Tuesday, December 06, 2005

The ACLU: Trying to make life better for terrorists too!

This is going to open a huge can of worms...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A German man sued former CIA Director George Tenet and other U.S. spy agency officials on Tuesday for wrongful imprisonment, mounting a legal challenge against one of the CIA's most prominent tactics in Washington's declared war on terrorism.

The suit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union on behalf of Khaled el-Masri claims that in 2003 he became the innocent victim of a CIA tactic known as extraordinary rendition, ACLU and court officials said.

Under this practice, terror suspects are captured and flown to other countries for interrogation, and human rights advocates say suspects often wind up being tortured in countries in the Middle East and other regions.

The suit was filed as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited Germany amid a European uproar over CIA detainee practices, fueled by a Washington Post report last month that the agency operates secret prisons in eastern Europe.

Masri spoke at an ACLU news conference in Washington via a satellite video link from Stuttgart, Germany, after he was denied entry to the United States on Saturday night in Atlanta. ACLU officials said he was put on the first available flight back to Germany.

The suit, which the ACLU called the first legal challenge of the CIA's rendition program, charges that Tenet and other CIA officials violated U.S. and universal human rights laws and they authorized agents to kidnap Masri.


And this is why the world hates us? Because we allow former suspected terrorists to sue us? Where else in the world can you find that?