BERLIN, Sept. 21 (UPI) -- German TV journalists have identified three CIA agents involved in the kidnapping of Khaled el-Masri, a German-Lebanese extraordinary rendition victim.

The undercover names of three men currently living in North Carolina were provided by Spanish police, the public TV station NDR said in a statement. UPI held off publishing the names as we could not independently confirm them.


Spanish officials also told the Germans that el-Masri was kidnapped by a team of 13 agents, who flew him in a Boeing 737, flight N313P, from Macedonia to Afghanistan. Earlier they had touched down on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca.

A TV crew from NDR went to the United States to face the agents, who were identified after they had paid with their credit cards for an overnight stay in Mallorca. All three alleged agents declined to comment, but at least one of them works for a company allegedly linked to the CIA and its extraordinary rendition program, which aimed to move terrorist suspects to third countries where they were interrogated and allegedly tortured.

A German Green Party politician has since called on German prosecutors to issue a warrant for the arrest of the men.

El-Masri was hauled off a bus on Dec. 31, 2003. Roughly three weeks later, the CIA flew him to Afghanistan, where he was held for five months in a secret prison and repeatedly abused.

In a testimony to German parliament earlier this year, el-Masri mentioned foot chains, hooded guards and repeated beatings aimed at forcing him to admit that he was a terrorist.

The CIA released him when they found out they had the wrong man -- el-Masri was not the terrorist suspect they were looking for.