Maher Arar is suing the American government, alleging they deported him to Syria knowing he would be tortured there.

"Today, I file this lawsuit against the persons in the United States government responsible for sending me to Syria to be tortured. I believe the persons who sent me knew that I'd be interrogated under torture," Arar told a telephone news conference Thursday.

"I want to bring to account those responsible for the year of horror I endured in Jordan and Syria."

The suit was filed in New York with the assistance of the U.S. Center for Constitutional Rights. The filing names U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft among others.

Arar is not allowed into the U.S., so he spoke from his home town of Ottawa.

The suit alleges the U.S. government knowingly placed Arar in the custody of a nation that regularly uses torture.

Arar noted that U.S. President George W. Bush has publicly condemned Syria for using torture, so his officials must have known what fate awaited him. Arar also noted that his Syrian captors interrogated him with the same questions used by American authorities while he was detained in New York.

"Clearly, someone had supplied them with information beforehand and I am convinced one of the informants was the U.S. government," Arar alleged.

Arar spent 10 months and 10 days in a jail in Damascus, where he says he was tortured and repeatedly interrogated about connections with the terror network al Qaeda. He was released without explanation this fall and returned to Canada.

He has never been charged with any crime.

"I do not know why I lost a year of my life in Syria," Arar told reporters, noting that his life has been destroyed by the experience.

Arar again denied any links to al Qaeda and repeated his call for a public inquiry.

"The inquiry is not only to clear my name but to ensure that what happened to me does not happen to any more innocent bystanders of the war against terrorism," he said adding he wants answers on why he was targetted as a security risk.

"My own government is not without responsibility," he added. "We know now that the Canadian government sent information to the United States about me."

The U.S. has consistently said it acted on information it received from Canadian agencies when deporting Arar.

Arar has also filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against Syria and Jordan. He said he was beaten by Jordanian officials before being handed over to Syria, where he said he endured almost daily beatings with a thick electric cable.

Speaking to reporters after his news conference, Arar was asked whether he planned to sue the Canadian government as well. He said he is focusing on his call for an inquiry but is discussing "other options" with his lawyers.

On Wednesday night, Arar's case got its prime time U.S. network television debut in a feature on the CBS program "60 Minutes II."

The special reiterated previously made claims that not only did the Americans inform the RCMP and the Canadian Security Intelligence Service that Arar was being sent to Syria, Ottawa actually approved the deportation.

An Ottawa Citizen report in November quoted anonymous government sources as saying they had evidence Arar trained in al Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.

That Citizen reporter, Juliet O'Neill, is now the subject of an RCMP raid. RCMP descended on her home and office Wednesday in connection with the November report.

CSIS has denied any involvement, and Foreign Affairs Minister Bill Graham has said Canada was not informed or consulted about the American decision to deport Arar. He added he accepted U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell's assurances that the deportation decision was made by U.S. officials alone.

The Commission for Public Complaints against the RCMP has launched an inquiry into the Mounties' involvement in the Arar case. The Security and Intelligence Review Committee, which is the civilian overseer of the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, is also conducting a similar review.

"Both those reviews are moving forward, both are independent, and both are taking into account reasonable privacy concerns and those reports will be made public," Public Safety Minister Anne McLellan told reporters in Edmonton on Thursday.