Canadian diplomats asked Syrian authorities for reports of their interrogation of Maher Arar during his detention in a notorious military prison in Damascus in October of 2002, newly declassified documents say.
But the records from the Department of Foreign Affairs indicate that Canadian officials did not express concern to the Syrians until August of 2003 -- 10 months later -- that Mr. Arar's confession of terrorist activity was obtained under torture.
Mr. Arar and his supporters say the documents raise troubling questions about whether Canadian diplomats might have given encouragement to the Syrians' use of torture to obtain information from the Ottawa computer engineer.
Federal officials declined to comment on any of the specific documents. But the public "should not jump to conclusions" until the Canadian diplomats involved in the Arar case testify before a commission of inquiry later this spring, said Stephen Bindman, spokesman for the government's legal team at the inquiry.
Mr. Arar was deported Oct. 8, 2002, from the United States to Syria, a country known to U.S. and Canadian officials for harsh treatment of political prisoners and the use of torture.
More than 2,000 pages of diplomatic records were released yesterday by the commission, which is investigating possible Canadian complicity in Mr. Arar's deportation to Syria, where he says he was tortured and held in solitary confinement.
In a secret memo to Ottawa headquarters, dated Oct. 22, 2002, the day after Mr. Arar's arrival in Syria, Franco Pillarella, then Canadian ambassador in Damascus, reported on a meeting he had with a Syrian intelligence officer about Mr. Arar's early interrogation.
According to the Syrian officer, Mr. Pillarella wrote: "Arar has apparently already admitted that he has connections with terrorist organizations . . . and they would continue to interrogate him."
The Syrian officer, whose name is still being withheld by Ottawa because of concerns its release might hurt diplomatic relations, said that "Arar would be permitted to return to Canada only if it were proven that he had no connections with terrorist activities, an unlikely occurrence given his alleged admission," Mr. Pillarella reported.
The ambassador said his Syrian contact "was ready to co-operate with us in every way possible," including allowing Canadian consular officials to visit Mr. Arar in detention.
"In the Syrian context this apparent openness and readiness to co-operate by a security service is unheard of," Mr. Pillarella continued.
He concluded his message saying that the Syrian officer "has promised to pass on to me any information they may gather on Arar's implication in terrorist activities."
The message was sent to the consular affairs bureau and to the foreign intelligence division within the Department of Foreign Affairs.
On Nov. 3, 2002, Mr. Pillarella met with the Syrian intelligence officer again to review the Arar case. The ambassador reported that when he asked the Syrian "whether I could get a résumé of information obtained so far from Arar that I could take with me, he agreed to do so."
The Canadian ambassador said "the Syrians continue to be well-disposed towards us . . . and as long as this remains so, we should obtain more or less what we ask."
Other declassified documents show that Mr. Pillarella received what was described as a "summary of Arar's confession" and that Foreign Affairs passed this summary along to the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. The summary "alleges that Arar spent time in Afghanistan in mujaheddin [terrorist]camps."
Mr. Arar was released the next year without being charged in any country with a crime. He said that he was tortured and forced to sign false confessions. He wants the inquiry to clear his name.
In a written statement, Mr. Arar said yesterday: "While I was perishing in a Syrian dungeon Mr. Pillarella asked for my interrogation reports, and there is no evidence in the documents that he was at all concerned with the methods they were using to get that information."
Asking for the interrogation files "may have encouraged further interrogation and increased the inherent risk of torture," Alex Neve of Amnesty International Canada said.
Lorne Waldman, Mr. Arar's lawyer, said the Ottawa man's reputation was irreparably damaged when the interrogation report was passed on from Foreign Affairs to CSIS and the RCMP, "and eventually leaked to the media."