A/HRC/4/33/Add.3 page 14 Bashmilah (see E/CN.4/2006/6/Add.1, paragraph 126), who provided credible evidence that they had been held by United States forces in secret places of detention in Jordan.10 Another case, which the Special Rapporteur discussed with GID representatives, concerns Mr. Maher Arar.11 10 See Amnesty International, USA/Jordan/Yemen. Torture and secret detention: Testimony of the “disappeared” in the “war on terror”, AI Index: AMR 51/108/2005. By letter dated 18 January 2006, the Government informed that the allegations are false as there is no record showing that the two men had been arrested for the violations of either the penal, disciplinary or administrative codes. They do not have documented files indicating they pose a security concern, eliminating the possibility of their arrest for what may be described as “terrorism”. In a letter dated 10 October 2006, the Government informed that there was “no truth to the allegations that they were tortured in secret prisons run by United States forces in Jordan. [Salah Nasser Salim Ali] was arrested on 4 September 2005 for being a member of al-Qaeda and for entering the country on a forged passport bearing the name of his brother (Salah). He was deported on 8 September 2005. [Muhammad Faraj Ahmed Bashmilah] was brought in to the Department for questioning on 21 October 2003. He was then told to leave the country, which he did on 26 October 2003”. 11 On 26 September 2002, Mr. Maher Arar, a citizen of both Canada and Syria, arrived at John F. Kennedy International Airport in New York on a flight from Zurich, Switzerland. He had started his trip in Tunisia and was connecting through New York on his way to Montreal. Upon his arrival at the airport in New York, he was detained by American authorities. On 7 October 2002, the Regional Director of the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) issued an order finding Mr. Arar to be a member of al-Qaeda and directing his removal from the United States (United States Immigration and Naturalization Service, “Final Notice of Inadmissibility”, 7 October 2002, signed by Deputy Attorney-General Larry Thompson, concerning Mr. Arar’s imminent removal). On 8 October 2002, Mr. Arar was awakened at 3 o’clock in the morning at the Metropolitan Detention Centre in New York, and told that it was decided by the United States that he was to be removed to Syria (see letter dated 18 January 2005 from the United States Department of Justice, asserting the State’s secret privilege in relation to, inter alia, Mr. Arar’s removal to Syria; CBS News, 60 Minutes II, transcript of “His year in hell”, 21 January 2004: “… Imad Moustapha, Syria’s highest-ranking diplomat in Washington, says … Syrian intelligence had never heard of Arar before the United States Government asked Syria to take him.”; the Globe and Mail, “US trusted Syria’s assurances on Arar: Ashcroft”, 21 November 2003; Washington Post, “Man was deported after Syrian assurances”, 20 November 2003; and the Syrian Deputy Foreign Minister Mouallem has explained that the United States decision to remove Mr. Arar to Syria via Jordan had taken his Government by surprise; the Syrian authorities had not asked for him; they had expected him to be sent to Canada; but because of the international campaign against terrorism, Syria had had no choice but to take Mr. Arar and question him on his alleged affiliation with al-Qaeda). Mr. Arar was taken to New Jersey, put on a corporate jet, and flown to Amman, Jordan, with brief stops in Washington, D.C., Portland, Maine, and Rome, Italy (New York Times, “Suit by detainee on transfer to Syria finds support in jet’s log”, 30 March 2005; Human Rights Watch, US/Canada: Transfer of Maher Arar to Torture; and in response to a request under the 1985 Access to Information Act, the Canadian Government has indicated that the Department for Foreign Affairs and International Trade learned that Mr. Arar was transferred from the United States to Jordan