Ex-U.S. Envoy Slams Arar Torture

In an interview to promote his new book, Unquiet Diplomacy, Cellucci continues to maintain that Arar's deportation, based on alleged and subsequently discredited links to al-Qaida, was justified by U.S. security concerns. But Cellucci also questioned sending a dual Canadian-Syrian citizen off to a dungeon-like cell in Damascus without notifying Canadian authorities. An agreement since signed between Washington and Ottawa will prevent it from happening again, he said. "Part of the unfairness was that we took a Canadian citizen, shipped him to a third country without consulting with Canada," Cellucci told The Canadian Press in a telephone interview Wednesday from Calgary. "That is unfair and we've now straightened that out." Only a week ago, Cellucci's replacement in Ottawa appeared genuinely nonplussed by suggestions the U.S. had anything to regret. Ambassador David Wilkins maintained in an interview with CP that third-country deportations will continue. "Will there be other deportations in the future? I'd be surprised if there's not," said Wilkins. Last year, Canada and the U.S. signed the Monterrey Accord, promising high-level consultation in future cases involving Canadians detained in the United States. While the deal doesn't give Canada a veto over the deportation of its citizens to third countries, Cellucci called it "pretty significant protection for Canadian dual citizens." The Monterrey Accord, he said, "gives Canada a pretty strong ability to say, 'Hey, this is not the right thing to do.'" Arar, a Canadian citizen born in Syria, was arrested while in transit through New York in September 2002, accused by U.S. authorities of having ties to al-Qaida and deported to Syria. He denies any terrorist activity and says he was tortured into false confessions in Damascus - only to be released without charge after a 10 months in jail and returned home to Canada. Cellucci's take on Arar is not reflected in the pages of his 230-page autobiography recounting his four years in Ottawa. The book maintains the U.S. administration line of Arar being a "target" of a Canadian terrorism investigation (he's been described as a periphery person of interest at a subsequent inquiry) and concludes that his "arrest and deportation were justified given the information that was available and the threat of global terrorism." But Cellucci left that script in an interview, and also departed the book's company line on other matters. Often criticized during his ambassadorship for his outspoken "megaphone diplomacy," Cellucci openly acknowledged Washington got it wrong when it alleged Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction - even though he says such weapons were the "major reason for going in." "We're not always right, and on that particular one it looks like we weren't right, although we know at some point in the past he did have these weapons," Cellucci said. And while the book is highly critical of former prime minister Jean Chretien's decision to keep Canada out of war in Iraq - saying Chretien showed "indecision, mixed signals and confusion" instead of leadership - Cellucci said Wednesday he understands why Canadians applaud the decision. "As the insurgency continues, as the road continues to be a difficult one, and the fact that the weapons weren't found, it's easy to go back and say, 'Wow, we made the right decision.' But at the time it wasn't that clear." Neither Cellucci's sentiments on Arar nor Iraq appear in Unquiet Diplomacy - a book most noteworthy for its sharp criticism of Prime Minister Paul Martin and his decision not to participate in the intercontinental ballistic missile shield program. "Everything was indicating toward a positive decision (on missile defence)," Cellucci said in the interview. "I mean, I do understand it. It was made for political reasons instead of policy reasons and I think that's bad." An entire chapter of his book, called "Perplexed," denigrated Martin's government for what he called its "inept" and "clumsy" handling of the missile-defence issue. http://cnews.canoe.ca/CNEWS/Canada/2005/09/22/pf-1230935.html [Proofreader's note: this article was edited for spelling and typos on September 25, 2005]

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