2002? Whose Watch Was That?

I don't like using liberal style attacks but Dion, his supporters and left wingnuts attack Harper at every opportunity so this is just tit for tat......

Arar to receive multimillion-dollar settlement: CTV

Updated Thu. Jan. 25 2007 11:34 PM ET

CTV.ca News Staff

Ottawa will announce a multimillion dollar compensation package for Maher Arar on Friday, CTV News has learned.

The package includes personal compensation of more than $10 million, a $2-million payment for Arar's legal fees, and an official apology, CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife reported.

"After months of secret negotiations, a dark chapter in Maher Arar's life is finally coming to a close. CTV News has learned a formal legal settlement has been signed with Mr. Arar and his lawyers," he said.

In 2002, Arar was deported by the U.S. to Syria, where he was imprisoned and tortured into making false confessions that he was involved with al Qaeda.

The Ottawa-based engineer was cleared by a judicial inquiry last fall.

Justice Dennis O'Connor concluded that Arar was deported to Syria based on misleading information provided to the U.S. from the RCMP.

Arar had originally been seeking $400 million in compensation.

Despite being cleared of any terrorist links, Arar remains on the American watch list -- preventing him from entering the United States or even flying over its airspace.

"The prime minister, I'm told, is going to come out all guns blazing. He is furious that U.S. ambassador David Wilkins said that Canada had no business telling them to get Mr. Arar off the list," Fife reported.

"His view is that if it was an American who was falsely accused and put on a watch list, they would move heaven and earth to get them off. ... Perhaps he will even offer some legal assistance to Mr. Arar who wants to get his name off the list."

On Wednesday, the U.S. ambassador to Canada blasted Ottawa's efforts to have Arar removed the list, saying the public safety minister is "presumptuous" if he thinks he has a say in the matter.

David Wilkins said Wednesday that Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day should back down from efforts because an American assessment concluded Arar should remain on the watch list.

"It's a little presumptuous of him to say who the United States can and cannot allow into our country," the ambassador told a news conference.

"Canadian officials would rightly never tolerate any American official dictating to them who they may or may not allow into their country."

Day said last week he's seen all the U.S. information and found nothing new to suggest Arar is a risk.

But the ambassador says the U.S. found its own reasons to keep Arar on the watch list.

With a report from CTV's Ottawa Bureau Chief Robert Fife