ARD

But, they can't touch the German Courts (yet). The story was the lead today on German TV network's evening news program, Tagesschau. The text, translated by yours truly from the website , follows:

CIA

Arrest warrants issued against 13 suspects

A Munich court has issued arrest warrants against 13 responsible agents of the US secret service CIA because of suspicion of their involvment in the kidnapping and abuse of the German citizen Khaled al Masri. The State Prosecutor for Munich (Part I) disclosed this today in a press conference.

The 13 accused are under strong suspicion of having dragged al Masri off to Afghanistan in 2004. The arrest warrants specify charges of "deprivation of freedom" (which I suspect is similar to our offenses of false arrest, false imprisonment or kidnapping) and of causing severe bodily injury. "Prior revelations made it possible to deduce the (true) names of the accused presented in the arrest warrants - from the cover names of the CIA operatives," explained the lead State prosecutor Christian Schmidt-Sommerfeld.

Because of a legal investigative request directed to the Spanish authorities, it was first made possible in the year 2006 to "investigate concrete(ly identified) persons and make orderly the chronology of the kidnapping," said Schmidt-Sommerfeld. Additional information about these people came from the Milan Prosecutor's office and the counsel to the EU Parliament (Ghost Air)investigator, Dick Marty.

Information from Spain.

The first information came from al Masri's (personal) attorney. In December 2005 he turned over to the State prosecutors a list of names which a Spanish journalist had derived from a report the (Spanish) Guardia Civil (a national police force) had assembled, with (containing) the information that it dealt with the employment of aircraft in which al Masri himself had reported flew him from Macedonia to Afghanistan. The prosecutor said the further analysis concentrated on the investigation of the true identities of the accused.

According to research (revealed first) in the ARD politcal magazine show "Panorama", most of them live in the US state North Carolina. In September 2006 "Panorama" had confronted three of them with the accusations, but the suspects refused all attempts to have them comment.* In three instances the magazine show was successful in finding out the actual addresses and names of the actors**. Once there it dealt with the pilots, who had traveled to Spain under the cover names of [omitted by me], [omitted by me], and [omitted by me].

"Panorama": The covers were simple.

According to Panorama, uncovering the mens' CIA covers proceeded relatively easily. The men were permitted to retain their first names, their birth dates were partly modified with the help of transpositions, and the data for the required Pilot's medical examination was kept mostly complete. They worked openly in North Carolina for the firm Aero Contractors; in one case the work relationship was confirmed. The firm Aero Contractors is publicly known as (for all intents and purposes, factually) a successor firm to Air America, which operated in the 70s as a secret airline for the CIA.

German arrest warrants are not valid in the USA

It is expected arrests of the accused will be difficult to arrange. The German arrest warrants have no validity in the United States, and the US Justice Department has so far rejected and refused to assist the German investigation. Nevertheless, in the event the accused travel to Europe, they can be arrested immediately.