When US Secretary of State visits Europe this week, she will have to deal with a rising tide of anger over alleged secret US detention centers and illegal transport of terror suspects on secret CIA flights. It is this practice of "extraordinary rendition" - actually the outsourcing of torture - that is damaging the relations between the US and Europe:
As public revulsion with U.S. practices grows, European political leaders may yet be forced to restrict intelligence cooperation — perhaps not immediately, but soon. In that case, the Bush Administration's lack of self-restraint will exact a cost in greater insecurity we will all have to pay.
Today's Washington Post has a front-page report on a rendition of an innocent German citizen . We have known about the case of Khaled Masri for some time, but the article provides many new details. Here, for example, are some of the technical aspects of rendition:
Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an enema and sleeping drugs. They outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA's own covert prisons -- referred to in classified documents as "black sites," which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern Europe.
That is precisely what happened to Masri, but here it was the case of mistaken identity. While some US officials wanted to check his passport to confirm Masri's identity, the CIA decided he was "probably a terrorist" and needed to transported to Afghanistan for interrogation through torture.
Masri said his cell in Afghanistan was cold, dirty and in a cellar, with no light and one dirty cover for warmth. The first night he said he was kicked and beaten and warned by an interrogator: "You are here in a country where no one knows about you, in a country where there is no law. If you die, we will bury you, and no one will know."
Masri was guarded during the day by Afghans, he said. At night, men who sounded as if they spoke American-accented English showed up for the interrogation. Sometimes a man he believed was a doctor in a mask came to take photos, draw blood and collect a urine sample.
Much of this story was already known. What we didn't know was that after the CIA realized it had abducted an innocent person they had argued for concealing this from the German government. A battle with State Department ensued on whether the US should come clean with Germany and how much information should be disclosed:
The CIA argued for minimal disclosure of information. The State Department insisted on a truthful, complete statement. The two agencies quibbled over whether it should include an apology, according to officials.
So, against this background of blatent disregard for human rights, Condoleezza Rice will try to garner further support for President Bush's so-called War on Terror. Angela Merkel will have to decide whether it is really in Germany's best interest to mend the fences that her predecessor has damaged.
If you haven't read this piece in the New Yorker by Jane Mayer on the US program of outsourcing torture, I urge you to do so.
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