Globe and Mail, December 12, 2008


Specifically, the long-haul trucker who had taken some flight
lessons, says he was beaten with electric cables until he was made to
falsely admit to al-Qaeda-style suicide attacks, including exploding
a truck bomb in Ottawa and flying a plane into a target.
Mr. El-Ma'ati also said he was made to falsely place Maher Arar in
Afghanistan.

The intelligence would make its way back to Canada and influence
cases of other men.

An edited excerpt of the El-Ma'ati chronology follows:

Nov. 12 to 21, 2001: Ahmad was detained by Syrian officials when he
arrived at the airport in Damascus at about 3 p.m. He was told at
immigration that his name was "suspicious," and was asked to go into
an office beside the immigration booth. He went into the office and
was immediately surrounded by five very big, strong men who escorted
him to the luggage area. ... the moment Ahmad stepped out of the
airport door they handcuffed his hands behind his back. A car sped
up, and he was put inside. Two large men sat on either side of him...
they put a hood over his head.

Ahmed was taken to what he later learned was the Fara'a Falestin
(Palestine Branch) of the Syrian military intelligence. This is the
same complex in which Abdullah Al-Maliki, Maher Arar, and Muayyed
Nurredin were later detained, interrogated and tortured....

He was taken, still handcuffed, downstairs into a basement, and then
down a hallway with common cells on either side. At the end of this
hallway was another smaller dark hallway that went to the left and
right. Ahmad was taken to the right down the small hallway. The doors
in this small hallway looked like they led to closets, not to spaces
where humans could be kept....

Ahmad was not given any food until about two days after he arrived
and had not eaten since his flight. Later that night, Ahmad was taken
from the cell, brought upstairs, blindfolded, and put in an
interrogation room. He was interrogated and tortured for the next
seven to 10 days.

His interrogators told him that they had received information about
him. He was presented with details about his life and family in
Canada, including their addresses, and the colour and model of his
car....

They started beating and kicking him all over his body and face.
He was asked about the map and whether he went to Afghanistan. Ahmad,
suspecting that his answers would be passed on to Canadian agencies,
volunteered anything he could think of that would help demonstrate
that he had nothing to hide. Ahmad told them about the map and his
time in Afghanistan. Ahmad told them that his brother had called him
from Afghanistan in 1999. He told them he was probably suspected
because he was a Muslim who took flying lessons. He explained he had
only taken about five interrupted hours of lessons because he had
wanted to start an air taxi service and that he had quit because he
found he was terrified of flying. They told him this was not what
they wanted to hear. ...

They told him to strip naked except for his shorts and made him lie
down, and handcuffed his hands behind his back to his legs. He was
still blindfolded. They poured ice water all over him and brought in
thick electric cables and started beating him with them on his feet,
legs, knees and back.

They would occasionally stop and take him back to his cell. This
continued for two days.

Ahmad broke down and agreed to say what they wanted him to say. He
was asked about any Syrians he knew, including Arar. Ahmad explained
that he did not know him well and met him briefly in a garage where
he had worked in Montreal in 1998. He was also asked about Almalki,
and he told them he knew him, but not well, and had once asked
Almalki for advice on obtaining a Syrian visa.

The Syrian interrogators wanted Ahmad to say he had seen both of them
in Afghanistan, although he had only seen Almalki there in passing
and had not spoken with him. In the end Ahmad said what he thought
they wanted him to — that he had seen them both in Afghanistan.
He was shown pictures of other people but he did not recognize any of
them.

They told him his brother, Amr, sent him instructions from
Afghanistan to take flying lessons so he could recruit Ahmad into al-
Qaeda. They told him that Amr wanted Ahmad to prepare for a suicide
attack using an airplane. Ahmad said this did not make sense because
he had quit the lessons. The Syrians eventually agreed that this did
not make sense and said Amr wanted Ahmad to launch a suicide attack
using a truck full of explosives.

When Ahmad agreed to falsely confess to this, they told him they
wanted him to confess that Amr sent him a map of Ottawa, and said the
target would be the U.S. Embassy in Ottawa. Ahmad did not want to be
turned over to the U.S., so he falsely confessed that he was supposed
to pick his own target and decided on the Parliament buildings.
(Neither the Parliament Buildings or the U.S. Embassy are on the map,
which only shows an area west of the downtown core.)
His interrogators seemed pleased with his false confession....

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20081020.wrtdELMAAT