Posted on 12/04/2005 12:47:23 PM PST by Extraordinarily Renditioned
Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake German Citizen Released After Months in 'Rendition'
By Dana Priest Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, December 4, 2005; A01
In May 2004, the White House dispatched the U.S. ambassador in Germany to pay an unusual visit to that country's interior minister. Ambassador Daniel R. Coats carried instructions from the State Department transmitted via the CIA's Berlin station because they were too sensitive and highly classified for regular diplomatic channels, according to several people with knowledge of the conversation.
Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public. The U.S. officials feared exposure of a covert action program designed to capture terrorism suspects abroad and transfer them among countries, and possible legal challenges to the CIA from Masri and others with similar allegations.
The Masri case, with new details gleaned from interviews with current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials, offers a rare study of how pressure on the CIA to apprehend al Qaeda members after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has led in some instances to detention based on thin or speculative evidence. The case also shows how complicated it can be to correct errors in a system built and operated in secret.
The CIA, working with other intelligence agencies, has captured an estimated 3,000 people, including several key leaders of al Qaeda, in its campaign to dismantle terrorist networks. It is impossible to know, however, how many mistakes the CIA and its foreign partners have made.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
And who is the spikey haired chick authorizing the snatches? She sounds like a keeper.
Moron!
your Mother swallows
Ratz, missed the IB4Z! I was too involved in watching football to post my usual "Welcome to FR. Enjoy your stay, however long it may be".
Oh well, better late than never, I guess!
But not to sensitive to leak to fifth columnists in the Washington Post. Personally, I think everyone above the level of secretary in the CIA should be fired, then asked to reapply. Rehire only those with clean background checks, exncluding any with checkered history of working on behalf of fifth columnists back in their college days.
Doubtless most would describe this situation as "suspicious as heck." Similar name to high profile terrorist, found on an odd errand, and apparently nobody knew what the high profile terrorist actually looked like.
Given that however, I too am majorly peeved that the apparent difference between this man's freedom and captivity hinged on nothing more than the authenticity of a German passport. Someone is grossly incompetent and/or still lying.
ZOT target spotted. Fire at will.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
Please let me know if you want ON or OFF my Viking Kitty/ZOT ping list!. . . don't be shy.
Have you noticed how this issue has gotten virtually no airtime on FR? Supposedly, Masri was going to file his lawsuit in the USA today. Did that get called off? Why should there even NEED to be a lawsuit? -- I'd think that the administration should want to bend over backwards to make it up to those who due to no malfeasance of their own found themselves in the belly of the beast. And make it plain to the whole world that they were doing so.
Complaint <- 240 kB PDF file
http://www.aclu.org/natsec/emergpowers/22207prs20051206.html
WASHINGTON -- The American Civil Liberties Union today announced the first ever lawsuit against former CIA director George Tenet challenging the CIA's abduction of a foreign national for detention and interrogation in a secret overseas prison. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Khaled El-Masri, an innocent German citizen victimized by the CIA's policy of "extraordinary rendition." ...The lawsuit, El-Masri v. Tenet, will be filed this morning in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia.
El-Masri is represented by Ann Beeson, Ben Wizner and Melissa Goodman of the ACLU National Legal Department, Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman, LLP, Rebecca Glenberg of the ACLU of Virginia, and Victor Glasberg of Victor M. Glasberg & Associates.
-bump-
I found the complaint (linked at post above) while searching for examples of ACLU stories that cite the names of counsel.
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