Muslim Says He Was Abducted By U.S.

Khaled El-Masri Says He Spent 5 Months In Harsh Captivity In Case Of Mistaken Identity

(CBS)  This article was written by CBS News chief investigative correspondent Armen Keteyian and CBS News producer Phil Hirschkorn.

---

Khaled El-Masri says he is not after money but answers about why he spent five months in harsh captivity as a prisoner in the war on terrorism.

“It’s a question of moral values, of principles. I want to find out why they did to me what they did,” El-Masri told CBS News in an exclusive interview. “I want an explanation, and I want an apology.”

El-Masri, 44, was born in Kuwait to Lebanese parents and lives in Germany, which has been his home for the past 20 years. El-Masri says that two years ago, he was a victim of mistaken identity in the CIA program called "rendition," which transports foreign suspects to countries whose interrogation techniques, critics say, are tantamount to torture, such as Pakistan, Egypt, Jordan, Syria, and Morocco.

“It was difficult from day one on up to the last day. From the very beginning I was fearing for my life,” El-Masri told us.

El-Masri came to the U.S. this week on a special visa to attend a court hearing about his lawsuit against the former director of the CIA, George Tenet, CIA agents whose identities are not known, and the companies that owned and operated the Boeing 737 believed to have transported him – Premier Executive Transport Services, of Massachusetts, and Aero Contractors Limited, of North Carolina, and Keeler and Tate Management, of Nevada.

In addition, CBS News has learned, El-Masri and his attorneys from the ACLU are contemplating suing another major American company, Boeing, because newly available travel records suggest a Boeing subsidiary called Jeppesen International Trip Planning may have arranged El-Masri's rendition flights and many others.

"I have confidence in the American justice systems and its courts," El-Masri said through his translator outside the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond Tuesday. “What I really want is that they admit to me that an injustice was done to me.”

It was New Year's 2004, when El-Masri, a car salesman on a vacation without his wife and children, traveled by bus to Macedonia. At the border, Macedonian police arrested him and then detained him for three weeks in a hotel room in Skopje, allowing him out of the bed only to go to the bathroom.

After 23 days and many questions about his associations in Germany, the base of the main al Qaeda cell behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist hijackings, police took him the Skopje airport. There, El-Masri says, a group of men in black masks beat, blindfolded and drugged him before dragging him in chains onto a private jet bound for Kabul, Afghanistan.

“I was humiliated,” El-Masri told us in the interview. “They took pictures of me without clothes on.”

His home for the next four months was a small, squalid cell in an abandoned brick factory prisoners called the Salt Pit.

“I was deprived of sleep. I only had one blanket in my cell, and these were very cold days in Afghanistan at that time of year,” El-Masri says. “The food and the water were awful. You wouldn’t even give that to your pets.”

After a total of 149 days in captivity, shedding 60 pounds, growing his hair and beard long, El-Masri was freed. This time, he was flown in a private jet to Tirana, Albania, and given a commercial airline ticket back to Germany.

“This mistake could have been resolved early on if these people had called a German authority to clarify that a mistake was made,” El-Masri says.

After filing a complaint with German police, which launched a criminal probe, El-Masri, with the help of the ACLU, filed suit against the CIA and the aviation firms thought to be involved in his rendition.

In May, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia quashed the civil lawsuit seeking compensatory damages by accepting the U.S. government’s argument that a public trial over El-Masri claims would expose "state secrets."

Among the secrets to be protected, government lawyers say, are the identities of operatives at home and abroad, cooperating foreign governments and companies, and intelligence gathering sources and methods.

"Even the unintended disclosure of a single piece of information can have a cascading effect, resulting in widespread harm to foreign intelligence capabilities, our nation's foreign relations, and our national defense,” the government wrote in its briefs opposing reinstatement of El-Masri’s lawsuit. “When the national security conflicts with an individual's interest in pursuing his civil claim, the interests of the individual must give way."

The ACLU counters that the government cannot legitimately keep secret what is already widely known.

