US Said to Regret Kidnapping of German

[punpirate]

Apologize if this has been posted already:

http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,1564,1459629,00.html

"According to Monday's edition of Der Spiegel newsmagazine, Washington has used unofficial channels to apologize to Berlin for kidnapping Khaled el-Masri. The 41-year-old German citizen says he was seized at the Serbian border with Macedonia in December 2003 and detained for five months at a prison in Afghanistan.

"In an apparent case of mistaken identity, the Lebanese-born man was taken for an al Qaeda operative wanted by the United States for his connections to the suicide bombers who carried out the September 11 attacks in 2001. Der Spiegel quoted sources close to the German government as saying the case was deemed "highly sensitive" by officials in Berlin, who fear it could damage relations with Washington.

"German prosecutors have opened an investigation into the matter and have said they are taking el-Masri's claims "extremely seriously" after they managed to corroborate his story up until the moment of his alleged arrest at Serbian-Macedonian border.

<snip>

"He says he was handed over to officials whom he thought were Americans, who flew him to Afghanistan, where he was shackled, beaten, injected with drugs and questioned about his alleged ties to the Al-Qaeda network."



Apparently, this occurred because of the difference of one vowel in the English spelling of his name. So much for habeus corpus.

[Matariki]

1. when, when, when will the b* administration go up on war crimes?

[Rose Siding]

2. Here's a report on the abduction (pre US acknowledgement)

long NYT piece
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/01/09/international/europe/09kidnap.html?ex=1105938000&en=efab3b4c970ab588&ei=5070

[punpirate]

9. Thanks...

... good deal more detail in the NYT piece.

[lovuian]

3. I have never seen such incompetence in my life!!!

What are these guys Idiots!!!

[UpInArms]

4. is that a rhetorical question? ......... eom

[sarcasmo]

8. YES, and Yes again

[mediaman007]

18. Don't you remember: "The grown-ups are in charge now!" D. Cheney 2001

[tanyev]

5. "Regret"

It's such a useful word. Sounds nice, but really admits nothing.

[DELUSIONAL]

6. So can he sue bushie personally?

So let this case "damage relations with Washington" -- get to the bottom of it -- expose the trash/dirt/evil crap to the light of day.

Put an end to this cowboy crap!

Who is next? Common names with a switch of one letter??

[MsLeopard]

23. One would think

that if Paula Jones could take her trumped up POS lawsuit to Bill Clinton, there must be thousands of * victims that could sue the hell out of him. The double standard simply astounds me.

[atommom]

7. Conveyed regret through unofficial channels .... ?

That just sounds like adding insult to injury. It admits no guilt. It's no wonder the rest of the world hates the US.

[punpirate]

16. Unofficial channels...

... meaning that the FBI, CIA and the Army spent months trying to find a single non-gay person who spoke German and told the person to call Bavaria for them and explain....

[atommom]

22. I thought perhaps they just asked a student taking German I

to send a nice IM to Germany.

[sweetheart]

10. lies more lies to avoid criminal responsibility

bunch of filth.... therez no excuse.

[alfredo]

11. that

is so fucking sad.

[girl gone mad]

12. We're a nation led by thugs...

and criminals.

[hector459]

13. I just can't believe the rest of the world allows us to get away with this

Isn't there any force out there courageous enough to call us before the world court or at least place sanctions against us? What will stop this awful machine called the Bush administration?

[HereSince1628]

14. This is the trouble with hegemony, at present there is no force

and the neocon maniacs are quite well taking advantage of it.

[DBoon]

19. Power corrupts

and the US government is now absolutely corrupt

[Chicago Democrat]

15. Woops!

:puke:

[mutus_frutex]

17. Beautiful...

A nice example of US double standards. When you go around telling people that the US Constitution is barely applied in this country and ignored outside its borders, they look at you like you are from another planet and sometimes get offended.. I wish they knew a bit more history...

[DBoon]

20. History? How about current events?

Like this story.

Something besides last night's Fear Factor.

[TankLV]

21. Bull. They only regret being CAUGHT.