Democrats Abroad New Zealand
2.01.2007
  Germans Charge 13 CIA Operatives (WashingtonPost.com)
By Craig Whitlock
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, February 1, 2007; Page A01

BERLIN, Jan. 31 -- The CIA's clandestine program of abducting suspected terrorists and taking them to secret sites for interrogation unraveled further on Wednesday as German prosecutors issued arrest warrants for 13 agency operatives in the kidnapping of a German citizen in the Balkans in December 2003.

The case is the second in which European prosecutors have filed charges against CIA employees involved in counterterrorism operations. Italian prosecutors have charged 25 CIA operatives and a U.S. Air Force officer with kidnapping a radical cleric on a Milan street in 2003 and taking him to Cairo, where he says he was tortured.

European law enforcement authorities acknowledged that it is highly unlikely that any CIA officers -- most of whom work undercover, using false identities -- would be apprehended or extradited from the United States. But the arrest warrants, filed in Munich, mark yet another case in which CIA activities in Europe since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, have strained diplomatic ties and underscored deep differences between the United States and its transatlantic allies over how to fight terrorism.

Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld, the chief prosecutor in Munich, said the 13 CIA operatives were wanted on suspicion of kidnapping and inflicting bodily harm on Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. Masri has said he was detained by border guards Dec. 31, 2003, while en route to a holiday in Macedonia, and handed over to the CIA, which took him to a secret prison in Afghanistan and interrogated him about his alleged ties to Islamic radicals in Germany.

After five months in detention -- during which, he said, he was physically abused -- Masri was flown back to the Balkans and dumped on a hillside in Albania after his captors apparently decided they had apprehended the wrong man. German prosecutors said they were skeptical when he came to them with his bizarre-sounding story but later corroborated many parts of his account.

Robert Wood, a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy in Berlin, declined to comment on the arrest warrants, as did a State Department spokesman in Washington. The CIA also declined to comment.

(More ... Washington Post > World > Europe)

Labels: , ,

 
Comments: Post a Comment



<< Home
Political News and Opinion Digest--Some 7mil Americans live overseas, including about 15,000 in New Zealand. Like Americans in the USA, overseas Americans cherish a free press, enjoy the right of free association and believe their votes will renew democracy in America.

Name:
Location: Portland, Oregon, United States
ARCHIVES
10.2004 / 11.2004 / 12.2004 / 01.2005 / 02.2005 / 03.2005 / 04.2005 / 05.2005 / 06.2005 / 07.2005 / 08.2005 / 09.2005 / 10.2005 / 11.2005 / 12.2005 / 01.2006 / 02.2006 / 03.2006 / 04.2006 / 05.2006 / 06.2006 / 07.2006 / 08.2006 / 09.2006 / 10.2006 / 11.2006 / 12.2006 / 01.2007 / 02.2007 / 03.2007 / 04.2007 / 05.2007 / 06.2007 /


Who do you prefer as the 2008 Democratic Party nominee for President?




View Results
Free poll from Free Website Polls
Powered by Blogger