Rice Ordered Release of German Sent to Afghan Prison in Error

By DAVID JOHNSTON

Published: April 23, 2005


ASHINGTON, April 22 - A German citizen detained for five months in an Afghan prison was released in May 2004 on direct orders from Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser, after she learned the man had been mistakenly identified as a terror suspect, government officials said Friday.

The officials, who confirmed an account of Ms. Rice's decision that was first reported by NBC News, said that when Khaled el-Masri was taken from a bus on the Serbian-Macedonian border on Dec. 31, 2003, the Macedonian and the American authorities believed he was a member of Al Qaeda who had trained at one of Osama bin Laden's camps in Afghanistan.

But within several months they concluded he was the victim of mistaken identity, the officials said. His name was similar to a Qaeda suspect on an international watch list of possible terrorist operatives, they said.

By then, Mr. Masri, 41, a car salesman who lives in Ulm, Germany, had been flown on a C.I.A.-chartered plane to the prison under a secret American program of transferring terror suspects from country to country for interrogation, officials said. At the prison in Kabul, Mr. Masri said, he was shackled, beaten, photographed nude and injected with drugs by interrogators who pressed him to reveal ties to Al Qaeda.
more
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/23/politics/23detain.html

you can access the article by going to google
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&ned=us&q=cia

Sorry about the torture and all.

he was shackled, beaten, photographed nude and injected with drugs by interrogators........

Because we are the United States of America and that's what we do. Jesus wept.

:cry:

Headlines like "Rice shows China her teeth", "Rice talks tough to Russia", "Rice intervenes on behalf of innocent man", etc.

It's like a payola PR campaign for Rice.

May 2004??? :eyes:

Not implying anything, it's just an interesting coincidence.

She must know exactly what is happening and perhaps was in control of this sort of crap?

Sounds to me like she is a war criminal -- or just a regular member of the bush crime gang.

April 28, 2004

(CBS) Last month, the U.S. Army announced 17 soldiers in Iraq, including a brigadier general, had been removed from duty after charges of mistreating Iraqi prisoners.

But the details of what happened have been kept secret, until now.

It turns out photographs surfaced showing American soldiers abusing and humiliating Iraqis being held at a prison near Baghdad. The Army investigated, and issued a scathing report.

...more...

timing is a bit convenient?

Abu Ghraib torture breaks out all over the MSM and KindaSleezy signs off on this man's release shortly thereafter :think:

...So to speak.... :evilgrin:

From the article:

"The disclosure of the decision to free Mr. Masri shed new light on the transfer of suspected Qaeda operatives around the world. Until now, it was believed that the transfers were carried out by the C.I.A. under presidential directives issued after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

Ms. Rice's involvement suggests that the White House may have played a more hands-on role than was previously known. The officials who discussed the matter on Friday suggested that she had intervened as needed, but would not describe the extent to which national security officials at the White House were in charge."

Evidently enough involvement to review individual cases and order releases. So much for deniability...

that she has to know a hell of a lot more about torture -- and who is doing it and why.

And IF she knows what is happening then Cheney no doubt is pulling strings and ordering stuff we know nothing about.

This is probably the very tip of a huge ice berg. I don't know if any of us will live long enough to learn about ALL the dirty secrets of this bushie gang.

Either a whole lot of underlings are taking a whole lot of authority in this "war on terror" -- OR -- the war on terror is being directed from the top in order to keep the "little people" in line.