CIA pilots identified in German citizens rendition by German Press and TV

Journalists from German TV station ARD program "Panorama," have publicised the identities of three alleged CIA pilots, US citizens who live in North Carolina, who were involved in the kidnap of German citizen Khaled el-Masri (Masr), who was imprisoned in Afghanistan.

CIA agents allegedly used the Spanish island of Majorca as a hub between flights presumably organized to abduct and transport terrorist suspects in Europe, Africa and Afghanistan.Three of the pilots apparently used the false names Eric Fain, James Fairing and Kirk James Bird when staying at a hotel on the island. Spanish authorities were able to identify the three, because personnel at the hotel where they stayed on Mallorca made photocopies of their passports containing their pictures.

All three are said to have "Worked" for the North Carolina-based Aero Contractors company which iit has been claimed many times is a CIA front organisation.

One of those rendition flights landed in Macedonia. There, CIA agents allegedly beat and abducted German citizen Khaled el-Masri -- who was on vacation -- on Jan. 23, 2004 and took him to a US-run prison in Afghanistan. They also imprisoned an Ethiopian man named Binyam Mohamed. Both of them, the agents claimed, had connections to the terrorist organization al Qaeda.

El-Masri was not released until five months later - being kicked out of a car on a deserted Albanian road. During that time, CIA specialists apparently tried to break the will of the prisoners by playing music so loud, that one of his eardrums burst, el-Masri said. It is of interest that the interrogators repeatedly asked him about a group of Islamic extremists in Neu-Ulm and about Egyptian-born German Reda Seyam.

The daily Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that Spanish police were able to track some of the CIA's pilots who are believed to have stayed in normal hotels on Mallorca. They registered under aliases and used diplomats' passports.Süddeutsche Zeitung wondered why German legal authorities have been so hesitant about pursuing the matter.

"If the suspects involved were from Libya, then prosecutors would have ordered their arrest a long time ago," Green party politician Hans-Christian Ströbele told the paper.

Spanish police discovered the names of the suspects in spring 2005. A Spanish journalist passed on the information to el-Masri's attorney, Manfred Gnjidic, who turned the list over to German prosecutors in December 2005, the Süddeutsche Zeitung reported.

El-Masri's attorney, has requested that German prosecuting attorneys start preliminary proceedings against the alleged kidnappers now that their identities are known. The Munich-based State prosecutor responsible for the case, August Stern, claims more information was necessary before legal action could begin.Prosecutor August Stern of Munich said he had requested information to no avail from Macedonia, Albania and the United States. Without their help, he could not solve the case.

El-Masri sued former CIA chief (FT story) George Tenet and other officials, but the case was dismissed by a US court in May. It ruled that a trail could compromise US security by disclosing secret information but added that if his story were true, el-Masri was entitled to "a remedy" from the US administration. (He was denied entry to the US)

It has been reported in Berliner Zeitung were told by unnamed German security official that ''It is possible that information we exchanged with the US authorities alerted the CIA to Masri,"

He said German authorities passed on information about Masri because he knew Reda Seyam, a German-based Islamist radical who was of interest to the Americans and is under investigation in Germany as a suspected supporter of a terrorist organization.

In Berlin on December the 6th (see FT story above link) Condoleezza Rice, variously described as the US Secretary of State, said renditions were an important tool that had saved lives. In a rare admission, however, she acknowledged that, " the US might have made mistakes." So that's alright then.

Pic from Der Speigel of Egyptian born german citizen, Reda Sayam being arrested in Indonesia before being extradited to Germany..for more on his activities in Germany read this story in Der Speigel