US reopen case of wrongly jailed terror suspect who Bush sent to Syria to be tortured

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http://fe42.news.sp1.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080606/wl_afp/uscanadasyriaattacksrights_080606020554

Thu Jun 5, 10:05 PM ET

WASHINGTON (AFP) - US authorities said Thursday they have reopened the case of Maher Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian wrongly detained in 2002 during a stopover in New York and sent to Syria where he was jailed and tortured.

"We have reopened our review into the Mr. Arar matter because, less than a month ago, we received additional information that contradicts one of the conclusions in our report," the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) inspector general, Richard Skinner, said in testimony before a House of Representatives committee.

The Syrian-born software engineer was detained by US authorities in New York in 2002 while in transit from Tunisia to his home in Canada, and then deported to Syria where he was jailed and tortured for almost one year while in Syrian custody.

A Canadian judicial report in September 2006 cleared Arar of terror ties and blasted federal police for wrongly labeling him an "Islamic extremist."