German spy agency admits blunder in CIA affair

[cal04]

Germany's foreign spy agency admitted on Thursday that one of its staff knew, but failed to report, that a German citizen had been arrested abroad and handed to the United States as a terrorist suspect. The Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) said the employee was told in Macedonia in January 2004 that authorities there had arrested the man, Khaled el-Masri, and handed him to the Americans. The admission marked a startling new twist in the case of Masri, which has provoked strong criticism of the U.S. practice of "extraordinary rendition" -- the secret transfer of terrorist suspects between countries.


The German government has previously said it learned only in May 2004 about the case of Masri, who says he was held by the United States for months in an Afghan jail before being released without charge and dumped in Albania. He is seeking compensation for alleged abduction and torture.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's office said in a statement it "regretted" the information had not previously come to light and would pass it on to Munich prosecutors who are investigating his alleged abduction.

CANTEEN CONVERSATION

The BND said its employee had heard about Masri during a conversation in the canteen of a Macedonian security agency in the first half of January 2004. "A person he did not know casually told him that a German citizen called el-Masri had been arrested at Skopje airport because he was on a wanted list. El-Masri had been handed over to the Americans," the agency said in a statement. Continued...

http://today.reuters.com/News/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-06-01T120005Z_01_L01794925_RTRUKOC_0_US-SECURITY-GERMANY-MASRI.xml

[Eugene]

1. An "information breakdown." That's the ticket.

A low ranking official didn't realize the significance
of a fellow national being handed over to a third country?
How about they cheerfully let it happen until the mistake
came around and bit them on the ass.

With two years to work out a cover story, this is the best
they can do?

[struggle4progress]

2. German Spy Agency Admits Mishandling Abduction Case

Germany's external intelligence service, the BND, said yesterday that it knew about the American seizure and detention of a German citizen 16 months before the country was officially informed of his mistaken arrest. It was unclear whether that information had been passed on to senior officials.

Germany had previously maintained that it did not learn of the abduction of its citizen, Khaled el-Masri, until he returned to Germany in May 2004.

The disclosure on Thursday, made as a parliamentary inquiry into the case reconvened in Berlin, adds to suspicions that European governments, or at least their intelligence services, have abetted the American practice of "extraordinary rendition." The phrase refers to the kidnapping of terrorism suspects by American agents who then secretly transport the suspects to third countries for interrogation, beyond the jurisdiction of American laws.

Any European participation in the extrajudicial seizures and detentions, not to mention the torture that is said to be involved, would constitute a breach of the European Convention on Human Rights. The Council of Europe, which enforces the convention, is investigating the allegations of European participation in the American rendition program ...

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/06/02/world/europe/02masri.html?_r=1&oref=slogin