"Nonetheless, pressure is mounting in the US to make amends to Arar and to allow him to enter the country. Now that the Democrats control both the country's Congress and Senate, concerns that they raise carry more weight. So far, Edward Markey, the Democratic Congressman from Massachusetts, has called on the United States to follow Canada's lead in acknowledging wrongdoing in sending Arar to Syria to be tortured; Senate judiciary committee head Patrick Leahy has also weighed in on the matter.

At a meeting of the judiciary committee January 18, Leahy grilled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales on the Arar affair, charging that "we ... knew damn well, if he went to Syria he would be tortured." Gonzales promised to share the Arar dossier with Leahy in the near future, to justify the decision to keep his name on the watch list. Unsatisfied, Leahy went on to attack the entire practice of extraordinary rendition at the same session.

In the meantime, Arar's US lawyer, Maria LaHood, continues to push his civil suit against the United States, appealing the most recent American court ruling that held since Arar was a non-citizen, he was not entitled to the redress he was seeking."

from

http://www.metimes.com/storyview.php?StoryID=20070131-105402-9085r