"I think courts are beginning to recognize that this administration is using secrecy to avoid accountability," says ACLU attorney Ben Wizner, who argued El-Masri’s appeal Tuesday in Richmond. “The government says that it can never even acknowledge what it did with Mr. El-Masri, and that is further abuse.”

[jumkey]

Oh, so it's "alleged" torture CBS? Thank god he isn't allegedly dead.

The standard for torture is well know and excepted. If the US did it we committed torture.

Ask the *** questions or go into another line of work CBS.

[akarsno]

i just think the goverment of American preaches one thing and do another.
So don't do that if you can;t keep to your word.
Don't tell others how to run their own country.
Just do it yourself with yours!
China is getting bigger than you and they have the largest population in the world.
Be careful if I were you ... as they say the chinese are very sly in doing business in the world. you would never know what goes on in their back yard what with our so called information on spies an what not ... when we cannot even get our facts right about anything now a days or proper information on terrorist that is wanting to hurt us.
We keep giving china the trades in anything.

[feelfree1]

Wile we already know of people that have been tortured TO DEATH at the hands of U.S. agents, the Western media continues to treat this subject as if the existence of U.S. sponsored torture operations remain in question.

www.truthout.org/cgi-bin/artman/exec/view.cgi/37/9641/printer

The Nazis were found guilty at Nuremberg for remarkably similar actions as are being taken by the illegitimate Bush regime. Many of the top Nazi leaders were convicted and sentenced to hanging for their deeds.

The U.S. government is Constitutionally bound to abide by any and all international treaties of which the U.S. is a signatory. The Nuremberg Charter is one such treaty.

I look forward to the day that Cheney, Wolfowitz, Perle, Feith, Wurmser, Kristol, Kagan, Rumsfeld, Rice, Gonzales, Ashcroft, Baker, and the rest of the putrid criminals that have hijacked our government, and so deeply disgraced our nation, are finally held to account for their many heinously criminal and anti-human acts.

The world will rejoice on that day.

[akarsno]

Soon one day ... we won't be the greatest nation in the world, god only knows what kind of super artillery the chinese have. We as usual are always bragging what new tchnologies we have and to sell.
Like I said ... better to watch out backs before we become second best instead of number one.
I always like to think America are the good guys in any situation and it is the land of dreams but don't let our greed get in the way.
And lets get back to basic that what made the constituition stand for what it is.

[ketch65]

In May, a federal judge in Alexandria, Virginia quashed the civil lawsuit seeking compensatory damages by accepting the U.S. government%u2019s argument that a public trial over El-Masri claims would expose "state secrets."

No, the thing is, they have admitted having these secret torture bases already, all they have to do, is say "yes this man was a "guest" at one of these places" and "yes he was interogated" and then that's it, they have admitted what he wants admitted, not all the relative secrets to their locales, etc.

Among the secrets to be protected, government lawyers say, are the identities of operatives at home and abroad, cooperating foreign governments and companies, and intelligence gathering sources and methods.

I didn't know he wanted all the exposed, I thought he wanted an apology and the government to admit he is one of the multitudes falsey terrorized by terroist seeking terrorists.

"Extraordinary rendition" is not just one crime - it's a series of crimes involving kidnapping, torture and even murder at times.

It should be pointed out that it wasn't Bush who introduced "extraordinary rendition", but Clinton.

As far as I'm concerned, Clinton and Bush both need to be held accountable for the crimes collectively referred to as "extraordinary rendition".

The US Government has virtually admitted torturing El-Masri by stating that they would be giving away State secrets should it go to trial.

Bush should be held accountable - and all those Governments involved should also be held accountable.

[feelfree1]

mcdazz, 12:04 AM : Nov 29, 2006

I agree completely. Very good.

[ketch65]

"Extraordinary rendition" is not just one crime - it's a series of crimes involving kidnapping, torture and even murder at times.

if they do capture lots of innocent people, soon they'll have to kill them to hide the evidence of torturing innocent people,,,

imagine all those people,,,,

[book54552134]

The issue of whether US officials have tortured prisoners or rendered them to 3rd parties for that practice is no longer in question. The question that remains is how far up these directives came from & whether any US officials involved in such war crimes will ever be held accountable. Much will depend upon whether the Democratic Congress will uphold changes in the War Crimes Act of 1996 which was revised by the present Republican Congress (at the direction of the Bush Administration) in order to hold US officals legally blameless for war crimes they committed under direction of the Bush Administration. We shall see if Democrats uphold this travesty of justice or whether their moral ideals are higher than the legislative corruption we have seen recently from Republicans in regard to this issue. Torture & rendition for that purpose is a war crime - pure & simple.

