I am not a state secret - Los Angeles Times
Having just lost in court, a CIA kidnap victim asks why the U.S. wont admit its error.
By Khaled El-Masri, a German citizen born in Lebanon.
March 3, 2007
ON NEW YEAR’S EVE in 2003, I was seized at the border of Serbia and Macedonia by Macedonian police who mistakenly believed that I was traveling on a false German passport. I was detained incommunicado for more than three weeks. Then I was handed over to the American Central Intelligence Agency and was stripped, severely beaten, shackled, dressed in a diaper, injected with drugs, chained to the floor of a plane and flown to Afghanistan, where I was imprisoned in a foul dungeon for more than four months.
Long after the American government realized that I was an entirely innocent man, I was blindfolded, put back on a plane, flown to Europe and left on a hilltop in Albania — without any explanation or apology for the nightmare that I had endured.
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Being somewhat dispassionate I suppose one could observe that Mr el-Masri was fortunate to escape with his life; his captors could so easily have just “finished him off”. After all, its not as though they’re answerable or accountable to anyone, is it? The question almost begs to be asked: why in fact didn’t they do that? For at the very least it would have protected them from adverse exposure. Or is their failure to take the obvious course a deliberate act? A very obvious “thumbing of the nose” at the international community? Or a reminder to the world at large of what they can do, and get away with?
For this is just one more tragic and disheartening story in a very long list.
Without doubt America has long ago forfeited any claim to being a civilised nation, observant of human rights and the Rule of Law.
I despair that they continue to exhibit military and economic supremacy, and wait impatiently for the day that some other country will attain a position whereby the excesses of this rogue nation, clearly intent on world domination, may be checked.
Theoretically of course the United Nations should properly fulfill its role and act as a restraining influence, but in reality who can doubt that were it to attempt to do so then America would be as blithely ignoring of its exhortations as it is of the wellbeing, cultures and interests of all other peoples.
Thus (shameful though the admission may be) I now look with eager anticipation to the likes of China, India, or maybe even a renewed and reinvigorated Russia - not that any of them can be held up as a paragon of human rights and the Rule of Law, but at least they’re viable candidates to redress the balance somewhat; it certainly doesn’t seem that the European Union will ever gets its act together sufficiently to aspire to the role of a second “superpower”.
For clearly having just one “superpower” in the world is a state rather less than desirable.
This, perhaps more than anything else, is the most compelling argument there can be for scrapping all idealistic notions of maintaining a nuclear non-proliferation treaty: every nation really should rush to equip itself with a nuclear capability, if for no other reason than to protect itself against this marauding beast. (The sub-text here of course is that America has yet to take on any nation even half-way capable of mounting a credible defence. Its only skirmish with competent opposing military force was World War II - an involvement it sought to avoid, be it noted. Absent that, like the playground bully, its always picked on what it perceived as weak, defenceless or under-equipped opponents. And we all know of course that the playground bully, despite all the brash bravado and swagger, is at heart a coward. The amazing thing is that in most of these conflicts, despite the perceived “weakness” of the opposition, America’s managed to get its arse kicked. What does that tell us, I wonder - aside from the fact that America is clearly unable to learn from its fiascos?)
But maybe there’s hope, even at this late stage. Read this, from the New York Times…
The Must-Do List
Published: March 4, 2007
The Bush administration’s assault on some of the founding principles of American democracy marches onward despite the Democratic victory in the 2006 elections. The new Democratic majorities in Congress can block the sort of noxious measures that the Republican majority rubber-stamped. But preventing new assaults on civil liberties is not nearly enough.
Five years of presidential overreaching and Congressional collaboration continue to exact a high toll in human lives, America’s global reputation and the architecture of democracy. Brutality toward prisoners, and the denial of their human rights, have been institutionalized; unlawful spying on Americans continues; and the courts are being closed to legal challenges of these practices.
It will require forceful steps by this Congress to undo the damage. A few lawmakers are offering bills intended to do just that, but they are only a start. Taking on this task is a moral imperative that will show the world the United States can be tough on terrorism without sacrificing its humanity and the rule of law.
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