Thursday, December 01, 2005
Can trust US to clear up illegal flights -- Merkel
Jack Straw, the British foreign secretary, said he has written to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice seeking "clarification" about the secret flights and alleged prisons while Angela Merkel, the new German chancellor, raised the issue in her first major foreign policy speech."I believe we can trust ... that the American government is taking European concerns seriously and in the near future will clear up the recent reports on apparent CIA prisons and illegal flights," Merkel said.
See dispatch in Chicago Tribune, plus bluenecks, candidate, ohreally
The issue has careered around Europe. In Munich, prosecutors have opened an investigation into the abduction of a German citizen who says the C.I.A. flew him from Macedonia to Afghanistan early in 2004. There he was interrogated for five months before being released, he said.
A Macedonian official said the German, Khaled Masri, had left Macedonia of his own accord. But others are skeptical.
"What choice do you have when you are the size of Macedonia?" said Saso Ordanoski, a leading political commentator and editor of the weekly political magazine Forum. "Can you say no?"
See Ian Fisher story
Subscribe to Posts [Atom]