German Sues CIA Claiming Torture

(CBS/AP)  A German man filed a lawsuit Tuesday claiming he was held captive and tortured by U.S. government agents after being mistakenly identified as an associate of the Sept. 11 hijackers.

Khaled El-Masri, who is being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, said he was arrested while attempting to enter Macedonia for a holiday trip and flown to Afghanistan. During five months in captivity he was subjected to "torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment," says a lawsuit he filed in U.S. District Court in suburban Alexandria, Va.

In Berlin, meanwhile, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the U.S. has acknowledged making a mistake in the man's arrest. "I'm happy to say we have discussed the one case, which the government of the United States has of course accepted as a mistake," Merkel said. She spoke after meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who refused later to discuss the case with reporters.

The two women leaders' first meeting was dominated by questions about U.S. terrorism policies, including reports of secret CIA prisons and potentially illegal use of European airports and airspace to transport terror suspects.

Khaled El-Masri's suit names as the main defendant former CIA Director George Tenet. In addition to torture, he claims his due process rights were violated and that he was subjected to "prolonged, arbitrary detention." He is seeking damages of at least $75,000.

"I am asking the American government to admit its mistakes and to apologize for my treatment," El-Masri said in a statement. "Throughout my time in the prison, I asked to be brought before a court but was refused. Now I am hoping that an American court will say very clearly that what happened to me was illegal and cannot be done to others."

The CIA rendition program, in which terror suspects are captured and taken to foreign countries for interrogation, has been heavily criticized by human rights groups. European governments have expressed outrage over reports of a network of secret Soviet-era prisons in Eastern Europe where detainees may have been harshly treated and reports of CIA flights carrying al Qaeda prisoners through European airports.

The scope of the program has not been disclosed by the CIA. If the United States did operate such prisons, or is still doing so, the information would be classified. The Bush administration has refused to answer questions about it in public.

"Were I to confirm or deny, say yes or say no, then I would be compromising intelligence information, and I'm not going to do that," Rice told reporters on her plane to Germany. Before leaving Washington, Rice told reporters that fighting terrorism is "a two-way street" and that Europeans are safer for tough but legal U.S. tactics.

Her comments seemed to imply that if any European governments provided secret prisons, they did so willingly.

CBS News correspondent Mark Phillips reported Monday that while denying torture, Rice effectively confirmed the camps do exist and that

foreign governments know about and benefit them (video).

Amnesty International claimed Monday that six planes used by the CIA for renditions have made some 800 flights in or out of European airspace, including 50 landings at Shannon International Airport in Ireland.

El-Masri, 42, was born in Kuwait to Lebanese parents and moved to Germany in 1985. The married father of five said that on New Year's Eve 2003 he boarded a bus in his hometown of Neu-Ulm for a holiday in Macedonia. At the border he was stopped by Macedonian authorities and his passport was confiscated.

He said he was detained by local authorities for 23 days and then handed over to what he believes was a team of CIA operatives. He then was flown to Afghanistan where he was subjected to abuse during four months in captivity.

In late May 2004 he was flown to Albania and then put on a plane back to Germany.