In an interview with the CBC reporter Alison Smith, on October 3, 2003, U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and Canada's Deputy Prime Minister John Manley discussed the case. Ridge confirms that the Canadian government had supplied information to the US:

”Tom Ridge: First of all, I think we need to dispel the notion that this was an arbitrary decision on the part of our government. There was sufficient information within the international intelligence community about this individual that we felt warranted his deportation back to one of – he had dual citizenship – of one of two countries. The decision was made, based on that information available through the global international intelligence community to effect that outcome.”

    While John Manley offered bland homilies, as if only a minor breach of etiquette was involved:

John Manley: As you know, there are some concerns that our government has in the case, particularly consular access,…..We are making very direct interventions with the Syrian government to have him returned to Canada. We're unaware of any information that justifies his detention there, and if there are some issues with respect to him, then they should be – he should be given the opportunity to answer them. That's our view. Again, occasionally things happen that could be handled differently..”

 It is possible that Arar’s sudden release was from direct intervention by the then Canadian Prime minister  Jean Chrétien, together with Amr Moussa, Secretary-General of the Arab League.

In September 2002, I … headed back home to prepare for work.… My flight arrived in New York at 2:00 p.m. on September 26th, 2002. …..This is when my nightmare began. I was pulled aside at immigration .. Two hours later …they took my fingerprints and photographs. . …. I was scared and did not know what was going on. I told them I wanted a lawyer. They told me I had no right to a lawyer, because I was not an American citizen. They asked me where I worked and how much money I made. They swore at me, and insulted me. It was very humiliating… the information they had was so private I thought this must be from Canada. I told them everything I knew. ….. I was very, very worried, and asked for a lawyer again and again. They just ignored me. Then they put me in chains, on my wrists and ankles, … At 1:00 in the morning they put me in a room with metal benches in it. …. The next morning they .. asked me about what I think about bin Laden, Palestine, Iraq. They also asked me about the mosques I pray in, my bank accounts, my e-mail addresses, my relatives, about everything.

.. Then a man from the INS came in and told me they wanted me to volunteer to go to Syria. I said no way. I said I wanted to go home to Canada or sent back to Switzerland. …. They asked me to sign a form. They would not let me read it, but I just signed it. I was exhausted and confused and disoriented. I had not slept or eaten since I was in the plane. .……. After five days, they let me make a phone call. I called Monia's mother, who was here in Ottawa, and told her I was scared they might send me to Syria, and asked her to help find me a lawyer. They would only let me talk for two minutes.

On the seventh or eighth day they brought me a document, saying they had decided to deport me, and I had a choice of where to be deported. I wrote that I wanted to go to Canada. It asked if I had concerns about going to Canada. I wrote no, and signed it. The Canadian consul came on October 4, and I told her I was scared of being deported to Syria. She told me that would not happen. She told me that a lawyer was being arranged. I was very upset, and scared. I could barely talk. The next day, a lawyer came. She told me not to sign any document unless she was present. We could only talk for 30 minutes. ..That was a Saturday. On Sunday night at about 9:00 p.m., the guards came to my cell and told me my lawyer was there to see me. I thought it was a strange time, and they took me into a room with seven or eight people in it. I asked where my lawyer was. They told me he had refused to come and started questioning me again. They said they wanted to know why I did not want to go back to Syria. I told them I would be tortured there. I told them I had not done my military service; I am a Sunni Muslim; my mother's cousin had been accused of being a member of the Muslim Brotherhood and was put in prison for nine years.

They asked me to sign a document and I refused. I told them they could not send me to Syria or I would be tortured. I asked again for a lawyer. At three in the morning they took me back to my cell. At 3:00 in the morning on Tuesday, October 8th, ….. again chained and shackled me. Then two officials took me inside a room and read me what they said was a decision by the INS Director. They told me that based on classified information that they could not reveal to me, I would be deported to Syria. I said again that I would be tortured there. Then they read part of the document where it explained that INS was not the body that deals with Geneva Conventions regarding torture. ….

…They took me out of plane and there were six or seven Jordanian men waiting for us. They blindfolded and chained me, and put me in a van. They made me bend my head down in the back seat. Then, these men started beating me. Every time I tried to talk they beat me. . …  I asked one of the people where I was and he told me I was in the Palestine branch of the Syrian military intelligence. …..  the guards came to take me to my cell downstairs.

We went into the basement, and they opened a door, and I looked in. I could not believe what I saw. I asked how long I would be kept in this place. He did not answer, but put me in and closed the door. It was like a grave. It had no light. It was three feet wide. It was six feet deep. It was seven feet high. It had a metal door, with a small opening in the door, which did not let in light …….There was a small opening in the ceiling, about one foot by two feet with iron bars. Over that was another ceiling, so only a little light came through this. There were cats and rats up there, and from time to time the cats peed through the opening into the cell. There were two blankets, two dishes and two bottles. One bottle was for water and the other one was used for urinating during the night. Nothing else. No light. I spent 10 months, and 10 days inside that grave.

..The beating started that day and was very intense for a week, and then less intense for another week. That second and the third days were the worst. I could hear other prisoners being tortured, and screaming and screaming. Interrogations are carried out in different rooms. One tactic they use is to question prisoners for two hours, and then put them in a waiting room, so they can hear the others screaming, and then bring them back to continue the interrogation. The cable is a black electrical cable, about two inches thick. They hit me with it everywhere on my body.. … They kept beating me so I had to falsely confess and told them I did go to Afghanistan. I was ready to confess to anything if it would stop the torture. They wanted me to say I went to a training camp. I was so scared I urinated on myself twice. The beating was less severe each of the following days.

At the end of each day, they would always say, “Tomorrow will be harder for you.” So each night, I could not sleep. … Most of time I was not taken back to my cell, but to the waiting room where I could hear all the prisoners being tortured and screaming.. … …The interrogation and beating ended three days before I had my first consular visit, on October 23. …. I did not know what was happening and they would not tell me. …. I was told not to tell anything about the beating, then I was taken.. for a ten minute meeting with the consul. The colonel was there, and three other Syrian officials... I cried a lot at that meeting. I could not say anything about the torture….or I might be beaten again.

About a month after I arrived, they called me up to sign and place my thumb print on a document about seven pages long. They would not let me read it, but I had to put my thumb print and signature on the bottom of each page. It was handwritten.… The consular visits were my lifeline, but I also found them very frustrating. There were seven consular visits, and one visit from members of parliament. After the visits I would bang my head and my fist on the wall in frustration. I needed the visits, but I could not say anything there. . . .. .. I was not exposed to sunlight for six months. The only times I left the grave was for interrogation, and for the visits. Daily life in that place was hell. … I lost about 40 pounds while I was at the Palestine Branch.

On August 19 I was taken upstairs to see the investigator, and I was given a paper and asked to write what he dictated. If I protested, he kicked me. I was forced to write that I went to a training camp in Afghanistan. They made me sign and put my thumbprint on the last page.  … Then he said I would be released. .. I want to conclude by thanking all of the people who worked for my release, especially my wife Monia, and human rights groups, and all the people who wrote letters, and all the members of parliament who stood up for justice.

….. I want to know why this happened to me. I believe the only way I can ever know why this happened is to have all the truth come out in a public inquiry.