- Joined
- May 23, 2003
- Messages
- 4,580
A German court has issued arrest warrants for 13 people, thought to be CIA agents, suspected of organising the abduction of a man mistaken for a terrorist.
Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, a prosecutor from Munich, said that the warrants were issued in connection with the so-called "extraordinary rendition" of Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who claims he was kidnapped by US agents on the Macedonian border in 2003.
The case of Mr al-Masri is the best known of several individual allegations against the CIA, which is accused by human rights campaigners of secretly ferrying hundreds of terrorism suspects to detention facilities around the world, often in countries where torture is routine.
In a lawsuit filed against the CIA and three aviation companies allegedly used by the agency, Mr al-Masri said that he was arrested on the border of Serbia and Macedonia on December 31, 2003. He is believed to have been mistaken for an al Qaeda suspect with a similar name.
According to his account, Mr al-Masri was then handed over to US agents who stripped, drugged and chained him to the floor of a private Boeing 737 jet which flew him to Afghanistan, where he was imprisoned without charge in a detention facility near Kabul for four months. He was released on an Albanian hillside in May 2004 when the CIA realised its mistake, he claims.
The case has brought a diplomatic chill to the generally warm relationship between the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Bush Administration. In late 2005, Ms Merkel claimed that Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State who was America's National Security Adviser at the time of Mr al-Masri's alleged kidnap, had apologised for his detention.
The US Government has strenuously denied making any apology for the case. In May last year, the Justice Department invoked the rarely used state secrets privilege to have Mr al-Masri's allegations dismissed from civil court. "There is no way that the case can go forward without causing the damage to the national security," argued Assistant US Attorney, Joseph Sher.
The arrest warrants issued this week are believed to stem from information handed to German prosecutors by their Spanish counterparts three months ago.
Last October, German media reported that Spanish investigators had handed a list of about 20 names of suspected CIA agents to German prosecutors following inquiries in Mallorca, which is believed to be a staging post for dozens of secret flights. The Boeing 737 that is believed to have carried Mr al-Masri left the island on December 24, 2003.
A New York Times inquiry based on the names turned up by Spanish investigators traced 18 of them to a cluster of shared post office boxes in Virginia, near the CIA headquarters in Langley. The social security numbers held by many of the named suspects had been issued in the last five years, suggesting the use of aliases.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 75,00.html
Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, a prosecutor from Munich, said that the warrants were issued in connection with the so-called "extraordinary rendition" of Khaled al-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, who claims he was kidnapped by US agents on the Macedonian border in 2003.
The case of Mr al-Masri is the best known of several individual allegations against the CIA, which is accused by human rights campaigners of secretly ferrying hundreds of terrorism suspects to detention facilities around the world, often in countries where torture is routine.
In a lawsuit filed against the CIA and three aviation companies allegedly used by the agency, Mr al-Masri said that he was arrested on the border of Serbia and Macedonia on December 31, 2003. He is believed to have been mistaken for an al Qaeda suspect with a similar name.
According to his account, Mr al-Masri was then handed over to US agents who stripped, drugged and chained him to the floor of a private Boeing 737 jet which flew him to Afghanistan, where he was imprisoned without charge in a detention facility near Kabul for four months. He was released on an Albanian hillside in May 2004 when the CIA realised its mistake, he claims.
The case has brought a diplomatic chill to the generally warm relationship between the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Bush Administration. In late 2005, Ms Merkel claimed that Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State who was America's National Security Adviser at the time of Mr al-Masri's alleged kidnap, had apologised for his detention.
The US Government has strenuously denied making any apology for the case. In May last year, the Justice Department invoked the rarely used state secrets privilege to have Mr al-Masri's allegations dismissed from civil court. "There is no way that the case can go forward without causing the damage to the national security," argued Assistant US Attorney, Joseph Sher.
The arrest warrants issued this week are believed to stem from information handed to German prosecutors by their Spanish counterparts three months ago.
Last October, German media reported that Spanish investigators had handed a list of about 20 names of suspected CIA agents to German prosecutors following inquiries in Mallorca, which is believed to be a staging post for dozens of secret flights. The Boeing 737 that is believed to have carried Mr al-Masri left the island on December 24, 2003.
A New York Times inquiry based on the names turned up by Spanish investigators traced 18 of them to a cluster of shared post office boxes in Virginia, near the CIA headquarters in Langley. The social security numbers held by many of the named suspects had been issued in the last five years, suggesting the use of aliases.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0, ... 75,00.html