Zarq is left speechless about a CIA rendition story in the Washington Post.

Wrongful Imprisonment: Anatomy of a CIA Mistake

He writes: We held a German citizen illegally for 5 months because someone thought he might be an Al Qaeda operative. Then, we returned him. He’s suing the government (ours, not theirs,) alleging torture and abuse. An interesting look at how the CIA handles its own mistakes, when no oversight group exists to make sure they comport themselves appropriately.

I've decided not to spread too much of my devil's advocate view on his journal, but I've put my thoughts here:

Just for the record, Khaled el-Masri is not accusing the US Government of torture. I've read several articles all which talk about "the case", but it seems to be more of an investigation by German prosecutors into what happened as opposed to Mr. Masri suing anyone at this point. At this point they seem most concerned with a potential cover-up by German politicians who were told of the abduction by the US.

What is interesting to me is that this is obviously a co-ordinated attempt by the German prosecutors (and the Washington Post?) to embarrass Secretary of State Rice as she visits Germany tomorrow. This is especially odd since an April article in the NY Times referred to Rice's demands that he be released, over the objections of the CIA and others.

Why do I think this is a vast left-wing conspiracy? Becuase the events took place over a year and a half ago - and they were reported numerous times in the American and German media since at least January of this year. Why all the fuss now?