Judges say CIA free to kidnap foreigners
Appeals Court Upholds Dismissal of Abuse Suit
By ADAM LIPTAK
New York Times
A German citizen who says he was kidnapped and abused by the Central Intelligence Agency cannot seek redress in court because his lawsuit would expose state secrets, a United States Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in Richmond, Va.
There is substantial evidence that the plaintiff in the suit, Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, was subjected to the C.I.A.’s practice of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorism suspects are seized and sent for interrogation to other countries.
In June 2006, a report issued by the Council of Europe concluded that Mr. Masri’s account of having been abducted and mistreated was substantially accurate. In January, a German court issued arrest warrants for 13 people it said were involved in the matter. Prosecutors would not identify the suspects.
The Central Intelligence Agency has never acknowledged any role in Mr. Masri’s detention.
Mr. Masri said in his suit that he was seized by local law enforcement officials while on vacation in Macedonia on New Year’s Eve in 2003. After 23 days, he said, he was handed over to C.I.A. operatives, who flew him to a secret C.I.A. prison near Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Continued here.)
(Here's al Masri's version of his kidnapping, from the LA Times:)
I am not a state secret
Having just lost in court, a CIA kidnap victim asks why the U.S. won't admit its error.
By Khaled El-Masri
KHALED EL-MASRI, a German citizen born in Lebanon, was a car salesman before he was detained in December 2003.
March 3, 2007
ON NEW YEAR'S EVE in 2003, I was seized at the border of Serbia and Macedonia by Macedonian police who mistakenly believed that I was traveling on a false German passport. I was detained incommunicado for more than three weeks. Then I was handed over to the American Central Intelligence Agency and was stripped, severely beaten, shackled, dressed in a diaper, injected with drugs, chained to the floor of a plane and flown to Afghanistan, where I was imprisoned in a foul dungeon for more than four months.
Long after the American government realized that I was an entirely innocent man, I was blindfolded, put back on a plane, flown to Europe and left on a hilltop in Albania — without any explanation or apology for the nightmare that I had endured.
My story is well known. It has been described in literally hundreds of newspaper articles and television news programs — many of them relying on sources within the U.S. government. It has been the subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies, including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in my own country of Germany are pursuing indictments against 13 CIA agents and contractors for their role in my kidnapping, abuse and detention. Although I never could have imagined it, and certainly never wished it, I have become the public face of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.
(Continued here.)
By ADAM LIPTAK
New York Times
A German citizen who says he was kidnapped and abused by the Central Intelligence Agency cannot seek redress in court because his lawsuit would expose state secrets, a United States Court of Appeals ruled yesterday in Richmond, Va.
There is substantial evidence that the plaintiff in the suit, Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, was subjected to the C.I.A.’s practice of extraordinary rendition, in which terrorism suspects are seized and sent for interrogation to other countries.
In June 2006, a report issued by the Council of Europe concluded that Mr. Masri’s account of having been abducted and mistreated was substantially accurate. In January, a German court issued arrest warrants for 13 people it said were involved in the matter. Prosecutors would not identify the suspects.
The Central Intelligence Agency has never acknowledged any role in Mr. Masri’s detention.
Mr. Masri said in his suit that he was seized by local law enforcement officials while on vacation in Macedonia on New Year’s Eve in 2003. After 23 days, he said, he was handed over to C.I.A. operatives, who flew him to a secret C.I.A. prison near Kabul, Afghanistan.
(Continued here.)
(Here's al Masri's version of his kidnapping, from the LA Times:)
I am not a state secret
Having just lost in court, a CIA kidnap victim asks why the U.S. won't admit its error.
By Khaled El-Masri
KHALED EL-MASRI, a German citizen born in Lebanon, was a car salesman before he was detained in December 2003.
March 3, 2007
ON NEW YEAR'S EVE in 2003, I was seized at the border of Serbia and Macedonia by Macedonian police who mistakenly believed that I was traveling on a false German passport. I was detained incommunicado for more than three weeks. Then I was handed over to the American Central Intelligence Agency and was stripped, severely beaten, shackled, dressed in a diaper, injected with drugs, chained to the floor of a plane and flown to Afghanistan, where I was imprisoned in a foul dungeon for more than four months.
Long after the American government realized that I was an entirely innocent man, I was blindfolded, put back on a plane, flown to Europe and left on a hilltop in Albania — without any explanation or apology for the nightmare that I had endured.
My story is well known. It has been described in literally hundreds of newspaper articles and television news programs — many of them relying on sources within the U.S. government. It has been the subject of numerous investigations and reports by intergovernmental bodies, including the European Parliament. Most recently, prosecutors in my own country of Germany are pursuing indictments against 13 CIA agents and contractors for their role in my kidnapping, abuse and detention. Although I never could have imagined it, and certainly never wished it, I have become the public face of the CIA's "extraordinary rendition" program.
(Continued here.)
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