© Chip Somodevilla/Getty ImagesGerman citizen Khaled el-Masri was detained in Macedonia before being handed to the CIA who flew him to Afganistan, where he was allegedly tortured.
America must now apologise to the German citizen, a victim of mistaken identity who was kidnapped and beaten by the CIA.The much-maligned
European court of human rights has this week shown itself at its very best: standing up for the rights of an individual who has been denied justice for almost nine years since he was abducted, secretly detained, and tortured under the
CIA's
rendition program.
Khaled El-Masri, a German national, was seized by Macedonian security officers on 31 December 2003, at a border crossing, because he had been mistaken for an
al-Qaida suspect. He was held incommunicado and abused in Macedonian custody for 23 days, after which he was handcuffed, blindfolded, and driven to Skopje airport, where he was handed over to the CIA and severely beaten.
The CIA stripped, hooded, shackled, and sodomized el-Masri with a suppository - in CIA parlance, subjected him to "capture shock" - as Macedonian officials stood by. The CIA drugged him and flew him to Kabul to be locked up in a secret prison known as the "Salt Pit", where he was slammed into walls, kicked, beaten, and subjected to other forms of abuse. Held at the Salt Pit for four months, el-Masri was never charged, brought before a judge, or given access to his family or German government representatives.
The CIA ultimately realised that it had mistaken el-Masri for an al-Qaida suspect with a similar name. But it held on to him for weeks after that. It was not until 24 May 2004, that he was flown, blindfolded, earmuffed, and chained to his seat, to Albania, where he was dumped on the side of the road without explanation.
Comment: And may we add to this latter statement that it is with their own precious money that the American government sustains Israel's massacres.