U.S. resists watch list pressure on Arar

OTTAWA (Reuters) - The United States brushed off pressure on Friday to remove Syrian-Canadian Maher Arar from its watch list despite his having been declared by a Canadian inquiry not to be an Islamic extremist.

U.S. Ambassador David Wilkins, countering the idea that Washington had acted on Canadian intelligence alone, said the United States had used information from numerous sources when it deported Arar to Syria in 2002 and placed him on a watch list.

"Mr. Arar's original removal from the United States in 2002 was based on information from a variety of sources, as is his current watch list status," Wilkins said in a statement.

Canadian Judge Dennis O'Connor concluded in September after a lengthy investigation that Arar had been tortured in Syria and that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police had given faulty information to U.S. authorities, which suggested Arar was an Islamic extremist.

But Wilkins said: "In his own findings, Mr. Justice O'Connor noted that he was not privy to our information. The decision to remove Mr. Arar from the United States in 2002 was made by U.S. officials based on our own independent assessment of the threat to the United States."

He declined to detail what other intelligence the United States might have on Arar.

Arar, a Syrian-born Canadian citizen, was arrested by U.S. agents during a stopover in New York on his way home to Canada from a holiday. He was deported to Syria where he says he was jailed and repeatedly tortured. He was released in 2003.

Arar is suing both the United States and Canada.

"That the United States would have the gall to keep Maher on a watch list, implying that he poses a threat to this country, is outrageous," Maria LaHood, the attorney who is handling his U.S. case, said in a statement issued in New York.

In Ottawa, leader of the opposition New Democratic Party called on Prime Minister Stephen Harper to take up the issue directly with President George W. Bush.

"I think it has to be taken to the highest level now," NDP leader Jack Layton told a news conference.

Harper had earlier raised the Arar case with Bush and a spokesman for Foreign Minister Peter MacKay said the minister would continue to raise it with U.S. authorities.

(Additional reporting by David Ljunggren)