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Rendition to Torture: the Case of Maher Arar

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Rendition to Torture: the Case of Maher Arar RENDITION TO TORTURE: THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR JOINT HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT OF THE COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS AND THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION OCTOBER 18, 2007 Serial No. 110–118 (Committee on Foreign Affairs) Serial No. 110–52 (Committee on the Judiciary) Printed for the use of the Committees on Foreign Affairs and the Judiciary ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ and http://judiciary.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 38–331PDF WASHINGTON : 2007 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS TOM LANTOS, California, Chairman HOWARD L. BERMAN, California ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD SHERMAN, California DONALD A. MANZULLO, Illinois ROBERT WEXLER, Florida EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts ROY BLUNT, Missouri GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado DIANE E. WATSON, California RON PAUL, Texas ADAM SMITH, Washington JEFF FLAKE, Arizona RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri MIKE PENCE, Indiana JOHN S. TANNER, Tennessee JOE WILSON, South Carolina GENE GREEN, Texas JOHN BOOZMAN, Arkansas LYNN C. WOOLSEY, California J. GRESHAM BARRETT, South Carolina SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas CONNIE MACK, Florida RUBE´ N HINOJOSA, Texas JEFF FORTENBERRY, Nebraska JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas DAVID WU, Oregon TED POE, Texas BRAD MILLER, North Carolina BOB INGLIS, South Carolina LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California LUIS G. FORTUN˜ O, Puerto Rico DAVID SCOTT, Georgia GUS BILIRAKIS, Florida JIM COSTA, California ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey GABRIELLE GIFFORDS, Arizona RON KLEIN, Florida ROBERT R. KING, Staff Director YLEEM POBLETE, Republican Staff Director SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT BILL DELAHUNT, Massachusetts, Chairman RUSS CARNAHAN, Missouri DANA ROHRABACHER, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey RON PAUL, Texas GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JEFF FLAKE, Arizona JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York CLIFF STAMMERMAN, Subcommittee Staff Director NATALIE COBURN, Subcommittee Professional Staff Member PHAEDRA DUGAN, Republican Professional Staff Member ELISA PERRY, Staff Associate (II) COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan, Chairman HOWARD L. BERMAN, California LAMAR SMITH, Texas RICK BOUCHER, Virginia F. JAMES SENSENBRENNER, JR., JERROLD NADLER, New York Wisconsin ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia HOWARD COBLE, North Carolina MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina ELTON GALLEGLY, California ZOE LOFGREN, California BOB GOODLATTE, Virginia SHEILA JACKSON LEE, Texas STEVE CHABOT, Ohio MAXINE WATERS, California DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts CHRIS CANNON, Utah ROBERT WEXLER, Florida RIC KELLER, Florida LINDA T. SA´ NCHEZ, California DARRELL ISSA, California STEVE COHEN, Tennessee MIKE PENCE, Indiana HANK JOHNSON, Georgia J. RANDY FORBES, Virginia BETTY SUTTON, Ohio STEVE KING, Iowa LUIS V. GUTIERREZ, Illinois TOM FEENEY, Florida BRAD SHERMAN, California TRENT FRANKS, Arizona TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin LOUIE GOHMERT, Texas ANTHONY D. WEINER, New York JIM JORDAN, Ohio ADAM B. SCHIFF, California ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Florida KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota PERRY APELBAUM, Staff Director and Chief Counsel JOSEPH GIBSON, Minority Chief Counsel SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES JERROLD NADLER, New York, Chairman ARTUR DAVIS, Alabama TRENT FRANKS, Arizona DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ, Florida MIKE PENCE, Indiana KEITH ELLISON, Minnesota DARRELL ISSA, California JOHN CONYERS, JR., Michigan STEVE KING, Iowa ROBERT C. SCOTT, Virginia JIM JORDAN, Ohio MELVIN L. WATT, North Carolina STEVE COHEN, Tennessee DAVID LACHMANN, Chief of Staff PAUL B. TAYLOR, Minority Counsel (III) C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES Mr. Maher Arar ....................................................................................................... 26 Kent Roach, Esq., Prichard-Wilson Chair, Faculty of Law, University of To- ronto ...................................................................................................................... 42 Frederick P. Hitz, Esq., Lecturer and Senior Fellow, Center for National Security Law, University of Virginia School of Law ......................................... 