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Ear to the Ground

German Government Abandoned Citizen at Gitmo

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Posted on Jan 26, 2007
Murat Kurnaz
politikforum.de

Germans are outraged over the emergence of documents that suggest a government official allowed an innocent German citizen to remain in Guantanamo for years after the United States offered to repatriate him.

Los Angeles Times:

The case began in 2001 when Murat Kurnaz, a German-born Turk, was arrested in Pakistan on suspicion of being a militant. He was transferred to Afghanistan, where he says American interrogators hung him from chains. He was sent to Guantanamo and held there until last August, when he was released.

He was never charged with a crime.

Intelligence documents cited by German media suggest Kurnaz, a 24-year-old shipbuilder, could have been freed years earlier.

The files indicate that the CIA offered to release Kurnaz and return him to Germany in 2002. One German intelligence operative noted that Kurnaz might be persuaded to turn informer and infiltrate radical Islamic networks. At the time Kurnaz’s fate was being decided, Steinmeier oversaw German spy agencies as chief of staff to then-Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder.

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By Josh in Berlin, February 17, 2007 at 10:19 am #
(Unregistered commenter)

He is NOT a German citizen.
Still, the German government should have acted in a better way:
http://atlanticreview.org/archives/598-Twists-and-Turn s-in-the-Murat-Kurnaz-Affair.html

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By Lefty, January 27, 2007 at 8:48 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

I utterly detest and oppose the Bush/Cheney/Gonzalez practice of indefinite detention and torture of suspects without charges or due process.  It should only happen to them.  But, my first question is: exactly what was a German of Turkish descent doing in Afghanistan in 2001?

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By clockwork, January 27, 2007 at 7:36 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

“It is time for the left to pick up guns.”

The left wants to get rid of our guns idiot.

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By Spinoza, January 26, 2007 at 8:25 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Their is a tendency for ALL officialdom to act in a manner inimical to the best interests of the individual and humanity. The hypocritical liberal Schoeder is no better than a died in the wool reactionary.

Today I caught some words of a conversation on NPR, it was something to the effect that “nice guys finish last” “Yes, nice guys finish last”.  I think it was about a study that showed that people who are more belligerent usually are winners. It is time for the left to pick up guns.

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By trantieungoc, January 26, 2007 at 6:31 pm #
(Unregistered commenter)

Germany government doesn’t want its GOD (Bush/Cheney) mad. The slave’s fate is always going down to this dead end alley.

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