US Fesses Up On el-Masri - But Now What?

US officials have finally admitted that the amazing story of Khaled el-Masri is actually true. This story confirms all the worst fears of so-called "Conspiracy Theorists".

For those not familiar with the case: Khaled el-Masri, 41, a car salesman who lives in Ulm, Germany, was taken from a bus on the Serbian-Macedonian border on Dec. 31, 2003. He was flown on a C.I.A.-chartered plane to an Afghan prison where he was shackled, beaten, photographed nude and injected with drugs by interrogators who pressed him to reveal ties to Al Qaeda. He was then taken to Albania on another CIA flight, where he was dumped on an empty country road in the middle of the night. When he finally made his way back home, even el-Masri admitted that his story sounded too bizarre to be true.

But it is true. And it turns out that all this happened because el-Masri's name is SIMILAR to one on a terrorist list! Thank Gawd my parents didn't call me Osama, ya know what I'm saying?

New revelations from NBC show that el-Mazri was held in an Afghan prison called "the Salt Pit" for 5 months, even after US officials realised he was innocent, and despite high-level meetings involving CIA Director George Tenet. It seems el-Mazri was only released after Condi Rice personally intervened. Yet it still took two orders from Rice before he was set free (why two?).

This case raises all kinds of questions that must now finally be answered. As the NYT says:

The disclosure of the decision to free Mr. Masri shed new light on the transfer of suspected Qaeda operatives around the world. Until now, it was believed that the transfers were carried out by the C.I.A. under presidential directives issued after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Ms. Rice's involvement suggests that the White House may have played a more hands-on role than was previously known.

Well... duh! Demand answers on this one, folks. It's not just a "conspiracy theory" any more. If they get away with this, they can get away with anything.

Write to your congressmen, newspapers, friends... Here's a good place to start your letters:

A US human rights group has demanded a special prosecutor investigate US Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, former CIA director George Tenet and other top officials for possible war crimes related to the torture and abuse of prisoners.

Nearly a year after photos of abuse at Abu Ghraib prison shocked the world, more than half a dozen official investigations have resulted only in prosecutions of lower ranking soldiers, Human Rights Watch said in a report released under the title "Getting Away with Torture?".

"The evidence demands more," the report said.

"Yet a wall of impunity surrounds the architects of the policies responsible for the larger pattern of abuses."

The report argues that the evidence indicates that decisions and policies made by Mr Rumsfeld and other high-ranking officials facilitated widespread abuse of prisoners in violation of US and international law, notably the Geneva Conventions.

It cited mounting evidence that they knew or should have known violations took place, and failed to act to stem the abuse, making them legally liable for the actions of subordinates further down the chain of command.

Besides Mr Rumsfeld, the report cites Mr Tenet; Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez, the former US commander in Iraq; and Major General Geoffrey Miller, the former commander of a military-run detention centre in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The known evidence, the report said, "already makes a compelling case for a thorough, genuinely independent investigation of what top officials did, what they knew and how they responded when they became aware of the widespread nature of the abuses."

It called for the appointment of a special prosecutor on grounds that Attorney-General Alberto Gonzalez was himself deeply involved in devising the policies that led to the abuse, and thus had a conflict of interest.

It also called on the US Congress and the President to establish a special commission to investigate the matter, and name a special prosecutor if Mr Gonzalez has not already done so.

At least seven investigations have been conducted since the Abu Ghraib scandal broke.

Human Rights Watch said all but one was conducted by the military on itself, and none examined the role of senior civilian leaders.

The CIA also is reported to have conducted internal inquiries but no details have been made public.

The report highlights Mr Rumsfeld's role in approving coercive interrogation techniques in December 2002 for use only on prisoners in Guantanamo - including the use of dogs to incite fear, "stress" positions, and the stripping of detainees - which later migrated to Afghanistan and Iraq.

Mr Rumsfeld rescinded the approval for the use of the techniques January 15 after the Navy's general counsel objected.

The US commander in Iraq later apparently drew on the list in devising his own interrogation guidelines in Iraq in September 15, 2003, which itself was later rescinded.

On the CIA, the report said Mr Tenet was potentially legally liable for a policy of sending prisoners to countries that routinely practiced torture for detention and interrogations.

Between 100 and 150 prisoners have been "rendered" to governments in the Middle East such as Egypt and Syria, and "there is now credible evidence that rendered detainees have in fact been tortured," it said.

The report said the CIA continues to hold some prisoners in prolonged incommunicado detention in secret locations with no oversight and no access to the International Committee of the Red Cross.

Demand answers. Just don't hold your breath waiting for Hollywood to turn this astounding story into an international blockbuster!