Accountability is what is needed.

Bush needs to be put on trial, and if he is found guilty, punished appropriately.

I suggest that he be subjected to "extraordinary rendition".

The punishment would be fitting.

The CIA is another word for legal terror

[grumpas]

Regardless of who started this deplorable practice. We need to insist our leaders get away from it. It reminds me to much of the old Soviet Union. Where people disappeared for years and were lucky they were ever seen again! I don't think when all is said and done it does anything to combat terrorism! In fact, in might well aid it! So many practices like this do play into the enemy! It goes against everything we as a nation are supposed to stand for.

[frankly6]

We have become an enemy of freedom to defeat one.

[dubdub32]

BUSH should get the same treatment that Nixon got even though Nixon was a piker compared to our glorious dictator....then, he should be exported to Iraq so that he could receive his rendition by the people who love him dearly

[Syndicate]

I think I would rather be a prisoner in American custody than in al queda custody.

[bluestardad]

Baghdad Bob has been brought in to help the Bush Administration and is working behind the scene to help Tony Snow polish up his presentation. It is also rumored that good ole Bob is being considered for employment on Fox News Channel.

[random_radar]

This is nothing new. America has a long tradition. Remember the Salem witch trials?

[mrpete8-2009]

Awh you bunch of liberal bed wetters. This kind of stuff was happening well before Bush took office. You're just now privy to the information.
I'm gald we have a silent force to keep us safe.

[jchope2]

Watch out US citizens, with what was signed into law last month, the CIA will be treating us the same way. We will suddenly be "raptured" and nobody will know where we went. We will be tortured and probably killed, because the CIA won't want another stain on their reputation.

I agree, our government officials should be put on trial just as the Nazis were for their crimes against humanity.

[antoniof123]

I am trying to figure out if this is just a dream and is funny. The problem is it is real and we can not just wake up from this nightmare. When can we hang them and just get it over with. A country that did not attack us and did not even have the means to do so people who are not guilty of anything with no way to get any recourse. I say send these clowns to Germany and let them hang them once and for all we need to send a single to our government officials you will pay the price and nothing can save you from that.

[antoniof123]

I am trying to figure out if this is just a dream and is funny. The problem is it is real and we can not just wake up from this nightmare. When can we hang them and just get it over with. A country that did not attack us and did not even have the means to do so people who are not guilty of anything with no way to get any recourse. I say send these clowns to Germany and let them hang them once and for all we need to send a single to our government officials you will pay the price and nothing can save you from that.

[sciselia]

ii think this is totally and completely BULL $hit

[sy2502]

Cbscrash07 and mrpete8 seem to forget that the person in the story was not a terrorist, and didn't represent a threat to anybody. Yet he was taken away from his family, and held against his will in inhumane conditions without the possibility to defend himeself against accusations. In America we have the Bill of Rights to ensure that. Would you like to just disappear one day, like that? When they torture you to make you confess you are a terrorist and get information out of you, are you going to tell them what a good job they are doing to keep your country safe, even though they have the wrong person?
It is easy to condone these actions when they happen to someone else...

[pakaal]

If you're tired of bushrocks1 posting the same comment over and over again, do what I do; click on the "report this comment" link and make a complaint to CBS about this SPAM.

[themooniac]

As a Democrat let me offer a settlement to this guy: A first class ticket to Iran. This article does'nt even backround this guys poor little ol me tale at all. See www.Worldpoliticswatch.com. "Is Khaled Al-Masri lying?" for the in depth background. http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=348

[pakaal]

mrpete8, you said "I'm gald we have a silent force to keep us safe."

