Originally published January 2 2006
U.S. treatment of German prisoner may have softened Rice's stance in latest speech
by Mike Adams, the Health Ranger, NaturalNews Editor
A German named Khaled el-Masri, allegedly taken against his will to Afghanistan and imprisoned there for five months, is the most flagrant example of the CIA's abuse of power, and his story is the likely source of Condoleezza Rice's comment that the U.S. government has made mistakes in its war on terror.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a rare concession to U.S. critics, acknowledged on Tuesday that Washington may make mistakes in its battle against terrorism and promised to put them right if they happened.
But she restated her defense of the legality of U.S. tactics against a militant enemy which "operates from within our society and is intent...
"Any policy will sometimes result in errors, and when it happens, we will do everything we can to rectify it," Rice said at the start of a European tour overshadowed by allegations of illegal CIA methods against terrorist suspects.
Speaking in Berlin, she declined to comment on the case of a German man, Khaled el-Masri, who was allegedly abducted to Afghanistan and imprisoned there for five months last year until the CIA realized it had got the wrong man.
But German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the U.S. government had acknowledged it blundered over Masri, who plans to sue the CIA in a case to be filed in the United States later on Tuesday.
"I'm pleased to say that we spoke about the individual case, which was accepted by the United States as a mistake, and so I'm very pleased the foreign minister (Rice) has reiterated that if mistakes are made, they must immediately be rectified," Merkel told a joint news conference.
Masri's case has caused a furor in Germany, fueled by a U.S. newspaper report that the then interior minister was told of the case in May 2004 and agreed to a request from the U.S. ambassador to keep it quiet.
Rice was not challenged directly over reports the United States had run secret prisons to hold terrorism suspects in eastern Europe, which Washington has refused to confirm or deny.
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