German abduction case gets murkier - did U.S.pay?

BERLIN (Reuters) - German politicians expressed surprise Thursday at reported U.S. comments that Washington had apologised and paid money to a German citizen it abducted to Afghanistan and held for months as a terrorist suspect.

The case of Khaled el-Masri, who is suing the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) for wrongful imprisonment and torture, took a new twist with comments from Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble in parliament Wednesday.

Schaeuble shed new light on a conversation on May 31, 2004, between his predecessor Otto Schily and then-U.S. ambassador Daniel Coats, at which Coats first told the German government one of its citizens had been detained.

Coats had said Masri "had received an apology, agreed to keep quiet and been paid a sum of money," Schaeuble said

http://today.reuters.co.uk/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=worldNews&storyid=2005-12-16T005302Z_01_BAU577391_RTRUKOC_0_UK-SECURITY-GERMANY-USA.xml