Why did the U.S. deport Mahar Arar to Syria? Accoring to a new report, it was because he told the FBI he knew two other men under investigation:

The only stated reason the United States deported Maher Arar to Syria is that he admitted he knew two Ontario men who were also under RCMP investigation and later jailed as terrorism suspects in Syria.

According to U.S. documents obtained by The Globe and Mail, an Immigration and Naturalization Service's regional director concluded that Mr. Arar was a member of al-Qaeda because the 33-year-old Ottawa computer engineer admitted to the FBI after his arrest in 2002 that he was acquainted with two men suspected of being terrorists at the time. "I have determined that Arar is a member of the designated foreign terrorist organization known as al-Qaeda," INS Eastern region director J. Scott Blackman wrote in his October, 2002, decision.

Mr. Arar sued the U.S. Government Thursday as planned, alleging it knew he would be tortured if returned to Syria.

For more, see our posts yesterday, here and here.