian investigators were so interested in Nureddin, especially since their questions to him mainly focused on what he knew about others, not on his own activities.
"In some ways it's one of the most egregious cases,''Jackman said when the inquiry was called. "There doesn't appear to be any real justification for any concern about him.''
Inquiry into torture of three Cdns. to begin
Updated Sun. Mar. 18 2007 2:16 PM ET
Canadian Press
OTTAWA -- Canadians will finally get a glimpse of how former Supreme Court justice Frank Iacobucci plans to proceed in his investigation into the detention and torture abroad of three Canadians accused of terrorist ties.
It can't come soon enough for supporters of Abdullah Almalki, Ahmed El Maati and Muayyed Nureddin, all of whom believe the Canadian Security Intelligence Service and the RCMP played a part in their mistreatment in Syria and Egypt.
Their stories bear striking similarities to the more highly publicized ordeal of Maher Arar -- prompting charges by human rights groups that Ottawa is deliberately farming out the interrogation of suspects to regimes with a history of abusing prisoners.
Iacobucci was appointed in December to probe the actions of CSIS, the Mounties and the Foreign Affairs Department, under a mandate conferred by Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day.
The official business at the first public session of the inquiry Wednesday will be to hear submissions from lawyers for the three men, along with any other interested parties who want a voice in the investigation.
More revealing, however, may be the opening statement by Iacobucci, who's expected to outline how he plans to sort out the affair, how long it will take, and how he hopes to preserve the credibility of a process that will take place mostly behind closed doors.
"He's determined that this will be an independent inquiry, the results of which will make the public confident that he's gotten to the bottom of it,'' says John Laskin, the chief counsel for the commission.
"We're very much committed to doing something credible and fair and thorough.''
But it appears the public may have to take Iacobucci's word for that, since much of the documentation and oral testimony will be dealt with in private for national security reasons.
The inquiry's terms of reference do allow the judge to hold public sessions if he deems them "essential'' to carry out his mandate. But Laskin admits most of the work will be "presumptively private,'' and that worries counsel for the three complainants.
"The question is, will we actually get to see any of the evidence and test some of it,'' says Paul Copeland, the lawyer for Almalki.
"They've spent at least nine years now investigating Mr. Almalki, first CSIS and then the RCMP. No charges were ever laid (but) they labelled him, in a variety of the investigations, as high-level al-Qaida. They have branded him in a way that's terrible.''
Almalki, an Ottawa electronics engineer, was first interviewed by CSIS in 1998 and had his file turned over to the RCMP following the 9/11 attacks in the United States in the fall of 2001. He's had his house searched and been targeted for wiretaps and electronic surveillance.
The original interest by CSIS related to communications equipment allegedly shipped by Almalki's export firm to Islamic insurgents in Afghanistan. He says the equipment was intended for sale to the Pakistani military.
Almalki was also of interest to investigators because he once worked for a charitable organization run by Omar Said Khadr, a Canadian citizen identified, before his death in a shootout with Pakistani troops, as a key aide to al-Qaida founder Osama bin Laden. Almalki says he didn't like Khadr and quit the charity after a short stint.
Nevertheless, he became the main target of an RCMP counter-terrorist investigation known as Project A-O Canada -- the same operation that fingered fellow Ottawa resident Maher Arar, who was subsequently arrested by U.S. authorities and deported to face torture in Syria.
Arar's name was cleared last year by another inquiry headed by Justice Dennis O'Connor, who found he was the victim of misleading information passed to the Americans by the Mounties.
Almalki was arrested by Syrian authorities on a visit to Damascus in 2002 just a few months before Arar's imprisonment. He says he was tortured repeatedly during his 20 months in jail, only to be released without charge in the end.
El Maati, a Toronto truck driver, was also a target of both CSIS and the RCMP for several years before his arrest on a trip to Syria in late 2001. He was later transferred to Egypt and says he was tortured in both countries -- at one point signing a false confession of a non-existent plot to attack the Parliament buildings in Ottawa.
El Maati, who like Almalki was eventually freed without charge and returned to Canada, has admitted he was once an ambulance driver for Afghan insurgents, but that was during Soviet occupation of the country.
His brother Amer has been identified by U.S. authorities as an al-Qaida operative suspected of plotting a plane hijacking that never materialized. El Maati says he hasn't seen his brother in years, and the rest of the family in Toronto has also lost contact with him.
Nureddin, a Toronto geologist, spent 34 days in custody in Damascus in December 2001 and January 2002 after being arrested as he crossed the border from Iraq to Syria.
He had been the principal of an Islamic school in Toronto that was under CSIS surveillance, and had been questioned by the security service before leaving Canada. He says he was asked the same kind of questions -- under torture -- during his captivity in Damascus.
His lawyer, Barbara Jackman, who also represents El Maati, says she's mystified about why Canadian investigators were so interested in Nureddin, especially since their questions to him mainly focused on what he knew about others, not on his own activities.
"In some ways it's one of the most egregious cases,''Jackman said when the inquiry was called. "There doesn't appear to be any real justification for any concern about him.''
