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Letter to Secretary Rice Letter to DHS and Secretary Rice |
NEW YORK -- The American Civil Liberties Union today sent letters to
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael
Chertoff seeking confirmation that Khalid El-Masri, an innocent German citizen
victimized by the CIA’s policy of "extraordinary rendition," is eligible to
enter the United States. El-Masri was denied entry into the U.S. at Hartsfield
International Airport in Atlanta on Saturday, December 3, 2005 without
explanation.
"Mr. El-Masri had a simple goal, to tell his story directly to
the American people," said Steven Watt, the ACLU's senior human rights advisor
on the case. "He was victimized by an American policy, and the American people
deserve to hear directly from him the impact of their government’s
actions."
El-Masri was traveling to the U.S. to file a lawsuit with the ACLU
against former CIA director George Tenet. The lawsuit charges that Tenet and
other CIA officials violated U.S. and universal human rights laws when they
authorized agents to kidnap El-Masri, and that his unlawful abduction and
treatment was the direct result of an illegal CIA policy known as "extraordinary
rendition."
The letter was sent in the wake of numerous news reports that
the United States, subsequent to the publicity generated by the filing of the
lawsuit, assured the German government that El-Masri will be permitted to enter
the U.S. in the future. It seeks "written assurances, that Mr. El-Masri will be
allowed to enter the United States in the future without incident."
The ACLU
also sent a second letter to Secretary Rice seeking confirmation of reports that
she "offer(ed) the German government an official apology on behalf of the United
States government for the unlawful abduction and detention of Mr.
El-Masri."
"We are trying to get to the bottom of this," said Ann Beeson,
Associate Legal Director of the ACLU. "Was an official apology made, and if so
would Secretary Rice be willing to make a similar apology directly to the
victim?"
El-Masri has said that what he would like from the lawsuit is "an
acknowledgement that the CIA is responsible for what happened to me, an
explanation as to why this happened, and an apology."
The lawsuit, El-Masri
v. Tenet, was filed December 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern
District of Virginia.
El-Masri is represented by Ann Beeson, Ben Wizner and
Melissa Goodman of the ACLU National Legal Department, Paul Hoffman of Schonbrun
DeSimone Seplow Harris & Hoffman, LLP, Rebecca Glenberg of the ACLU of
Virginia, and Victor Glasberg of Victor M. Glasberg & Associates.
More information about the case is available online at: www.aclu.org/rendition