Back from the "black hole"

Now Benatta is asking if anyone in the Canadian government will be held accountable for five lost years of his life.

Benatta, a Muslim man with a background in aeronautical engineering, was in Canadian detention awaiting an immigration review when the attacks on the World Trade Center took place. He was transferred without warning and without legal counsel to the Metropolitan Detention Centre in Brooklyn, which has been referred to as a "black hole" for Sept. 11 suspects.

According to Benatta, guards scrawled "WTC" on the door of his cell. He describes humiliation, sleep deprivation and beatings.

He was cleared of any connections to terrorism by the FBI in November 2001, but held incommunicado, without access to a lawyer. When he was finally released in July of 2006, U.S. judge H. Kenneth Schroeder Jr. called the false documents charges that had been used to hold Benatta a "sham" that "bordered on ridiculousness."

Lawyer Nicole Chrolavicius says that Benatta's transfer to the U.S. by Canadian Immigration officials was illegal and should be subject to an impartial public inquiry. "It's not just Mr. Benatta [who's] interested in the outcome... but it should be all Canadians, if we hold ourselves to be a country that respects human rights and the rule of law," she says.

His refugee claim is pending, and he continues to push for a review of Canada's role in his ordeal. "I would like to get answers about what happened to me and get on with my life."












 
 

		Write your comment on this article!

Benatta Coalition for a Public Review     Ben pointed this article out to me so that I could read the comments. I am very impressed with all of the intelligent comments to this article. Comment sections aren't exactly known to be a forum for anything particularly insightful. At least not on American sites. I wanted to let the readers here know that I've linked to this page from Ben's website. I'm not trying to spam, so just google "Benatta Coalition for a Public Review" to find his website. We could use some active participation, all ideas and opinions are welcome. We will be posting ways to help Ben as soon as we can. So if you want to help, you may get your chance. Even a show of support is helpful. When you've gone through what this kind and gentle man has gone through, you can't put a price on a few kind and encouraging words.
Ruschia Martin	{2 votes}	July 1st, 2007
Disgusting...     Here's how it is - if you come here as a refugee, we do have a right to REFUSE you - like it or not. The fact that US authorities went nuts on this guy, that's disgusting - but we can't help that. While I do feel for the guy, we owe him nothing - that's just how it is. The yanks who went nuts on him, that's a whole other matter.
Rob Postuma	{12 votes}	June 26th, 2007
Racial Profiling Gets Them All     There's no doubt that the terrorist attacks that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, was one of the most traumatic events that has changed the course of the world. How many of us heard of Osama Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda? So, as the result of a combination of ignorance, fear, protectionism, and shock our government reacted in a way that would otherwise be considered irrational. Does that mean that the Canadian government should be off the hook for denying a person his/her rights without checking his/her background and then shipping him/her off to the U.S.? Absolutely not! Is racial profiling necessary in order to track down today's bunch of world terrorists? Unfortunately it is because most of today's terrorists are Muslim, however, not all of them are Arabs (remember the British guy who tried to blow up a plane with explosives in shoes). So, how do we differentiate between those are terrorists from those who are not? Until we develop a 100 percent accurate form of detection (like a mind reading machine) the good and the bad will all be caught in the same net. The events surrounding the detention and deportation of Benamar Benatta (which cost him FIVE YEARS of his life) should definitely be examined through a public inquiry. If this could happen to a refugee who's looking to become a Canadian citizen, imagine what the Canadian government could do to its own citizens if another 9/11 happens.
Basil James	{9 votes}	June 26th, 2007
Basic human rights     It is just ridiculous how many people saw everyone of their rights just stripped away, just because they had suspicious on them. Not proof of anything, but just suspicious. His story is just one of many, and there are many that are still happening today. It just easy for Canada to refuse to look into his political asylum request. Technically, the canadian officials didn't do anything, and that is the problem. Here is someone who had actual reasons to ask for political asylum. And he was right, just look at what happened to him. The least they could have done was to review his case and give him legal advise. Imagine how different the last five years of his life would have been if things would have gone differently.
Catherine Recart	{9 votes}	June 26th, 2007
Shimmy Sham Shame     I can not imagine how he could have survived 5 years in "limbo" without even legal counsel. How was this legal? How is it legal to beat someone? It is scary to know that one's rights and freedoms could be taken even when your are prounounced innocent. It is ironic that the countries that are fighting for freedom are the ones who need it the most.
Cheryl Ramnanan	{5 votes}	June 25th, 2007
Politician Rights?     I believe we should step up and process his case as fast as possible and compensate him..Maybe if the politicians who put him there actually trade places with him maybe then the true meaning of human rights would come out and not be ignored..What is this -The secret American society-Do we need another underground railway in this day and age...Canadians should head-up an Impeachment campaign against the evil Bush.....And bring Human Rights and Societies back to Where we once were before Bushes bull&$#* 911..
Mike Jones	{5 votes}	June 25th, 2007
1984?     sometimes, it's hard to believe that we have any rights at all - we simply have the rights the powers at be let us have (as can be seen with the US Patriot Act) and any way to escalate the sense of fear in the population will be done such as detaining innocents. it create paranoia and confusion and has worked often in history. my own great-grandfather went through similar ordeals in the soviet union, seems history is just on endless repeat...but when will justice play?
Tamara S	{19 votes}	June 24th, 2007
Disasterous!     What a fucked society we live in! How did we get such cronies in those key positions in the first place? I would be raging mad yet wielding bad karma isn't a solution. The man should be compensation for his illegal detainment and by the way what the hell are we doing encouraging the immigration of North African citizens if we have to contribute to Bush's paranoiac machine? Shame on us!!
Martin Dansky	{12 votes}	June 22nd, 2007
Unbelievable!     This story is crazy! i believe it because i know how Arabs were treated after the 9/11 attack and it was awful. It is not fair to judge people because of "them". I thought Canada was the one who saved him but it turns out its the opposite! How can they let that happen for 5 years?! And the man seems calm about it, like i didn't hear about him on tv or anywhere else but here. Hope he gets what he deserves and those who put him in this situation get punished for it. Where are all the human rights gone?
Yasmin Wadhai	{5 votes}	June 22nd, 2007
Oiiii!     Man this guy seems pretty calm, if I were him I would be raging mad, five years is a long time to lose, not to mention to be tortured on top of all of it. The system is just ridiculous, all this terrorist talk has got people unnecessarily on edge and paranoid (that is on top of the already highly paranoid state of our society due to the media) and gets people detained and punished without just cause. This whole thing started because of a whole bunch of propaganda and that is now turning into real-life problems for so many.
Sacha Sukhdeo	{4 votes}	June 21st, 2007
Another Story Coming Out Of The CSIS/RCMP Woodpile..............     This is awful. How refugee Benamar Benatta was detained for five years with no apparent connection to anything noteworthy, from a criminal angle is insane. Transferring him to a Brooklyn jail without letting him know, and forcing him to be locked up with WTC accused is wrong and he should be compensated financially and formally. Also, you would think that the least the Canadian Government could do is expedite his Immigration to Canada and give him Landed Status. What a sham this was and what a horrible way to treat someone from the beautiful country of Algeria. I completely understand being nervous about who to detain when the sky is falling, but c'mon here, Benatta deserved better than this. Funny thing is that most of the supposed reasons for why he was detained so long are still on his official record/file and one mistake at any point in the future and all of this will be loaded on top of the new accusations. Where have people's rights gone?
Steve Landry	{11 votes}	June 21st, 2007

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