By Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball, Newsweek
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The Bush administration is warning that U.S. cooperation with German intelligence agencies could be jeopardized if that country pursues attempts to extradite 13 CIA officers charged with illegally abducting a German Muslim on suspicions of terrorist connections.
U.S. concerns, communicated to German authorities through diplomatic channels, are the latest evidence that the administration intends to play hardball with foreign governments that take legal action against CIA officers for counterterror operations conducted on their soil.
A European diplomat confirmed to NEWSWEEK that American officials have strongly warned the German government against pursuing CIA officers charged in the abduction of Khalid al-Masri, a Lebanese-born German Muslim who was nabbed while he was vacationing in Macedonia in December 2003. He was flown to Afghanistan for questioning. Al-Masri was suspected of involvement in the September 11 terror attacks. But he was released in May 2004. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reportedly later acknowledged in private to German Chancellor Angela Merkel that his abduction was a case of mistaken identity.Â
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