The CIA refused to release a suspect for months even after learning he was innocent

(Image credit: David Burnett/Newsmakers)

published 1 July 2016

An internal Central Intelligence Agency report on the 2004 arrest and detention of Khaleed al Masri admits that the agency held the German citizen for months after it was confirmed he had no connections to terrorism.

Initially abducted by Macedonian police while on vacation, Masri was handed over to the CIA in January 2004 and taken to one of the agency's black sites, a secret prison in Afghanistan. By Masri's account, the CIA drugged him for transport and tortured him while he was in their custody, administering a nonconsensual anal exam. The CIA's report denies allegations of torture, but does admit that Masri was held in a "small cell" with only "some clothing, bedding, and a bucket for his waste."

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Bonnie Kristian was a deputy editor and acting editor-in-chief of TheWeek.com. She is a columnist at Christianity Today and author of Untrustworthy: The Knowledge Crisis Breaking Our Brains, Polluting Our Politics, and Corrupting Christian Community (forthcoming 2022) and A Flexible Faith: Rethinking What It Means to Follow Jesus Today (2018). Her writing has also appeared at Time Magazine, CNN, USA Today, Newsweek, the Los Angeles Times, and The American Conservative, among other outlets.

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