News Invisible Man
posted by January 31 at 16:03 PM
onDan mentioned this earlier today, but it’s worth calling greater attention to: Germany has issued arrest warrants for 13 CIA agents because they orchestrated the kidnapping of a German citizen as part of the CIA’s “extraordinary rendition” program. The man, Khalid el-Masri, was drugged and flown to Afghanistan, where he was held for five months with no lawyer or contact with the outside world. The CIA agents sodomized and beat el-Masri, forced him to sleep on a filthy floor with a single thin blanket, gave him water so putrid it made him vomit, and fed him chicken bones and skin. From his account:
I felt two people violently grab my arms… . I then felt someone else grab my head with both hands so I was unable to move… . Finally they stripped me completely naked and threw me to the ground… . I felt a boot in the small of my back. I then felt a stick or some other hard object being forced in my anus. I realized I was being sodomized. Of all the acts these men perpetrated against me, this was the most degrading and shameful.
It appears el-Masri was kidnapped because of a spelling error; CIA agents were seeking a suspected al Qaeda operative named Khalid al-Masri. The US Justice Department has “declined to provide Munich prosecutors assistance.” A judge dismissed a lawsuit el-Masri filed because it would “damage national security” to allow it to move forward.
Comments
Just a note.... in Arabic, al-Masri means "The Egyptian" It's a fairly common name.
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meh, no one will care until it happens to a white us citizen. welcome to utopia.
Reminds me just a bit of the opening scenes of Brazil.
That's just fucked up
Here's an interesting thought... The prosecutor that brought the charges against the alleged CIA operatives is an official for CDU-dominated Munich. The Foreign Minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is being criticized for his complicity in the Murat Kurnaz case.
Could the Masri charges be an attempt at distracting the populace from the Kurnaz controversy?
Duh. I forgot to mention that Steinmeier is a CDU (Christian Democratic Union) party member. I guess that's an important detail for my crackpot theory :p
umm, i realize Germany is far away, but really, some basic facts:
prosecutors in Germany are not appointed by party officials of any kind
Munich: SPD dominated (basically: the other ones. Not the conservatives. you know, has to do with Munich being a larger city and all)
Steinmeier: SPD party member
just so you know.
Accountability, yes! I hope this comes to something. I hope it results in more and more members of our torture program being unable to travel. Including Rumsfeld. I also hope the Canadian case (Maher Arar) ends up with criminal charges across the board. Rack the motherfuckers up.
Maher Arar has received an apology from Prime Minister Harper and a ten million dollar settlement.
Nonetheless, he still remains on the U.S. security watch list.
The Canadian government has said they will continue pressuring the U.S. government to remove him from this list.
The U.S. ambassador to Canada "diplomatically" told them to back off - it wasn't going to happen.
What the hell?
I'm not holding my breath for any accountability with this case in the U.S.
You misunderstand me, Rielle. I'm not looking for charges in a US court. I'm looking for charges in a Canadian court. If Stephen Harper continues to press this issue, he'll be the most popular, and the most decent, PM in Canadian history. And a substantial array of US officials will not be able to cross the border ever again, because they will be arrested. That's what I'm hoping for.
I want Donald Rumsfeld's orbit of freedom to be as small as possible. Ideally an 8x10 steel room, but I'll take what I can get.
Andreas-
Yes, you're right, Steinmeier is SPD. I guess I should have looked that up :)
And when I said that Munich is CDU-dominated, what I meant was Bavaria itself, though that's CSU.
In any case, it was just an idea. I'll check my facts next time.
But don't be so naive as to think that it requires that somebody be appointed by a party to have political leanings.
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