The CIA’s torture victim turns criminal.

last updated 8 January 2015

Germany

Conny Neumann and Holger Stark

Der SpiegelKhaled el–Masri cried out for help and his government failed him, said Conny Neumann and Holger Stark in Hamburg’s Der Spiegel. The CIA kidnapped the Lebanese–born German citizen in Macedonia in 2003, wrongly believing he was a terrorist. He was held in Afghanistan for five months and subjected to torture, before finally being set free. When el–Masri returned home in 2004, German health services “should have enrolled him promptly in a comprehensive counseling program for torture victims.” Instead, they buried him under a tangled heap of red tape. Insurance companies and government agencies bickered over who was responsible for el–Masri’s therapy. His increasingly alarmed lawyer even wrote Chancellor Angela Merkel, saying el–Masri was “a ticking time bomb” who desperately needed help. But by the time the chancellor intervened, this year, and ordered therapy, it was too late. El–Masri, furious at some perceived slight in a department store, had burned down the store’s warehouse. “The victim had become perpetrator.” Now, of course, he is getting the help he needs. We can only hope it’s not too late for him.