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Berlin Says US Admitted "Mistake" in Abducting German
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"We
talked about this one case which of course was accepted as a
mistake by the US
government," said Merkel. (Reuters)
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BERLIN,
December 6, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – German
Chancellor Angela Merkel said Tuesday, December 6, that the US has
admitted it made a mistake in abducting a German national and flying
him to a secret prison in Afghanistan for questioning, while Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice defended such operations as a tool in
fighting terrorism.
"We
talked about this one case which of course was accepted as a mistake
by the
US
government," Merkel told a press conference after meeting Rice in
Berlin, Agence France Presse (AFP) reported.
German
Khaled el-Masri was seized by the CIA in
Macedonia
in December 2003, beaten and transported to a secret prison in
Afghanistan
for interrogation.
He
was released five months later.
The
German chancellor said the case would be investigated by a German
parliamentary committee.
Rice
said she could not comment on individual cases, but added: "In
every policy, mistakes will be made.
"But
we will do everything we can to rectify them as quickly as
possible."
There
has been controversy in
Germany
over press reports that the government knew about the el-Masri case
but was asked to keep quiet by Washington.
Reports
said the United States
informed former German interior minister Otto Schily about el-Masri
last year.
Above
Law
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"Our
government has acted as if it is above the law," Romero said.
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The
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) filed Tuesday a lawsuit against
the CIA on behalf of Al-Masri, an unemployed car salesman detained on
December 31, 2003 as he was heading on a bus to
Macedonia
for a holiday.
"Kidnapping
a foreign national for the purpose of detaining and interrogating him
outside the law is contrary to American values," said Anthony
Romero, ACLU executive director.
"Our
government has acted as if it is above the law," he said, adding
that there was a "climate of impunity" in the practices of
the US
administration.
The
lawsuit, the first to challenge the CIA over its handling of secret
detainees, accuses the agency of violating US and universal human
rights laws.
Masri
says he was abducted by the CIA, beaten and transported to a secret
prison in Afghanistan
for interrogation.
He
said he was held incommunicado long after his innocence was
established. He was flown to Albania
in May 2004 and released without being charged.
Lawful
The
Netherlands
lambasted Tuesday Rice's statements in which she defended the transfer
of terror suspects to countries notorious for prison torture to
extract information or confessions from them, a practice known as
renditions.
Dutch
Foreign Minister Bernard Bot told parliament Rice's remarks "were
not satisfactory".
He
predicted "difficult discussions" on Thursday when Rice
joins with other NATO foreign ministers in Brussels.
On
Monday, December 5, Rice defended renditions as a "lawful
weapon" and "a vital tool in combating transnational
terrorism."
She
added that countries through which "rendered" detainees were
transported were consulted.
Bot
said Rice would be expected to give clarifications about the alleged
secret prisons and flights operated by the CIA through European bases.
"To
my knowledge, the Netherlands
had not taken part in such flights and that will remain the case as
long as I am foreign minister."
Reports
of clandestine CIA interrogation centers and transport flights for
terror suspects emerged in November, along with suggestions of
on-board torture sessions.
The
European Union has threatened sanctions against any of its member
states found to have been operating such secret prisons, or allowing
their territory to be used for the transport of the phantom detainees.
Citing
former CIA officials,
US
channel ABC said that Al-Qaeda suspects had been held in Europe
until last month but were then transferred to north Africa.
In
a report entitled "Ending Secret Detention", the American
Human Rights First said the US
has more than 24
world detention camps, at least half of them operate in total
secrecy, where the abuse of detainees is “inevitable”.
Renditions
were was first authorized by President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and used
by the
Clinton
administration to transfer drug lords and terrorists to the US
or other countries for military or criminal trials.
US
President George W. Bush has strongly defended such transfers as
“vital to the nation's defense”.
Since
9/11, the CIA has rendered more than 100 people from one country to
another, usually with well-documented records of abuse, without legal
proceedings, according tot the Washington
Post.
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