MAINE’S TORTURE CONNECTION

A Canadian man who says he was tortured in Syria after being sent there by American officials appears to have passed through Maine. State lawmakers should take a stand against the state being a stopover in the U.S. government’s rendition program, whereby those suspected of terrorism are sent for questioning to countries that practice torture.

Maher Arar, a 35-year-old Canadian engineer, last week told European Union investigators that he was grabbed by American officials at John F. Kennedy Airport where he was changing planes while returning to Canada with his family from a vacation in Tunisia in September 2002. He told the EU parliamentary committee that after being held, in shackles, by FBI officials for two weeks he was ultimately taken to Syria, where he was kept in a small, dark cell for 10 months. He said he was beaten with a metal cable.

Syrian authorities released Mr. Arar in October 2003, saying they had been unable to find that Mr. Arar had any connection to al-Qaida. U.S. officials have said he was deported to Syria because he was a member of al-Qaida.

Mr. Arar is suing the U.S. government for damages. A federal judge dismissed his lawsuit saying the case could result in the disclosure of U.S. government secrets and could harm relations with other countries if it was found that they assisted in Mr. Arar’s ordeal. The ruling has been appealed.

Mr. Arar told EU investigators that the small jet he was transported in flew from New Jersey to an airport near Washington to Portland, Maine, and on to Rome and Amman, Jordan, where he was blindfolded and driven to Syria. He said he followed the plane’s movements on a map shown on a video screen on the plane.

The New York Times reported last year that a review of Federal Aviation Administration records showed that on Oct. 8, 2002 only one plane flew a route like Mr. Arar described. FAA records show that a 14- passenger Gulfstream jet left Teterboro, N.J. at 5:40 a.m., stopped at Dulles airport outside Washington and then came to Bangor, leaving Bangor at 9:36 bound for Rome. The same plane, identified by its tail number, went to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, where the United States is holding hundreds of suspected terrorists, in December 2003, according to the Times.

Bangor’s airport director, Rebecca Hupp, said that if FAA records show such a flight passed through the city, it probably did and was likely refueled here. However, airport officials would have no idea as to the nature of the flight, she said, so there is no way to know how many such flights have passed through Maine.

Whether the plane landed in Portland or Bangor does not matter as much as stopping rendition flights.

The European Union is investigating to see whether its member countries participated in the program. Canada has nearly completed a year-long investigation into Mr. Arar’s case. The Bush administration has deflected questions about rendition and Congress has shown little interest in investigating.

Maine cannot put its airspace off-limits, but a resolution from the Legislature objecting to such flights passing through the state will highlight the impropriety of secreting people off to countries when there is mounting evidence that they are tortured.