Khaled El-Masri

Here's another story of someone picked up without explanation as a part of the war on terror, tortured, and then released without being charged. Khaled El-Masri is a German citizen who was kidnapped while on vacation in Macedonia and taken to a secret CIA prison in Afghanistan. The ACLU is suing George Tenet and other CIA officials on behalf of El-Masri. The case was thrown out of a lower court on national security grounds. The news today is that the ACLU is arguing the case before an appeals court. I just heard NPR report that the government wants the case thrown out because it "seeks to prove something that is a state secret." This really, really makes me think that the secret here is "We picked up an innocent man and tortured him for no reason."