I happened to catch this report on the televised NBC Nightly News: a German citizen is abducted on New Years Eve 2003 and held in a CIA-run prison in Afghanistan - known as the Sand Pit - where he is tortured. Early on, the CIA realized he was innocent, yet he was not released for another six weeks. The report was later posted on the MSNBC Web site:
In February, CIA officers in Kabul began to suspect he was the wrong man, and they raised the red flag. They sent his passport back to the agency’s headquarters in Langley, Va. In March, sources say, the CIA finally finished checking his passport and found it was not a fake. The Macedonians had been wrong. The CIA realized it had the wrong man, a genuine German citizen, in custody.
CIA Director George Tenet was informed of the mistake, but nothing happened. It took the direct intervention of Condoleezza Rice - TWICE - to finally get el-Masri released. This morning, several German media outlets have picked up the story. This from the Handelsblatt:
Masri hat angegeben, an Silvester 2003 von der CIA in Mazedonien entführt und nach Afghanistan geflogen worden zu sein. Er hat Vorwürfe geäußert, bei seinen Vernehmungen geschlagen worden zu sein. Außerdem seien ihm Drogen verabreicht worden.
Masri war verdächtigt worden, Kontakte zur Extremistenorganisation El Kaida von Osama bin Laden zu haben. Die Vorwürfe stellten sich aber als haltlos heraus. Dennoch wurde er laut NBC-Bericht weitere sechs Wochen interniert. Erst im Mai 2004 habet ihn die CIA in Albanien freigelassen.
No comment from Medal of Freedom recipient George Tenet. I have nothing but contempt for Condoleezza Rice who, along with the Vice President and the President, lied the United States into an immoral preemptive war in Iraq. But on this occasion she did the right thing. Otherwise I have to ask : where's the outrage? This story about innocent citizens abducted, tortured, and not released because of bureaucratic embarrassment has not been picked up in the US press. The whole chapter of "extraordinary rendition" - the outsourcing of torture by the US government - has largely gone unnoticed. I guess the Michael Jackson trial is far more important.
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