December 7, 2005 – 11:04AM
The US is seeking to reassure allies over its handling of terrorism suspects as Germany seeks answers over the treatment of German citizen Khaled el-Masri, who claims he was was jailed by the CIA for five months when mistaken for another man.
The issue arose as US President George Bush said the United States did not secretly move terrorism suspects to foreign countries that torture to obtain information.
In Italy, prosecutors and judges have issued arrest warrants against 22 alleged CIA operatives, accusing them of kidnapping.
The process, known as “rendition”, has come under the spotlight after reports that the CIA was operating secret prisons in Europe for terrorism suspects.
“We do not render to countries that torture, that has been our policy and that policy will remain the same,” Bush told reporters.
In a rare concession to critics of US policy, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice conceded today that Washington may make mistakes in its war against terrorism and promised to put them right if they happened.
But her efforts to present a united front with European allies hit a bump when US officials took issue with comments by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the sensitive case of a German national who says he was abducted by the CIA.
Merkel told a joint news conference with Rice in Berlin that the United States had acknowledged it made a mistake in the case of Khaled el-Masri, who says he was flown to Afghanistan by US agents and jailed for five months last year before being freed.
Masri is suing the CIA for wrongful imprisonment but was refused entry to the United States on Saturday.
“I’m pleased to say that we spoke about the individual case, which was accepted by the United States as a mistake…,” Merkel said in response to questions about the Masri case, which has caused a furore in Germany.
But senior US officials, travelling to Romania with Rice on the next leg of her European tour, said Rice had not admitted a US mistake over Masri.
The US government had informed Germany about his detention and release but did not say that was a mistake, one senior administration official told reporters.
The differences marred the first stage of a delicate European mission by Rice, under pressure to respond to allegations that the Central Intelligence Agency has run secret prisons in eastern Europe and covertly transferred terrorist suspects across the continent.
In a sign that she could expect tough questions from other European nations later in the week, Dutch Foreign Minister Ben Bot told his lower house of parliament that the US response to the allegations had been unsatisfactory.
The answers Rice had given were “not satisfactory” and he expected a “lively discussion with Rice and foreign ministers of NATO member states on Thursday in Brussels”, the Dutch news agency ANP said.
Rice refused to publicly discuss individual cases but acknowledged in general that mistakes could happen.
“Any policy will sometimes result in errors, and when it happens, we will do everything we can to rectify it,” Rice said.
A US civil liberties group on filed a lawsuit on Masri’s behalf today against former CIA director George Tenet and other officials, alleging wrongful imprisonment.
The US official with Rice said Masri was released from an Afghan prison after Washington realised it “no longer had evidence or intelligence to justify his continued detention”.
Asked if the United States had ever had evidence to hold Masri, he declined to comment further.
Rice did not directly address allegations over reports the United States had run secret prisons to hold terrorism suspects in eastern Europe, possibly in Romania and Poland, which Washington has refused to confirm or deny.
But she defended US methods in the struggle against militants.
“If you don’t get to them before they commit their crimes, they will commit mass murder,” she said.
President Bush reiterated that the United States did not torture.
“I don’t talk about secret programs, covert programs, covert activities.
Part of a successful war on terror is for the United States of America to be able to conduct operations, all aimed to protect the American people covertly,” Bush said.
“We abide by the law of the United States, that we do not torture,” he said.
“We will try to do everything we can to protect us within the law.”
– Reuters
and the other side of the argument (which are pages on my own site, so i will refrain from copying them here as well), Delivered Into Hell by US War on Terror and Canadian Sues US for Deporting Him to Syria for Torture. more details at http://www.maherarar.ca/
bush better start getting things right if he wants to remain president for the full term of office…
and if that weren’t enough, let’s get the mentally ill involved in the whole stinking miasma…
Air Marshal Kills Passenger, Citing Threat
By JOHN PAIN, Associated Press Writer
December 7, 2005 at 5:29 PM
MIAMI (AP) – An agitated passenger who claimed to have a bomb in his backpack was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday after he bolted frantically from a jetliner that was about to take off, officials said. No bomb was found.
The man, identified as Rigoberto Alpizar, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, was gunned down on a jetway just before the American Airlines plane was about to leave for Orlando, near his home in Maitland.
It was the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks that an air marshal had shot at anyone, Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said.
According to a witness, the man frantically ran down the aisle of the Boeing 757, flailing his arms, while his wife tried to explain that he was mentally ill and had not taken his medication.
The passenger indicated there was a bomb in his bag and was confronted by air marshals but ran off the aircraft, Doyle said. The marshals went after him and ordered him to get down on the ground, but he did not comply and was shot when he apparently reached into the bag, Doyle said.
The plane, Flight 924, had arrived in Miami from Medellin, Colombia, just after noon, and the shooting occurred shortly after 2 p.m. as the plane was about to take off for Orlando with the man and 119 other passengers and crew, American spokesman Tim Wagner said. Alpizar had arrived in Miami earlier in the day from Ecuador, authorities said.
After the shooting, investigators spread passengers’ bags on the tarmac and let dogs sniff them for explosives, and bomb squad members blew up at least two bags.
No bomb was found, said James E. Bauer, agent in charge of the Federal Air Marshals field office in Miami. He said there was no reason to believe there was any connection to terrorists.
The concourse where the shooting took place was shut down for a half-hour, but the rest of the airport continued operating, officials said.
Mary Gardner, a passenger aboard the Orlando-bound flight, told WTVJ-TV in Miami that the man ran down the aisle from the rear of the plane. “He was frantic, his arms flailing in the air,” she said. She said a woman followed, shouting, “My husband! My husband!”
Gardner said she heard the woman say her husband was bipolar – a mental illness also known as manic-depression – and had not had his medication.
Gardner said four to five shots were fired. She could not see the shooting.
After the shooting, police boarded the plane and told the passengers to put their hands on their heads, Gardner said.
“It was quite scary,” she told the TV station via a cell phone. “They wouldn’t let you move. They wouldn’t let you get anything out of your bag.”
There were only 33 air marshals at the time of the Sept. 11 attacks. The Bush administration hired thousands more afterward, but the exact number is classified.