Could you tell me what's silent about being plastered on front-page news across the world? It's mistakes like this that cause covert activities to be publicized; saying we're now "privy to the information" is grossly inaccurate. You can't really believe the CIA wanted the world to know about their activities do you?

I don't know how the chain of command works in the CIA, but the last few years of extraordinary renditions, torture, secret flights, etc., have seemed just a little too public for my taste. Maybe it's because we're grabbing people right and left without confirming they're who we want to grab? Sounds like Bush Administration policy right there.

[pakaal]

themooniac, the main problem with your argument about Khaled El-Masri being suspected of being a terrorist (from the article you posted the link to, I presume), is that the whole point of this story is there's a REAL terrorist named Khaled al-Masri ("al" with an "a", not "el" with an "e") who is NOT this man. The rest of the article you posted the link to is correct, but they fail to point out that the terrorist al-Masri was seen while El-Masri was in detention.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khalid_al-Masri

[huskerarmy]

Bushrocks1,

The objective of your post has now been rendered powerless by your obsessive spaming. You have now also removed all doubt about your mental condition. You are welcome to join us back here in the reality based community. Otherwise, thanks for exposing yourself for the fruitcake that you undoubtedly are.

[themooniac]

Pakaal: is it it El- Masri or Al-Masri? is it Osama bin Laden or Usama bin Laden. They got the right guy, semantics wont help excuse this guy. Is my hispanic friends name Jorge or George? Am I Tomas or Thomas. Hiding behind semantics?

[sim828524s]

Will every please stop talking about this.

Look lets just pretend we don't know anything about what happen to this guy, and lets just sweep it under the rug ok.

If we can just ignore it, it might go away

[grazinggoat]

Would I send my wife to this war? You might ask would I send her to WW-II? Or Vietnam? Maybe you would distinguish those conflicts and whether you would send your wife to fight in them. But that question is directed in a very important way: I cannot command my wife, she does me. I have no choice. So the better question would be: would I, BushDucks21, volunteer to fight in Iraq, WW II, Vietnam? Would I volunteer BushDucks21 to fight in any war? Respond if drafted? I don%u2019t know. To a hypothetical question, I can answer, NO. And I have nightmares of battle (from my past life as a Hamburgerbite). So how do I feel toward those who do volunteer? Impressed and maturely knowing that many things go into their decision. But I do strongly believe that a country that can't find those women is doomed. The fact that we can find them is one reason why I say there is a failure in Iraq. Objectively, I also believe it for other reasons. An attempt to establish theocracy in the Middle East is a poor, ailing, dispecable effort, for sure a failure. That's why I greatly disrespect and shame those who have made the attempt--the Walkig-Liar administration. They have been resolute, something I have not seen in my lifetime. They may not succeed, for reasons within their control or fault: traitors on the home front being a big one. Now we traitors have apparently occupied the high ground. Yet... we're still in Iraq. Why?...I'm waiting, and for longtime.
bushducks1

[tj1504]

LONDON -- The head of the British Security Service (MI5), Eliza Manningham-Buller, who rarely makes public pronouncements, rattled off some chilling statistics Thursday about the Islamist terrorist threat to Britain. The service, she said, is investigating at least 30 top-priority terror plots.

Under surveillance are about 200 groups or networks, comprising more then 1,600 individuals "who are actively engaged in plotting or facilitating terrorist acts here or overseas," she said in a speech at Queen Mary College, London.

[tj1504]

there are no rules .... we are still at risk....

[tj1504]

http://www.worldpoliticswatch.com/article.aspx?id=335

[tj1504]

In what the London Daily Telegraph newspaper called, "the starkest assessment yet of the dangers facing Britain," Manningham-Buller said Islamist militants with ties with al-Qaida are "grooming" young teenagers "to be suicide bombers." She conceded that British involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan respectively were seen as anti-Muslim, despite the government's efforts to dispel this view, and this perception has played into the hands of fundamentalist recruiters.

[tj1504]

"It should take more to make peace than to prevent war. The sword once drawn, full justice must be done. 'Indemnification for the past and security for the future,' should be painted on our banners." --Thomas Jefferson to Robert Wright, 1812. ME 13:184