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Iacobucci Inquiry Faces Time Crunch
I am beginning to think this whole inquiry is cut out to be a whitewash with the intelligence services operating to sabotage everything in private, although at least there are groups being allowed to make presentations. However, all the questioning of officials will be behind closed doors for the most part and who knows what will even be made available publicly. I have been asking two simple question's of Stockwell Day's office since January 11: When will the Inquiry begin? Will there be a website? So far I have had no answer just a response from my MP's office that doesn't answer the questions. Is this typical? What is the use of giving an email address for Day if no one even acknowledges receipt of email. I have sent several followup emails.
Meeting deadline in commission probe will be challenge, co-counsel says Canadian Press
Published: Sunday, February 18, 2007 Article tools
Printer friendly
OTTAWA (CP) - One of the newly appointed lead counsel for an inquiry into the foreign imprisonment of three Canadians acknowledges it won't be easy to meet the commission's tight deadline.
"It's certainly a challenge," lawyer John Laskin said Friday.
"We're going to do it as expeditiously as we can."
Laskin, a senior partner at Toronto law firm Torys LLP, will serve as lead counsel for the commision of inquiry along with John Terry, also a partner with the firm.
The probe, headed by former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, will examine the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati.
The three Arab-Canadians, like engineer Maher Arar, say they were detained and tortured in Middle Eastern prisons - possibly on the basis of information supplied by Canadian officials.
Iacobucci has until Jan. 31 to deliver a report.
A one-day session is planned for March 21 in Ottawa to hear from parties interested in taking part in the inquiry. A few weeks later there will be a session inviting input on inquiry procedures.
The terms of reference for the inquiry indicate the bulk of the probe, unlike the high-profile Arar commission, will be behind closed doors.
One key reason is that Iacobucci must avoid compromising any continuing criminal investigations. The RCMP has repeatedly said that Project A-O Canada, an anti-terrorist investigation in which Almalki was once considered the main target, is ongoing.
Laskin said it is unclear how much of the hearings will be in public.
"Those are determinations that have yet to be made. And it's one of the points on which the commissioner might wish to hear from the interested parties."
Laskin, however, suggested the relatively closed nature of the proceedings may prevent the sort of delays that saw the Arar inquiry continue for 2 1/2 years. Much time was spent wrangling over whether certain information was too sensitive to disclose.
Laskin said a large amount of documentation is being amassed for the latest inquiry. "We're in the process of assembling the information we'll have to sift through."
He has some experience with national security matters, having acted for the now-defunct RCMP Security Service on behalf of the Solicitor General, and as one of the counsel for the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over CSIS.
Laskin says he is looking forward to the task ahead.
"Obviously, the government has determined that these issues are worthy of the kind of consideration that this process can bring to bear."
© The Canadian Press 2007
Meeting deadline in commission probe will be challenge, co-counsel says Canadian Press
Published: Sunday, February 18, 2007 Article tools
Printer friendly
OTTAWA (CP) - One of the newly appointed lead counsel for an inquiry into the foreign imprisonment of three Canadians acknowledges it won't be easy to meet the commission's tight deadline.
"It's certainly a challenge," lawyer John Laskin said Friday.
"We're going to do it as expeditiously as we can."
Laskin, a senior partner at Toronto law firm Torys LLP, will serve as lead counsel for the commision of inquiry along with John Terry, also a partner with the firm.
The probe, headed by former Supreme Court judge Frank Iacobucci, will examine the cases of Abdullah Almalki, Muayyed Nureddin and Ahmad El Maati.
The three Arab-Canadians, like engineer Maher Arar, say they were detained and tortured in Middle Eastern prisons - possibly on the basis of information supplied by Canadian officials.
Iacobucci has until Jan. 31 to deliver a report.
A one-day session is planned for March 21 in Ottawa to hear from parties interested in taking part in the inquiry. A few weeks later there will be a session inviting input on inquiry procedures.
The terms of reference for the inquiry indicate the bulk of the probe, unlike the high-profile Arar commission, will be behind closed doors.
One key reason is that Iacobucci must avoid compromising any continuing criminal investigations. The RCMP has repeatedly said that Project A-O Canada, an anti-terrorist investigation in which Almalki was once considered the main target, is ongoing.
Laskin said it is unclear how much of the hearings will be in public.
"Those are determinations that have yet to be made. And it's one of the points on which the commissioner might wish to hear from the interested parties."
Laskin, however, suggested the relatively closed nature of the proceedings may prevent the sort of delays that saw the Arar inquiry continue for 2 1/2 years. Much time was spent wrangling over whether certain information was too sensitive to disclose.
Laskin said a large amount of documentation is being amassed for the latest inquiry. "We're in the process of assembling the information we'll have to sift through."
He has some experience with national security matters, having acted for the now-defunct RCMP Security Service on behalf of the Solicitor General, and as one of the counsel for the Security Intelligence Review Committee, the watchdog over CSIS.
Laskin says he is looking forward to the task ahead.
