[Independent] Germany's victim of extraordinary renditon sues in US courts as Rice is forced on defensive

[M.G.G. Pillai]

The Independent, London

Germany's victim of extraordinary rendition sues in US courts as Rice
is forced on defensive
By Leonard Doyle and Tony Paterson in Berlin
Published: 07 December 2005

When Khaled al Masri took the bus from Ulm to Macedonia two years
ago, his only objective was to cool off after a row with his wife.

But his troubles were only beginning. At the Serb-Macedonian border
crossing he was hauled off the coach and handed over to three men in
civilian clothes carrying handguns. His name - identical to one of
the 11 September hijackers - had lit up a police computer.

The German citizen did not know it at the time, but he was starting
out on a journey into the darkest heart of America's war on terror.
His ordeal would last five months, where, unknown to his family and
friends, he would be trussed up, tortured and abused before being
dumped in Albania, fearing he was to be shot.

The controversy over secret CIA flights, torture and illegal
imprisonment, continues to rage across Europe. Yesterday saw the
extraordinary spectacle of Condoleezza Rice, the US Secretary of
State, acknowledging the CIA's "mistake" to the German Chancellor
Angela Merkel in Berlin.

And in London, the former Law Lord and judge Lord Steyn said that "if
British authorities knew the nature of these flights they would be
guilty of war crimes".

Even as Ms Rice sought to end the political crisis which has now
engulfed eight European countries, lawyers acting for Mr Masri were
filing a lawsuit in Washington claiming he had been captured and
tortured by the CIA. Mr Masri, represented by the rights group the
American Civil Liberties Union, is the first to challenge the CIA
abductions and torture of foreign nationals.

In addition to torture Mr Masri says he was subjected to "prolonged,
arbitrary detention" and he now wants the US government to
acknowledge its mistake and apologise in public.

On 31 December 2003 as Mr Masri waited to clear immigration in
Macedonia, the border police notified the local CIA station which
contacted the agency's headquarters in Langley, Virginia. This week
it was revealed that the head of the CIA's counter terrorist unit had
ordered Mr Masri's "extraordinary rendition" because she "had a
hunch" he was involved in terrorist activities.

The coach left without him and Mr Masri was taken to a small room
where he was interrogated for several hours by his captors who asked
him whether he was linked to al-Qa'ida. "I kept saying no but they
did not believe me," he said. He was then taken by car to a motel
outside Skopje, where he was held and interrogated for a further 23
days.

The Macedonians then took a statement from him and allowed him to
leave the motel. Outside a lorry pulled up and several men grabbed
him and put a hood over his head. He was driven to a location he
believes was near the airport and beaten, stripped naked and
photographed, and then knocked out with a powerful sleeping potion.

Mr Masri was handcuffed, blindfolded, injected with drugs and put on
a plane. He awoke several hours later in Afghanistan and taken to a
prison cell. An English-speaking doctor arrived to take a blood
sample. He was accompanied by guards who repeatedly punched him. The
following morning an interrogator with a thick Lebanese accent told
him: "Where you are now there is no law, no rights, no one knows you
are here and no one knows about you."

During his incarceration, Mr Masri says he was repeatedly beaten. His
captors refused to believe he had no link with al-Qa'ida. In March
2004, Mr Masri began a hunger strike which was broken 37 days later
when guards beat him and force-fed him with a tube down his throat.

In early May, a man who Mr Masri believes was German, entered his
cell and asked him questions about the 9/11 hijackers. Mr Masri
denied any knowledge of the group and asked him whether his family
knew where he was. They did not.

A week later, Mr Masri was blindfolded and taken to Albania. He was
told he had been held because he had "a suspicious name".

The Washington Post this week reported that when the CIA realised
they had been wrong, they decided to dump Mr Masri and act as if
nothing had happened.

Mr Masri has since been reunited with his family. He is now
unemployed and says that the publicity surrounding his case has led
his friends to shun him.

Long after the CIA dropped him off on deserted mountain road,
terrified he was about to be shot in the back, the consequences of
his ordeal have turned into a full blown crisis between the US,
Germany and the other European countries where a blind eye was turned
to the alleged activities of CIA snatch and torture squads.

"I have very bad feelings about the United States, " Mr Masri said.
"I think it's just like in the Arab countries: arresting people,
treating them inhumanly and less than that, and with no rights and no
laws."

© 2005 Independent News and Media Limited