US "Rendition" of Khaled el-Masri:

CIA Received German File on German Captive

Reuters 17dec2005

Update 31 Jan 2007: 
Germany Orders Arrest of 13 CIA Operatives in Kidnapping of Khaled el-Masri

A German intelligence officer gave a CIA counterpart a file about a German citizen the United States was holding as a terrorist suspect in Afghanistan in early 2004, a German magazine said on Saturday.

Khaled el-Masri Also see the statement by Mr. el-Masri on his "rendition."

The report, if true, could undermine the government's assertion that Germany played no role in and knew nothing about the abduction of Khaled el-Masri, who is suing the former CIA chief and others for wrongful imprisonment and torture.

Focus magazine said a German working in the Bavarian state intelligence office gave the dossier on Masri to a Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) liaison officer in April 2004, when Masri says he was being held.

A Bavarian interior ministry spokesman said on Saturday it was not true. "The state office gave no information about Khaled el-Masri to the CIA," the spokesman quoted the office's deputy chief Franz Gruber as saying.

Focus reported that the CIA officer contacted the Munich-based German officer a few days before the two met, saying: "We have el-Masri," asking for information on him.

The Bavarian intelligence office was monitoring Masri because he lived in Neu-Ulm, a town in the state.

A German security official told Reuters that Masri appeared to be a minor player on the fringes of the Islamist scene.

Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Wednesday he was "nauseated" by reports suggesting that Germany may have facilitated Masri's abduction at the end of 2003 by feeding information on him to the United States.

"Let me make it clear: the government and (security services) did not aid and abet the abduction of German citizen el-Masri," Steinmeier told parliament.

Steinmeier, describing the case as a possible crime, said the German government found out about the Masri abduction only after his release.

Separately, German Interior Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble confirmed for the first time his predecessor was briefed on the affair in 2004 by then U.S. ambassador to Berlin, Daniel Coats.

"(The ambassador) said they had apologised to him (Masri), had agreed to keep quiet about it and had paid him money," Schaeuble told parliament.

Masri, seized in Macedonia on December 31, 2003, and held in an Afghan jail until late May 2004, has denied he took any money.

In a U.S. lawsuit against ex-CIA director George Tenet and other unnamed officials, Masri is seeking compensation of at least $75,000, plus "punitive and exemplary damages" and legal fees.

The case has caused a political storm in Germany, with the government under pressure to demand a full explanation from Washington and clarify when German officials were told of the case and what they did about it.

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051217/ts_nm/security_germany_usa_dc&printer=1;_ylt=AlQRFEBrC.OZKChQ8pBFJ4hg.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTA3MXN1bHE0BHNlYwN0bWE- 17dec2005