Posted on 01/31/2007 5:14:36 AM PST by MARKUSPRIME
Germany has ordered the arrest of 13 suspected CIA agents over the alleged kidnapping of one of its citizens.
Munich prosecutors confirmed that the warrants were linked to the case of Khaled al-Masri, a German national of Lebanese descent.
Mr Masri says he was seized in Macedonia, flown to a secret prison in Afghanistan and mistreated there.
He says he was released in Albania five months later when the Americans realised they had the wrong man.
Mr Masri says his case is an example of the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" - a practice whereby the US government flies foreign terror suspects to third countries without judicial process for interrogation or detention.
Code names
Prosecutors in Munich said in a statement that the city's court had issued the warrants on suspicion of abduction and grievous bodily harm. The information on which the warrants was based came from Mr Masri's lawyers and a journalist and officials in Spain, where the flight carrying Mr Masri is thought to have originated.
"These findings, as well as other information uncovered in the probe, led to the strong suspicion that these 13 identifiable people were involved in the abduction of Masri," it said.
The names and nationalities concerned were not released but prosecutors said the names identified were thought to be the code names of CIA agents.
"The investigation will now focus on learning the actual names of the suspects," they said.
German arrest warrants are not valid in the US but if the suspects were to travel to the European Union they could be arrested.
Italian case
Mr Masri says he was abducted by US agents in the Macedonian capital, Skopje, on 31 December 2003.
He is seeking to sue the US government over his detention, but in May a judge dismissed a lawsuit he filed against the CIA, citing national security considerations.
The US government is not assisting the German authorities with the case.
Meanwhile in the Italian city of Milan, court hearings to decide whether to indict 25 alleged CIA agents and several Italians accused of kidnapping a Muslim cleric in 2003 are under way.
Osama Mustafa Hassan, or Abu Omar, says he was abducted from the streets of Milan and then tortured in Egypt.
If the case proceeds to trial, it would be the first criminal prosecution over America's rendition policy.
The practice has drawn widespread criticism from human rights groups, legal experts and the international community.
But last week a European Parliament committee approved a report saying EU states knew about secret CIA flights over Europe, the abduction of terror suspects by US agents and the existence of clandestine detention camps.
Is it the country of Germany or the city of Munich running amok?
Its the EU.
Socialist(communist lite),anti-democratic,Anti-US,over run with muslims, cesspool.God help the UK if they merge with these idiots.
The Germans and the Europeans should be arresting the islamic terror cells in their countries. Where did many of the 9/11 terrorists came from? Hamburg Germany.
Yeah, I know. But I'm just curious whether the city prosecutor has gone off the reservation, or if Merkel's okay with this.
We'll quit going after your "citizens" when you quit using German citizenship as a smokescreen to harbor terrorists.
Look, I don´t know how it´s in the US, but I cannot imagine it to be any different from us: The judges - in fact, the entire judicative branch - is independant, so they´re only bound to the LAW. No Chancellor, President, Gouvernor, Mayor, Congress or whatever can tell them what to do. The (in this case: state) prosecutors are dependant to the state Minister of Justice, but it´s highly unusual that Ministers interfere.
In this case, a German citizen was kidnapped, and this crime shall be investigated and if necessary prosecuted. That´s why a judge has issued an arrest warrant on request of the prosecutors. Now tell me that you had not done the same if Mr. El-Kalid was a US citizen and the German intelligence had kidnapped him!
Yeah but you are'nt the US,and some of the 9/11 hijackers came from Hamburg, germany. There is the differance.Defend the muslims all you like,you wont ever arrest our intel officers.
Dresden after Allied bombing. Allied bombing of the German city of Dresden later in the war proved controversial. 85% of the baroque city was destroyed.
I just watched the Bombing show with the USAF's best on the Military Channel yesterday. With the capabilities the USAF has NOW, IMHO, the above pic would look like a Disneyland photo compared to what an "after pic" would look like NOW.
I know that we´ll never get these officers. But it´s a sign that even you cannot do what you want - why do you think that a) you have the right to disrespect the laws, b) yet worse, with regard to innocents, c) and even worse, get caught while you did it?
Mr. Motassadeq, who aided the 9/11 cell, was sentenced to the max. sentence of 15 years.
I´m defending INNOCENT people and our laws, not terrorists.
Wrong. He is/wasn´t a terrorist, he was the victim of a confusion. The officers mistook him for a terrorist who has a similar spelling of his name.
Of course it´s better to be safe than sorry, but we have laws and you have laws, too. What if you shoot your postman, because you "mistook him for an intruder"? You get convicted for murder, and rightly so.
Germany is coopertaing effectively with our allied foreign intelligences, nobody can blame us for doing nothing.
Michael is not a whiner, he's been a good contributor... the problem is, the guy turned out to be innocent.
In the US, Michael, kidnapping across state lines is a federal offense and is not prosecuted by a municipal prosecutor. Are you saying it's different in Germany?
I would normally agree, but the fact that the Italians also have one of these cases against the CIA is alarming. By dragging this into a court, we look foolish to our enemies and hamstring those that risk their lives by spying under deep cover.
One terrorist was arrested, and the Germans have warrants for 13 CIA agents? Why didn't they arrest this guy? Why are they deliberately exposing our intelligence people?
I was not talking about Michael as a whiner,but the Germans as a whole.
The capture was done in Macedonia, not Germany. So now Deutchland has jurisdiction there?
your German courts are as easily bought and controlled as an nation's.
With this regard, yes. In Germany, the prosecutors are mostly employed by the states, while the Penal Code is a federal law. The office of the federal general prosecutor also has federal prosecutors, but they prosecute just terrorism, offenses threatening the existance of the Federal Republic or one of its states, high treason, etc. A "normal" kidnapping is a job for the state prosecutors. The prosecutors - like the judges - are not legitimated directly by the people (unlike in the US), we call our legitimation a "chain": The people vote for the state and federal parliaments. And through their votes, they legitimate the lawmakes. The members of parliament elect the Chancellor/Gouvernor, and the Chancellor/Gouvernor appoints his Ministers. The Ministers appoint the judges and prosecutors.
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