Judiciary Committee chairman requests special counsel to investigate CIA rendition

Judiciary Committee chairman requests special counsel to investigate CIA rendition

BREAKING 4:02 PM ET // FROM A HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE RELEASE.....

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers, Jr. (D-MI), Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties Subcommittee Chairman Jerrold Nadler (D-NY), and Foreign Affairs Chairman of the International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight Subcommittee, Bill Delahunt (D-MA), today called on Attorney General Michael Mukasey to appoint a special counsel to investigate the rendition of a Canadian citizen, Maher Arar, to Syria.

Returning home to Canada in September 2002, Mr. Arar was detained at JFK airport in New York based on false intelligence suggesting ties to terrorist activity. Despite finding that he would likely be subject to torture, Mr. Arar was then removed to Syria at the direction of the Commissioner of the INS and the Office of the Deputy Attorney General. Mr. Arar was subsequently imprisoned for nearly a year and tortured.

In June, the former Department of Homeland Security Inspector General Clark Ervin testified before a joint Judiciary and Foreign Affairs subcommittee hearing that he believed that U.S. officials intended to render Mr. Arar to Syria, rather than allowing him to continue on to Canada, because of the likelihood that he would be tortured in Syria.

Upon Mr. Arar's return to Canada in 2003, the Canadian government conducted an exhaustive investigation concluding that no evidence linked Mr. Arar to terrorist groups or suggested a security threat and awarded him nearly $10 million in damages. The DHS Office of the Inspector General conducted its own four-year investigation into the matter, yet its investigators lacked subpoena authority and were frequently stymied by numerous privilege claims.

"Mr. Arar's rendition to Syria, with the knowledge he would be subject to torture, demands a thorough investigation into the conduct of the Department of Justice and U.S. immigration officials," said Conyers. "Given the involvement of high-ranking administration officials in this matter, and the stonewalling encountered in the DHS Inspector General's investigation, the appointment of a special counsel is clearly necessary."

"The Inspector General’s public report reveals that Administration officials sent Mr. Arar to Syria knowing that he likely would be tortured," said Rep. Nadler. "This is at odds with everything we stand for as a free and just nation, and the Administration’s unwillingness to expose how and why this happened has fueled public concern and criticism. We urge Attorney General Mukasey to appoint an outside special counsel to investigate Mr. Arar’s case to ensure a fair investigation is conducted to examine these serious allegations of wrongdoing."

"The startling revelation that attorneys within the Office of the Deputy Attorney General were intimately involved in this case is sufficient cause for an outside review," said Delahunt. "This is the only way to make sure that those who had a hand in Mr. Arar’s rendition to torture will be held accountable."

The full text of the correspondence may be found here.