'Aluminum Tubes' All Over Again

In the run-up to the Iraq invasion, then National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice repeated a story about the shipment of aluminum tubes to Iraq. She claimed they could only be intended for use in a centrifuge to develop an atomic bomb.

She repeatedly made statements about not wanting the "smoking gun" on WMD intelligence to be a "mushroom cloud." But the truth was that the tubes were ill-suited for such purposes, and also were just the same size and type as used in small artillery rockets used by the Iraqi Army. This truth was known to the government at the time of Ms. Rice's statements.

Condoleeza Rice spoke again this morning:

She said the United States does not permit or tolerate torture under any circumstances. “The United States does not use the air space or airport of any country for the purpose of transporting a detainee when we believe he or she will be tortured,” Rice said. “With respect to detainees, the United States government complies with its laws, its Constitution and its treaty obligations,” she added.

“It is the policy of the United States that this questioning is to be conducted ... without torture,” Rice said.

Apparently, Secretary Rice doesn't read the newspaper. This weekend the Washington Post reported the story of Khaled Masri, a German citizen who was grabbed off a bus in Macedonia, and taken away to a 5-month imprisonment in Afghanistan, where he claims he was tortured.

The CIA realized after 5 months that they'd grabbed a completely innocent man by mistake and they had to give him back. So the US sent an ambassador to tell the German government:

Coats informed the German minister that the CIA had wrongfully imprisoned one of its citizens, Khaled Masri, for five months, and would soon release him, the sources said. There was also a request: that the German government not disclose what it had been told even if Masri went public. The U.S. officials feared exposure of a covert action program designed to capture terrorism suspects abroad and transfer them among countries, and possible legal challenges to the CIA from Masri and others with similar allegations.

One suspects that Secretary Rice would prefer not to be flying to Europe courtesy of the CIA's Rendition Group as they comply with our laws, our Constitution and our treaty obligations:

Members of the Rendition Group follow a simple but standard procedure: Dressed head to toe in black, including masks, they blindfold and cut the clothes off their new captives, then administer an enema and sleeping drugs. They outfit detainees in a diaper and jumpsuit for what can be a day-long trip. Their destinations: either a detention facility operated by cooperative countries in the Middle East and Central Asia, including Afghanistan, or one of the CIA's own covert prisons -- referred to in classified documents as "black sites," which at various times have been operated in eight countries, including several in Eastern Europe.

Fortunately for Dr. Rice, the Europeans treat suspected war criminals better than we treat random Germans on busses in Macedonia.