Accountability is dead, long live U.S. terrorism

I should stop reading the New York Times. It tells me things I'd be happier not knowing.

Khaled el-Masri is a German citizen who clains he was detained by Macedonian law enforcement officials who kept him in custody for 23 days. At that time he was handed over to CIA operatives and flown to a prison in Kabul, Afghanistan. Herr el-Masri claims he was held for over a year, beaten, drugged and shackled in a squalid cell for ties to al-Qaeda that did not exist. He is believed to be the victim of a mistaken identity; apparently, when the CIA discovered they were wating their time, they set him loose in Albania.  These events took place from January of 2003 to May of 2004. Since then, el-Masri has been embroiled in a legal battle for his human rights.

Arrest warrants have been issued in Germany for the CIA operatives that are believed to have been involved. It's not likely the the government will hand them over, obviously; such a thing would be detrimental for a covert operative's life, as all of us know from the Valerie Plame business. But the current situation, if resolved by this Supreme Court decision, is completely unacceptable.

The CIA obviously won't admit kidnapping el-Masri, but there's some evidence to prove it. That's not the issue. The High Court won't hear the case because doing so would expose "state secrets." Somebody explain this to my little dinosaur brain. If el-Masri proves that what he says is true, then that's it. The government pays him a (highly substantial) sum to make amends, which is generally the procedure. Often an official apology comes along with the deal.

But don't think that I'm as angry as I could be about this story. Not yet. If things go badly I will be truly incensed. Because what needs to happen, and what should probably have happened a while ago, is simple: This case needs to be referred to an international criminal court. A U.N. court needs to look at the case and determine if this man's human rights have been violated, which they most certainly have. I quote from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

Article 5. No one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.

Article 9. No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile. [el-Masri was never charged with any crime while imprisoned.]

Article 30. [The most important thing written by the U.N. ever.] Nothing in this Declaration may be interpreted as implying for any
State, group or person any right to engage in any activity or to
perform any act aimed at the destruction of any of the rights and
freedoms set forth herein.

Did you get all that? I did, but I had to write a paper on human rights in my sophomore year. Silly China.

My point is this, folks: el-Masri has endured two separate infringements on his civil rights. Not only that, but he endured them for a full year, endured them in degrading conditions, and endured them at the hands of a country that was founded on respect for humans. R-e-s-p-e-c-t. Tell me what it means to George Bush and the CIA? Absolutely nothing, it would seem.

What the CIA did here was wrong. Wrong from a moral standpoint and also from a legal standpoint. This threatens relations between the States and sunny Deutschland, but I'm terribly sorry. This is by far not an isolated incident. Look at Gitmo. If half the things we're told are true, the United States is carrying out a vendetta against anyone that has ever looked at a terrorist without regard for justice, the law, or any code of ethics known to civilized man. 

I'm still not angry, my friends. What I am is sickened and repulsed by what my country has stooped to. The policies of Geroge "Look What I Can Do" Bush have made a mockery of everything that I love and everything that our country has ever stood for. This is a police state, ladies and gentlemen, and I am ashamed.