I believe it's clearly a question that should be asked to CSIS, but if I may, I'll just go back to you about the heads up, that you say everybody should have known about Syria and its reputation for torture.
Well, clearly, people all over the world knew that, and the U.S. State Department knew that, yet.... CSIS did not have anybody in that entire period of time face to face with Mr. Arar. They were not a lead agency with respect to the matter on which, as I understand it, there was an exchange of information, which was Project A-O Canada, in which the RCMP was the lead agency.
But that said, you know, there were DFAIT officials who had face-to-face meetings and access to him. There were two members of Parliament who had face-to-face meetings with him. Yet this information didn't become a conclusive matter until Dr. Toope did his investigation. We were all very upset, obviously, to learn that, and I'm sure many other people were. But there were many things along the way that were going on. It's a very sad state.
Why? I can only speculate, because you're putting me in a position where I have to speculate, basically, as to why CSIS was never made aware of it, and that is only to say that they weren't the lead agency in the investigation and the file that was being put together on him. That Project A-O Canada was one that the RCMP was the lead agency in; therefore, as I understand it, they were having the direct relationship with the Americans on this.