The Toronto Globe and Mail is reporting that the only reason the U.S. detained and jailed Canadian citizen Maher Arar in 2002 was that he was an acquaintance of two men under investigation for ties to terrorist organizations. Arar was detained during a stopover in New York. He was then secretly sent to Syria where he was jailed for a year. On Thursday Arar filed a lawsuit against the U.S. government. He alleges that the U.S. sent him to Syria with foreknowledge that he would likely be tortured. The Globe and Mail obtained U.S. documents that showed the regional director of the INS made the determination that Arar was a member of Al Qaeda after he admitted he knew two suspected terrorists.