79 Mr. Daniel Benjamin, Director, Center on the United States and Europe, Senior Fellow, Foreign Policy Studies, The Brookings Institution .................. 82 Michael John Garcia, Esq., Legislative Attorney, American Law Division, Congressional Research Service .......................................................................... 89 David D. Cole, Esq., Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center ..... 93 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING New Yorker article by Jane Mayer, dated February 14, 2005, entitled ‘‘Outsourcing Torture’’ ......................................................................................... 7 Amnesty International USA: Statement submitted for the record ...................... 22 Mr. Maher Arar: Prepared statement .................................................................... 29 Kent Roach, Esq.: Prepared statement .................................................................. 43 The Honorable Melvin L. Watt, a Representative in Congress from the State of North Carolina: Prepared statement .............................................................. 52 The Honorable Bill Delahunt, a Representative in Congress from the Com- monwealth of Massachusetts, and Chairman, Subcommittee on Inter- national Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight: Letter from the Department of State dated October 9, 2007, and remarks of Secretary Condoleezza Rice upon her departure for Europe, dated December 5, 2005 .. 64 Frederick P. Hitz, Esq.: Prepared statement ........................................................ 81 Mr. Daniel Benjamin: Prepared statement ........................................................... 85 Michael John Garcia, Esq.: Prepared statement ................................................... 90 David D. Cole, Esq.: Prepared statement .............................................................. 96 APPENDIX Letter to the Honorable Bill Delahunt and the Honorable Jerrold Nadler, a Representative in Congress from the State of New York, and Chairman, Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties, dated December 11, 2007, from Ms. Maria C. LaHood, an attorney representing Mr. Maher Arar .................................................................................................... 114 (V) RENDITION TO TORTURE: THE CASE OF MAHER ARAR WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 18, 2007 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS, HUMAN RIGHTS, AND OVERSIGHT, COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS, SUBCOMMITTEE ON THE CONSTITUTION, CIVIL RIGHTS, AND CIVIL LIBERTIES, COMMITTEE ON THE JUDICIARY, Washington, DC. The subcommittees met, pursuant to notice, at 2:05 p.m., in room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. William Delahunt [chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee’s Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight] pre- siding. Mr. DELAHUNT [presiding]. The joint hearing of the Foreign Af- fairs Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and the Judiciary Committee’s Subcommittee on the Constitution will come to order. On behalf of our subcommittee ranking member, Mr. Rohr- abacher, and myself, let me thank Chairman Nadler and his rank- ing member, Mr. Franks, and their staffs for arranging this joint hearing. Also, let me welcome the chairman of the full Committee on the Judiciary, Mr. Conyers. Undoubtedly, we shall have subsequent hearings and request the appearance of administration officials to explain their role in the case of Maher Arar, because justice demands no less. Last April, our subcommittee, along with the Foreign Affairs’ Subcommittee on Europe, held a hearing where we heard from rep- resentatives of the European Parliament who had issued a report that was highly critical of the collaboration of European govern- ments with the Bush administration’s policy of so-called extraor- dinary rendition. They testified that trans-Atlantic relations have suffered as a re- sult and that this program accounts, in no small measure, for the low standing of the United States in terms of European public opinion, which we can ill-afford, because as the Government Ac- countability Office observed, such adverse foreign public opinion is important. It threatens American national security in four ways: By increas- ing foreign public support for terrorism directed at Americans, by impacting the cost and effectiveness of military operations, by (1) 2 weakening the United States’ ability to align with other nations in pursuit of common policy objectives, and, last, by dampening for- eign enthusiasm for U.S. business, services and products. So it is not simply a popularity contest. It is about our vital na- tional interest. For those unfamiliar
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