Amnesty interviews a former detainee

On New Year's Eve, 2003, while vacationing in Macedonia, Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent, was kidnapped by the CIA, drugged, tortured, and thrown in a secret prison in Afghanistan. After nearly five months in captivity, the CIA concluded that Masri had no ties to terror organizations, and they released him "on a dark and deserted road near the Albanian border."

Your tax dollars at work.

Since his release, El-Masri has been fighting to end extraordinary renditions and demand an official apology for his mistreatment. Three cases are currently pending: German prosecutors are investigating a criminal case, a German parliamentary committee is looking into the German government's role in the abduction, and Masri, with the help of American Civil Liberties Union attorneys, has filed a civil suit in U.S. courts against former CIA Director George Tenet. The case against Tenet is stalled due to allegations by the defense that a trial would expose "state secrets". But El-Masri isn't about to give up.

The Spring 2007 issue of Amnesty International Magazine features a very interesting interview with El-Masri. In it, El-Masri relates his experiences as well as his insightful thoughts on the Bush administration's tactics in the "war on terror".

Some excerpts:

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I'm not against the idea of state secrets. I'm just saying that I was treated unjustly. I am an innocent man. Everyone knows that. I'm just looking for the American government to confirm that fact. They don't need to expose any state secrets to do that. They just have to say that what happened to me was a mistake-that it's not insignificant that I was treated so unjustly. I don't understand how the government, or its legitimate secrets, could be damaged by such an admission.

[...]

It seems as though my case has made an impact. People and governments in Europe are paying better attention. They've woken up. But it's impossible to say whether the [extraordinary rendition] program is continuing. If they had known what I was going to do after I was released, I would probably still be sitting in prison.

At the end of the day, it's not just about what's happening with my case. It's about what's happening all over the world. In Europe and in America, the executive branch is usurping the balance of powers so that so the courts don't have the power to check the powers of the executive. Then the executive can do whatever he wants. And that's when it gets dangerous.

[...]

There's a permanent war against terror, against Osama bin Laden -- and now every Muslim in every tiny village in the Alps is under suspicion of being a terrorist. That's what really threatens international security: the crimes that are hidden behind these "state secrets." Someone with secret files can put someone in jail just by pointing at him and saying he's dangerous. You would think that something like that could only happen in an absolute, or totalitarian, state. Never in America! America was the symbol of the rule of law.

[...]

If America is going to be in a permanent war, then the government should be honest and say that people no longer have their constitutional rights. But if they continue claiming that they value freedom, then they also have to admit that they can't control people and do with them whatever they want. And that means there will be some amount of insecurity. No one likes insecurity. No one who defends freedom is defending terrorist attacks. But the government shouldn't say it's defending freedom when it's only concerned about security. In fact, the current "security state" in America and Europe leads to paranoia and resentment and creates even more insecurity for a lot of people.

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[Read the complete interview.]

So what do you think? What does the U.S. government owe El-Masri? Financial retribution for his pain and suffering? An apology? Anything? Nothing?