Extraordinary rendition, extraordinary incompetence

December 10, 2005

Guest Post by Morbo

You know it’s going to be a bad day when a gang of men dressed entirely in black abduct you, give you an enema, pump you full of sleeping drugs and fly you to Macedonia.

This happened two years ago to a German citizen named Khaled el-Masri. His crime was — well, actually, he wasn’t guilty of anything. He just happens to have a name similar to a terrorist sought by American officials.

As I read about Masri’s ordeal in The Washington Post, I kept waiting for the torture to kick in. I mean, when you’ve gone through all the trouble to abduct a guy, you might as well start the fun stuff right away. Of course the U.S. government did not disappoint me.

Masri, 42, said he was abducted in Macedonia on December 31, 2003, drugged, beaten and then flown to Afghanistan, where he faced more abuse.

With the assistance of the American Civil Liberties Union, Masri has filed legal action against the American government. Reuters reported, “The legal complaint describes his treatment as ‘constituting prolonged arbitrary detention, torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment’ and alleges that the CIA released him five months later by dumping him in Albania.”

During those five months, Masri’s wife had no idea what had happened to him. The CIA officials who held Masri bragged that no one knew where he was, implying that if he should just disappear, no would ever know. Because the CIA insists on running its operations like a bad Nicholas Cage movie, the agents were obviously trying to psyche Masri out so he would tell all.

Oh, that’s right. He had nothing to tell.

In case you’re wondering, here’s what Masri says they did to him, as reported by Reuters:

Masri said that he was repeatedly beaten, kicked, photographed naked and forced to live in a cement cell with a filthy blanket for a bed. He said he was given brackish water to drink and boiled chicken bones to eat.

“When the door was closed, I was beaten from all sides,” Masri said in describing events he says occurred just before he was dragged aboard the plane to Afghanistan. “I was humiliated and I could hear that I was being photographed when I was completely naked … They put chains to my ankles and a sack over my head, just like the pictures I have seen of Guantanamo,” Masri added.

The lawsuit alleges that the CIA kept Masri in detention even after it learned of its mistake. I should note that the U.S. government does not deny the core of his claims. Masri was taken. He was held captive. He was dumped in Albania and later taken home. None of this is in dispute.

The German government is furious. I don’t blame them. And Masri, a Kuwaiti-born German national of Lebanese descent, has become yet another symbol to the Muslim world that the United States’ claims to honor fairness, decency and human rights are hollow.

I’m not a lawyer. I don’t even play one on TV. My guess is that the CIA and the Bush administration will employ all sorts of official secrets acts to squelch the ACLU’s requests for information about what happened to Masri and why. But they could not stop him from telling his story. It’s already out there. I’m not hearing a lot of talk about it, not seeing a lot of outrage.

Could it be that this appalling administration has so shredded what should be our shared sense of outrage that we can no longer stand up and shout, “Enough”?

ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!ENOUGH!

Is that enough “enough” to get this B.S. to stop? I didn’t think so…

  • This is happening,while men die in a phony war,and tax cuts for the rich come out of the mouths of hungry children. This rat bastard is not my president and and his ilk should be made to stand up for the crimes they have commited.The sad thing is they think they are doing God`s work.

  • What I can’t understand is why the people in
    America don’t give a flying eff what this
    goddam administration does. Bush’s ratings
    are rebounding, for Christ sakes.

    Supposedly, they voted for this bastard to
    restore honor, integrity and decency to the
    office of the president.

    It’s unbelievable.

  • Are people too busy working 3 jobs or watching “reality” TV?

    It’s not as if everyone has their heads up their asses. Is this administration so far over the edge that no one will believe it?

  • The guy was released, so, obviously, someone in the CIA feels constrained by some scruples. It is just hard, at this distance, to see what those limits are.

    That’s what is scariest about the Bush Administration. They obviously have some limits, or the scandals, etc., would never happen. They are not thoroughly ruthless. But, the consequence is less a display of core moral integrity than of bumbling about.

    Now, if the rule of law is going to survive the Bush Administration, someone is going to have to find the gumption to prosecute a CIA officer or two.

    I think that where all of this is leading, is a test of the will of the American people to impeach Bush and remove him from office. I expect we will fail that test.

  • As an economist, I read about outrageous rent-seeking behavior all the time, and no one seems to care about it. I guess I can understand that, since most people don’t spend much time thinking about the catfish or soybean markets, for example.

    But this is mind-boggling. I don’t think I have the capacity to do this, but I would like to see someone start a simple petition to oppose torture. I mean, I feel like the government is acting on my behalf and I have no voice to influence their behavior. If someone could start a very simply petition no legalese — stating something like “any prisoners held by the U.S. will be treated no differently than we would expect U.S. POWs to be treated..”, who wouldn’t sign that? It seems like the only way that I can reasonably vocalize my opinion on this, in my opinion, extremely important issue.

  • Birdie, you make a great suggestion. In fact, it’s so great that it’s already been done. It’s called the Geneva Conventions, the United States agreed to them in 1949, and here’s what it says about torture:

    Torture is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions, both in cases of internal conflicts (Convention I, Art. 3, Sec. 1A), wounded combatants (Convention I, Art. 12), civilians in occupied territories (Convention IV, Art. 32), civilians in international conflicts (Protocol I, Art. 75, Sec. 2Ai) and civilians in internal conflicts (Protocol II, Art. 4, Sec. 2A).

    Seems pretty clear to me. I suppose the area of confusion is what constitutes torture. Doesn’t seem like that should be so difficult, but our learned leaders apparently are incapable of using their noggins.

    In addition, John McCain’s amendment hopefully clarifies things a bit.

  • I’m no lawyer either, but is there something like “conspiracy to commit torture”? And isn’t it pretty clear that Cheney has committed it? (assuming it or something like it exists)

    • Comments are closed.