There's still no formal apology from the Bush Administration, but some members of the U.S. government apologized to Maher Arar Thursday.
The apology came from members of a U.S. House of Representatives subcommittee looking into the case of the Syrian-born Canadian who was deported in 2002 from the U.S. to Syria where he was tortured for more than ten months.
Arar did not personally go to Washington. He would likely have been turned away at the border because he is still on a U.S. terrorism watch list.
Instead, he made a statement via video conference from Ottawa.
The 37-year-old Canadian told American politicians about the ordeal he faced after the U.S. sent him to Syria.
Arar told the American legislators the Syrians placed him in a small coffin-like cell, beat him with shredded cables, and tortured him regularly.
"Life in that cell was hell. I spent 10 months and 10 days in that grave," Arar said.
In response, Bill Delahunt, a Democrat on the joint congressional committee said bluntly: "Let me personally give you what our government has not: an apology." Continued...
