CanWest News Service; Ottawa Citizen
Friday, October 13, 2006
OTTAWA — An RCMP investigator who told U.S. authorities that Maher Arar was suspected of al-Qaida links has been promoted and continues to perform sensitive police work for the force.
Cpl. Michel Lang wrote to the U.S. Customs Service in 2001 and described Arar and his wife as members of a group of “Islamic extremists” with suspected connections to al-Qaida, according to findings of Justice Dennis O’Connor’s inquiry into the case.
Arar was later detained in the United States and deported to Syria, where he was tortured and jailed for nearly a year.
O’Connor found that information passed on by the RCMP to U.S. agencies — though not necessarily that provided by Lang — likely contributed to their decision to detain the Ottawa computer programmer and send him to Syria.
Despite the public fallout from the case, few of the RCMP members involved in the investigation of Arar appear to have suffered any career setbacks. Two officers in the chain of command during the Arar investigation have been decorated with awards of merit. And Lang, despite sending contentious information, has been bumped up to his current rank of corporal, from constable.
An RCMP spokeswoman said Lang is currently working in undercover operations.
“Due to the nature of his work, we cannot specify which area he is presently assigned to,” Sgt. Sylvie Tremblay said.
She said Lang was not available to comment.
Any questions about the Arar case would be addressed by RCMP Commissioner Giuliano Zaccardelli when he testifies before a parliamentary committee, she said.
Before Arar was deported, Lang was a member of the RCMP’s Project A-O Canada, an anti-terrorism taskforce formed after the 9/11 attacks. He had come from the Mounties’ customs and excise unit and was listed in the O’Connor report as one of several of “key investigators” working on the taskforce.
In October 2001, Lang asked Canada Customs to place a “lookout” on Arar, his wife, Monia Mazigh and several other people. That required Customs agents to conduct further searches on Arar, his wife, and their luggage and car when they entered the country. In a supporting letter, Lang wrote: “We are presently investigating in Ottawa, a group of Islamic-extremist individuals suspected of being linked to the al-Qaida terrorist movement. The following individuals and or vehicles have been identified.”
Lang then repeated the same request with the U.S. Customs Service. The request again described Arar, his wife and others as members of a group of Islamic extremists with suspected al-Qaida links, according to the inquiry report.
O’Connor said he was satisfied there was reasonable ground for the Mounties to put a lookout on Arar, both in the U.S. and in Canada, as he was a person of interest in an investigation of another Ottawa man, Abdullah Almalki. However, he said the language used was “inaccurate, without any basis, and potentially extremely inflammatory in the United States in the fall of 2001.”
He also said there was no reason to also apply the lookout to Mazigh.
But without the U.S. taking part in his inquiry, O’Connor said he could not determine whether the lookout request played any role in the decision to detain Arar in New York in Sept. 2002.
During in-camera testimony, two of Lang’s superior officers agreed that “Islamic extremist” was an improper characterization of Arar and his wife. In his testimony in 2004, Lang said he had no information to justify the description, O’Connor wrote.
Zaccardelli has said that errors made by his force in the Arar case were not the result of any malice and do not require disciplinary measures.
Lang is not the only Arar investigator to receive a promotion. Insp. Richard Roy, a liaison officer, was promoted to superintendent. Rick Flewelling was later promoted to sergeant.
Ottawa Citizen
© CanWest News Service 2006
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