Rendition flights hound Rice

With news that a German citizen was "taken" by the CIA and held for five months in Afghanistan, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has a lot of explaining to do on her European tour. From SPIEGEL ONLINE: Berlin's Double Standards in Terror War German ministers past and present are fast becoming embroiled in an affair over how much they knew about the CIA's kidnapping and detention of terrorism suspects. Some newspaper commentators smell a cover-up in Berlin and are demanding that the government stops its stonewalling. The German press is responding with a mixture of indignation and disgust to a Washington Post report that the former German interior minister, Otto Schily, was informed by the United States in May 2004 about the case of a Lebanese-born German citizen whom the CIA mistook for an al-Qaida terrorist and held for five months before quietly letting him go. Schily obeyed a US request to remain silent on the matter -- the height of hypocrisy, say German newspapers, especially for a government that prided itself on its public, and very popular, opposition to US policies in the war on terror. One of the big questions now is whether the affair will engulf Angela Merkel's new government which took power in November. After all, her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was chief of staff to the former chancellor, Gerhard Schröder. Commentators are asking how much Steinmeier knew. From BBC CIA jail claim dogs Rice's Europe tour By Jonathan Beale BBC News, Washington US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has worked hard at repairing America's relations with Europe following the Iraq war. But once again the strains are showing. Her first meeting with Germany's new Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday had been meant to mark a dramatic improvement in US-German ties. But Germany's opposition parties are demanding an investigation into claims that more 400 CIA flights used German airspace. The suspicion is that some may have been used to transport terrorist suspects to secret prisons for interrogation. The issue will follow Ms Rice as she moves on to Bucharest later in the week. Romania is one of the countries that human rights activists believed housed a CIA secret prison - a charge the Romanian government denies. Questions will continue to pursue her from Kiev to Brussels. The European Commission has warned that any member guilty of breaking international law risks losing voting rights. Britain - which currently holds the EU presidency - has asked the US for "clarification". From BBC Man sues CIA over torture claims A man who says he was a victim of the CIA's alleged secret prisons is suing its former chief over torture claims. Khaled al-Masri says he was kidnapped in 2003 while on holiday in Macedonia, flown to Afghanistan and mistreated. His is a rare legal challenge to the US policy of "extraordinary rendition" - flying suspects to third countries without judicial process. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this week the US does not practice or condone torture. Human rights groups say extraordinary rendition is a violation of international law. The US maintains that all such operations are conducted within the law. The case was discussed earlier in Berlin by the German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, and Secretary of State Rice. Mrs Merkel said the US acknowledged making a mistake in detaining Mr Masri. While refusing to comment on the case directly, Ms Rice said the US sought to rectify any mistakes made. Both told reporters that intelligence work was an essential part of the war on terror, but should not break international law. Before she left the US, Ms Rice admitted that terror suspects were flown abroad for interrogation but denied they were tortured. She said suspects were moved by plane under a process known as rendition, and that this was "a lawful weapon".