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Europeans Probe Secret CIA Flights
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Eberhard Bayer, a German prosecutor in the city of Zweibruecken, said he had opened a criminal investigation into whether CIA operatives were guilty of kidnapping, illegal restraint or coercion in the case of Hassan Mustafa Osama Nasr, the cleric who was secretly brought to nearby Ramstein Air Base from Milan in February 2003 en route to Egypt.
Bayer said he had few leads to go on and did not know the identities of any of the Americans who allegedly had custody of Nasr while he was in Germany. He said he had queried U.S. military authorities at Ramstein.
"Now we must wait for a response, which we may not receive," he acknowledged in a telephone interview Wednesday. "If it is true that these are CIA people, I can hardly imagine that the CIA would allow its people to be extradited."
The CIA declined to comment for this report. CIA and other U.S. officials have said they carry out such operations only in countries that are political allies and whose intelligence officials grant permission.
Daniel Fried, the State Department's assistant secretary for European affairs, said Monday during a visit to Berlin that he had not heard many complaints from European officials about the CIA's anti-terrorism operations in Europe.
"It is true that these issues are debated in Europe; they are debated in the United States as well," Fried said in response to a question about the reported CIA secret jails and prisoner transfers. "The U.S. has acted and will act consistent with the law and with international norms."
Special correspondent Shannon Smiley in Berlin and researcher Julie Tate in Washington contributed to this report.
