I did not want to read this account
by Khaled El-Masri, who was kidnapped by Americans in Europe. I would call what he endured prolonged torture. The way his was treated
degrades us all. I refuse to endorse or tolerate a system that shrugs off this abuse. He was terrorized on our behalf. mjh
America kidnapped me – Los Angeles Times By Khaled El-Masri, KHALED EL-MASRI, a German citizen born in
Lebanon, was a car salesman before he was detained in December 2003.
THE U.S. POLICY of “extraordinary rendition” has a human
face, and it is mine.
I am still recovering from an experience that was completely beyond the pale, outside the bounds of any
legal framework and unacceptable in any civilized society. Because I believe in the American system of justice, I sued George Tenet, the
former CIA director, last week. What happened to me should never be allowed to happen again. …
Eventually my blindfold was
removed, and I saw men dressed in black, wearing black ski masks. I did not know their nationality. I was put in a diaper, a belt with
chains to my wrists and ankles, earmuffs, eye pads, a blindfold and a hood. I was thrown into a plane, and my legs and arms were spread-
eagled and secured to the floor. I felt two injections and became nearly unconscious. I felt the plane take off, land and take off. I
learned later that I had been taken to Afghanistan.
There, I was beaten again and left in a small, dirty, cold concrete cell. I
was extremely thirsty, but there was only a bottle of putrid water in the cell. I was refused fresh water. …
[read it all – America kidnapped
me By Khaled El-Masri]
Online, The Times, Sunday Times
In the end, the eagerness of a junior officer in the CIA’s Skopje office and a gut feeling on
the part of the head of the CIA’s al-Qaeda unit contrived to have Masri sent to a prison for terrorist suspects known as “The
Salt Pit” in Afghanistan.
“Masri was held for five months largely because the head of the CIA’s Counterterrorist Center’s al
Qaeda unit ‘believed he was someone else’, one former CIA official said. ‘She didn’t really know. She just had a hunch,'” The
Washington Post reported.
Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake By Dana Priest, Washington Post Staff Writer
The Masri case, with new details gleaned
from interviews with current and former intelligence and diplomatic officials, offers a rare study of how pressure on the CIA to
apprehend al Qaeda members after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has led in some instances to detention based on thin or speculative
evidence. The case also shows how complicated it can be to correct errors in a system built and operated in secret.
The CIA,
working with other intelligence agencies, has captured an estimated 3,000 people, including several key leaders of al
Qaeda, in its campaign to dismantle terrorist networks. It is impossible to know, however, how many mistakes the CIA and its
foreign partners have made. [mjh: Because just reading this is giving aid to the enemy. Or so BushCo
claims.] …
Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in
black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an enema and sleeping drugs. They
outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by
cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA’s own covert prisons — referred to
in classified documents as “black sites,” which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern
Europe.
In the months after the Sept. 11 attacks, the CTC was the place to be for CIA officers wanting in on the fight. The staff
ballooned from 300 to 1,200 nearly overnight.
“It was the Camelot of counterterrorism,” a former counterterrorism official said.
“We didn’t have to mess with others — and it was fun.” [mjh: Join the CIA. See the World. Torture for fun.]
…
The process of vetting and evaluating information suffered greatly, former and current intelligence officials said.
“Whatever quality control mechanisms were in play on September 10th were eliminated on September 11th,” a former senior
intelligence official said. …
[I]n line with the responsibility Bush bestowed on the CIA when he signed a top secret
presidential finding six days after the 9/11 attacks. It authorized an unprecedented range of covert action, including lethal measures
and renditions, disinformation campaigns and cyber attacks…. [It] played well at the White House, where the president was keeping a
scorecard of captured or killed terrorists.