"Obviously, the government has determined that these issues are worthy of the kind of consideration that this process can bring to bear."
© The Canadian Press 2007
Saturday, February 17, 2007
Iacobucci Inquiry appoints members
I have sent emails to Day's office since January 11 with several followups including to NDP and Liberal justice critics. Only my own MP has responded and his office has never answered my questions. I asked when the inquiry would begin and if there would be a website as in the O'Connor inquiry. No answer is yet forthcoming. I wonder if the name of one of the legal firms Torys is any significance LOL
Attention News Editors:
Commissioner Frank Iacobucci appoints staff
OTTAWA, Feb. 16 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Frank Iacobucci, who has
been appointed as Commissioner to conduct the Internal Inquiry into the
Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad
Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, is pleased to announce the appointment of
certain senior members of the Inquiry's legal and administrative staff.
Mr. John B. Laskin will act as Lead Counsel. Admitted to the Bar in 1979,
Mr. Laskin is a senior partner at Torys LLP in Toronto, where he maintains a
wide-ranging litigation practice.
Mr. John A. Terry is appointed Co-Lead Counsel. Also a litigation partner
at Torys LLP, Mr. Terry's main areas of practice include international, public
and business law. He was called to the Bar in 1991.
Ms. Danielle Barot is appointed Counsel with primary responsibility for
managing the Inquiry's documentary evidence. Ms. Barot is a specialist in
criminal law and a partner at Schurman Longo Grenier in Montreal. She was
admitted to the Bar in 1971.
Ms. Nicole Viau-Cheney is appointed Director, Finance and Administration.
In that capacity, Ms. Viau-Cheney will be responsible for all administrative
and financial aspects of the Commission. She brings to the Inquiry the
experience of having served with several Commissions of Inquiry over the
years.
Ms. Francine Bastien will be responsible for Communications and Media
Relations. A native Montrealer and former Radio-Canada/CBC radio and
television journalist, Ms. Bastien served in a similar capacity with the Arar
Commission.
The Commissioner expects to make further appointments as the work of the
Inquiry proceeds.
The Commission expects to convene initial hearings shortly to deal with
certain preliminary matters, including applications for participation in the
Inquiry.
Established under Part I of the Inquiries Act by the Minister of Public
Safety, the Commissioner's mandate is to determine whether the detention of
these three individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from actions of Canadian
officials, particularly in relation to the sharing of information with foreign
countries; those actions or the actions of Canadian consular officials were
deficient in these cases and whether any mistreatment of these three
individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from deficiencies in the actions of
Canadian officials.
For further information: Media contact: Francine Bastien, (613)
947-7606, Cell.: (613) 299-6554, fbastien@bellnet.ca
Attention News Editors:
Commissioner Frank Iacobucci appoints staff
OTTAWA, Feb. 16 /CNW Telbec/ - The Honourable Frank Iacobucci, who has
been appointed as Commissioner to conduct the Internal Inquiry into the
Actions of Canadian Officials in Relation to Abdullah Almalki, Ahmad
Abou-Elmaati and Muayyed Nureddin, is pleased to announce the appointment of
certain senior members of the Inquiry's legal and administrative staff.
Mr. John B. Laskin will act as Lead Counsel. Admitted to the Bar in 1979,
Mr. Laskin is a senior partner at Torys LLP in Toronto, where he maintains a
wide-ranging litigation practice.
Mr. John A. Terry is appointed Co-Lead Counsel. Also a litigation partner
at Torys LLP, Mr. Terry's main areas of practice include international, public
and business law. He was called to the Bar in 1991.
Ms. Danielle Barot is appointed Counsel with primary responsibility for
managing the Inquiry's documentary evidence. Ms. Barot is a specialist in
criminal law and a partner at Schurman Longo Grenier in Montreal. She was
admitted to the Bar in 1971.
Ms. Nicole Viau-Cheney is appointed Director, Finance and Administration.
In that capacity, Ms. Viau-Cheney will be responsible for all administrative
and financial aspects of the Commission. She brings to the Inquiry the
experience of having served with several Commissions of Inquiry over the
years.
Ms. Francine Bastien will be responsible for Communications and Media
Relations. A native Montrealer and former Radio-Canada/CBC radio and
television journalist, Ms. Bastien served in a similar capacity with the Arar
Commission.
The Commissioner expects to make further appointments as the work of the
Inquiry proceeds.
The Commission expects to convene initial hearings shortly to deal with
certain preliminary matters, including applications for participation in the
Inquiry.
Established under Part I of the Inquiries Act by the Minister of Public
Safety, the Commissioner's mandate is to determine whether the detention of
these three individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from actions of Canadian
officials, particularly in relation to the sharing of information with foreign
countries; those actions or the actions of Canadian consular officials were
deficient in these cases and whether any mistreatment of these three
individuals in Syria or Egypt resulted from deficiencies in the actions of
Canadian officials.
For further information: Media contact: Francine Bastien, (613)
947-7606, Cell.: (613) 299-6554, fbastien@bellnet.ca
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