CIA knew it had the wrong man, but kept him anyway [View all]

[gratuitous]

From the Tribune Washington Bureau:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/cia-knew-it-had-the-wrong-man-but-kept-him-anyway/ar-AAi2kwo?li=BBnb7Kz

BERLIN — By January of 2004, when German citizen Khaleed al-Masri arrived at the Central Intelligence Agency’s secret prison in Afghanistan, agency officials were pretty sure he wasn’t a terrorist. They also knew he didn’t know any terrorists, or much about anything in the world of international terror.

In short, they suspected they’d nabbed the wrong man.

. . .

Adding to the sense of injustice: Even though the agency realized early on that al-Masri was the wrong man, it couldn’t figure out how to release him without having to acknowledge its mistake. The agency eventually dumped him unceremoniously in Albania and essentially pretended his arrest and detention had never happened.

The release of the report, which is 90 pages long and was written in July 2007, came in June after a Freedom of Information Act suit by the American Civil Liberties Union, which is representing al-Masri in his decadelong attempt to get an official apology from the United States.

Just makes you proud to be an American, doesn't it? We can't even apologize to this guy.