German minister under fire over ex-Guantanamo inmate

[Eugene]

Source: Reuters

German minister under fire over ex-Guantanamo inmate
Wed Mar 28, 2007 6:37PM EDT

By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's foreign minister, one of the country's most
popular politicians, defends himself on Thursday against charges he caused
an innocent German-born Turk to suffer for years at the U.S. Guantanamo
Bay prison camp.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier will be testifying for a second time
before a parliamentary committee set up to investigate Germany's cooperation
with the United States in its "war on terror", which is very unpopular in
Germany.

The cases of ex-Guantanamo inmate Murat Kurnaz, a Turk born in Germany,
and Khaled el-Masri, a German of Lebanese origin who was kidnapped by the
CIA and imprisoned in Afghanistan for five months, have dogged Steinmeier
for over a year.

-snip-

The allegations against Steinmeier center on a meeting he chaired in October
2002 at the German chancellery. At the time he was Chancellor Gerhard
Schroeder's chief-of-staff and responsible for coordinating intelligence matters.

At the meeting, German media reports allege, Steinmeier and a group of other
high-level intelligence officials decided to reject a U.S. offer to release Kurnaz
out of fears that would pose a domestic security threat.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSL2840861020070328

[DCKit]

1. Germany's making terrorists too?

How do people this stupid get into positions of power?