GERMANY: German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble has admitted that German investigators questioned a German citizen in the US military prison in Guantánamo Bay, where he has been held for the last four years. The admission, made hours before it was due to appear in today's Die Zeit newspaper, throws new light on Berlin's criticism of US policy towards terrorism suspects.
Mr Schäuble made a second surprise admission yesterday - that Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen allegedly abducted and held by mistake for five months by the CIA, has apparently already received compensation and an apology from the US government. Lawyers for Mr el-Masri's rejected the claim yesterday.
Two parliamentary committees met yesterday to examine German participation in the transportation and questioning of terrorism suspects, a process known as "extraordinary rendition".
German foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told parliament he was "nauseated" by claims Berlin had aided Mr el- Masri's abduction. Earlier this week, a German intelligence officer said the CIA used information supplied by Berlin during the interrogation of Mr el-Masri.
Mr Steinmeier said the German government and intelligence services "gave no assistance to the abduction of German citizens". The el-Masri case is under investigation by a public prosecutor in Munich and is the subject of a lawsuit in the US.
Green parliamentary leader Renate Künast said the current debate on torture and secret prisons had made clear that "we don't have any common values with the US any more".
"The death penalty and torture, kidnapping people and flying prisons are all unacceptable to us," Ms Künast said. "That's where we differ from the US and that's what we have to talk about."