*THIS* is why we need habeas corpus for EVERYONE, not just US Citizens.

"Masri, a Lebanese-born German, claims he was abducted by US agents in Macedonia in 2003 and taken to Afghanistan where he was jailed and tortured before being released without charge five months later."


Someone called in to an Air America show I was listening to last week and commented that we don't need habeas corpus for non citizens, because "we need to fight the war on terror." The host rightly asked the caller, how do you know these people are terrorists? The answer is, you don't. There is no way to know if these people in Guantanamo or in the secret prisons, or anywhere, are really terrorists, or if they were randomly picked up off the street. The fact that we still have habeas corpus for US Citizens is besides the point. If we want to be a civilized nation, we need it for all people charged, in all cases.

Here's the complete article:

US pressed Germany not to issue CIA warrants: report
Published: Sunday March 4, 2007

http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_pressed_Germany_not_to_issue_CIA_03042007.html

Senior US diplomats put pressure on Germany not to prosecute 13 people linked to the alleged CIA-backed abduction of a German, a German magazine reports in its issue appearing Monday.

The diplomats "repeatedly" contacted the German chancellery and justice ministry in recent weeks in a failed bid to block the issue of arrest warrants against the 13 suspected CIA co-workers, the news magazine Der Spiegel said.

A court in Munich in January ordered their arrest in connection with the case of Khaled el-Masri and the federal government decided late last month to issue the warrants.

Masri, a Lebanese-born German, claims he was abducted by US agents in Macedonia in 2003 and taken to Afghanistan where he was jailed and tortured before being released without charge five months later.

It is one of the most-high profile cases of alleged CIA "rendition" in which terror suspects are seized in one country and taken to another for questioning.

The case caused tension between Washington and Berlin in 2005 when Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a meeting with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that it "was accepted as a mistake by the US government."

Reports have indicated that US agents confused Masri with a suspect with a similar name who was linked to the attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001.

Masri, 43, sued the US government for compensation, but a US federal appeals court on Friday upheld an earlier refusal to hear his case. It cited national security reasons.

The US government had argued that it could not confirm or deny Masri's allegations because they were related to the secret activities of the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

The United States is not required to extradite US citizens on the basis of a German arrest warrant.

In a similar case, an Italian judge last week ordered 26 Americans to stand trial for the kidnapping of an Egyptian imam who was allegedly abducted in Milan and taken to a prison in Cairo.

A senior legal advisor at the US state department has said that the United States would not agree to Italy's request to extradite CIA officials.

That is essentially their definiation.

of human rights out the window regarding people who are not U.S. citizens.

For one thing, it gives the government people it can treat that way, and the bureaucrats are going to like the power. We know the executive branch does.

For another, no foreigner is ever going to believe they deserve it, and it just breeds ill will.

It just goes against everything America stands for to say: there are a class of people (foreigners) who can be detained without cause and punished without trial. To be willing to treat anyone like this on mere ground of birth is appalling.