Germany seeks 13 over CIA 'kidnap'- arrest warrants issued

[PA Democrat]

MUNICH, Germany (CNN) -- Arrest warrants have been issued for 13 suspected CIA agents in connection with the alleged kidnapping of a German citizen of Lebanese descent in Afghanistan.

The arrest warrants list charges of kidnapping and severe battery, the Munich state prosecutor's office said Wednesday.

All the names on the warrants are aliases, but the office told CNN they are believed to be CIA operatives.

Khaled El-Masri said he was kidnapped in late 2003 while on holiday in Macedonia. In an interview with German weekly Die Zeit, he said after having been interrogated in Macedonia for several days, he was flown to Afghanistan where he was held in a secret prison for several months and severely beaten in interrogation sessions.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/31/germany.cia/index.html

[seafan]

1. More on this story, from the London Times:

Germany seeks arrest of CIA 'rendition' agents, January 31, 2007

A German court has issued arrest warrants for 13 people, thought to be CIA agents, suspected of organising the abduction of a man mistaken for a terrorist.

In a lawsuit filed against the CIA and three aviation companies allegedly used by the agency, Mr al-Masri said that he was arrested on the border of Serbia and Macedonia on December 31, 2003. He is believed to have been mistaken for an al Qaeda suspect with a similar name.


According to his account, Mr al-Masri was then handed over to US agents who stripped, drugged and chained him to the floor of a private Boeing 737 jet which flew him to Afghanistan, where he was imprisoned without charge in a detention facility near Kabul for four months. He was released on an Albanian hillside in May 2004 when the CIA realised its mistake, he claims.

The case has brought a diplomatic chill to the generally warm relationship between the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and the Bush Administration. In late 2005, Ms Merkel claimed that Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of State who was America's National Security Adviser at the time of Mr al-Masri's alleged kidnap, had apologised for his detention.
The US Government has strenuously denied making any apology for the case. In May last year, the Justice Department invoked the rarely used state secrets privilege to have Mr al-Masri's allegations dismissed from civil court. "There is no way that the case can go forward without causing the damage to the national security," argued Assistant US Attorney, Joseph Sher.

The arrest warrants issued this week are believed to stem from information handed to German prosecutors by their Spanish counterparts three months ago.
Last October, German media reported that Spanish investigators had handed a list of about 20 names of suspected CIA agents to German prosecutors following inquiries in Mallorca, which is believed to be a staging post for dozens of secret flights. The Boeing 737 that is believed to have carried Mr al-Masri left the island on December 24, 2003.

A New York Times inquiry based on the names turned up by Spanish investigators traced 18 of them to a cluster of shared post office boxes in Virginia, near the CIA headquarters in Langley. The social security numbers held by many of the named suspects had been issued in the last five years, suggesting the use of aliases.

[PA Democrat]

2. Uh-oh. Does this mean no more back rubs for Merkel?

Bush is managing to alienate the few allies he has left.

[seafan]

3. She's still having nightmares, I don't doubt.

Bush's unexpected squeeze of the German chancellor has the Internet howling

By Carla Marinucci, Chronicle Political Writer
July 19, 2006

It's not exactly "Presidents Gone Wild!" but for the normally staid Group of Eight Summit, a video of President George W. Bush sidling behind German Chancellor Angela Merkel and delivering an impromptu neck rub is, well, as wild as it gets.

The scene, captured by a Russian TV camera, hit the Internet like a summer wildfire Tuesday, and it may be most memorable for the German chancellor's reaction. Bush applies his hands to Merkel's shoulders and neck while she's speaking with Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi; the chancellor hunches her shoulders, then throws her hands up to stop the unexpected massage with a wan smile -- and an expression which can best be translated as "Ewwww."

While the incident didn't get a lot of play on major TV media, it was just one of the Bush G-8 gaffes that garnered considerable space in the blogosphere from London to Los Angeles. //snip

[Tatiana]

4. That man makes me ashamed to be an American. n/t