.Attorney General, in Germany, Seeks to Heal Terror Rifts
BERLIN, Oct. 25 — Seeking to heal one of the deepest rifts between the United States and its European allies, Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales, said here today that the Bush administration had done a poor job of explaining its legal principles in combating terrorism.
But he faulted European countries, which have stridently criticized the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for not doing enough to take back their own citizens after they are released, or helping to negotiate the safe return of freed prisoners to other countries.
“We have repeatedly asked our European allies to join in these efforts,” Mr. Gonzales said in a speech to a polite, skeptical audience. “But despite demands that Guantánamo be closed, the United States has received little help from our European allies regarding the fate of these detainees.”
Mr. Gonzales declined to name the countries — especially, he said, while standing on a podium “in this great country.”
His comment, delivered with a thin smile, suggested Germany was among those nations the United States regards as laggards.
Germany’s responsiveness has come under scrutiny in the case of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish-German man who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for more than four years, partly because of Berlin’s reluctance to take him back. Last August, Mr. Kurnaz was finally returned home, eight months after a new German chancellor, Angela Merkel, raised his case in a meeting with President Bush.
The diplomatic initiative by Mr. Gonzales, which includes stops in Spain and the Netherlands, comes at a time of mounting questions here about whether Germany has compromised its own principles in helping the United States wage its worldwide battle against terrorism.
There are no fewer than five formal investigations under way here, probing issues that range from whether the German government knew about the Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged transfer of prisoners to secret prisons in Eastern Europe, to whether German soldiers mistreated Mr. Kurnaz in Afghanistan, as he claims, before he was sent to Guantánamo.
The Defense Ministry denies that German soldiers abused Mr. Kurnaz. But the military has opened an investigation into his accusations, amid growing unease about the conduct of its soldiers.
“Our guys are supposed to be in Afghanistan to help stabilize things, not to kick around prisoners,” said Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “This embarrasses us, and qualifies a bit our discussion about what American soldiers are doing in Abu Ghraib.”
Adding to these concerns are new photographs that appear to show German troops in Afghanistan posing playfully with a human skull. Some of the pictures, published today in the popular daily , Bild, depict the soldiers placing the skull on the hood of a jeep as a grisly emblem.
Bild did not say how it obtained the photographs. They were taken in 2003 near Kabul, according to the paper, and involved German troops serving as part of the international security force in Afghanistan.
The defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, has also ordered an investigation of this incident. “Such activities are diametrically opposed to the values and behavior we teach our troops,” he told Bild.
Reports of military abuse carry an obvious historical echo in Germany, Mr. Perthes said, and could generate opposition in Parliament to the country’s continuing involvement in Afghanistan.
In particular, there are questions about the deployment of soldiers belonging to an elite rapid-response unit of the German army known as the KSK. The activities of these special forces in Afghanistan are cloaked in mystery.
Separately, the Parliament is investigating whether the German government was aware of the C.I.A.’s activities in Europe. That has put Mrs. Merkel in an awkward position, since her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was a key advisor to her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.
The previous government is also under scrutiny in the case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was abducted in Macedonia in 2003 and turned over to American agents, who flew him to Afghanistan, mistakenly believing he was involved in terrorism.
Opposition politicians here said the United States could only counter German skepticism about its motives by disclosing details about the so-called rendition program. In this once-secret practice, the C.I.A. transferred prisoners — often via Europe — to third countries, some whose methods include torture.
“It’s important for the U.S. to put the facts on the table,” said Hans-Christian Ströbele, a member of the Green Party and a critic of both Berlin and Washington. “We’d naturally like to know, where were these prisons? Were European governments informed about them?”
Mr. Gonzales met with Germany’s justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, but he did not say what they talked about.
In general, Mr. Gonzales seemed intent on his trip on reaching out to Europeans rather than rebuking them.
“There has been a lot of friction” in the trans-Atlantic relationship, he said today. “We are partly to blame for that. We didn’t do as good a job as we should have from the outset in explaining ourselves.”
Mr. Gonzales, the legal architect of some of the administration’s toughest policies toward suspected terrorists, said he was deeply disappointed that many people overseas do not believe that the United States, or Mr. Bush himself, are committed to protecting the rule of law.
He defended American policies on the detention of “enemy combatants,” the rights afforded them by military commissions, and on the role of the Geneva Conventions in the treatment of prisoners.
NYT
But he faulted European countries, which have stridently criticized the American military prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, for not doing enough to take back their own citizens after they are released, or helping to negotiate the safe return of freed prisoners to other countries.
“We have repeatedly asked our European allies to join in these efforts,” Mr. Gonzales said in a speech to a polite, skeptical audience. “But despite demands that Guantánamo be closed, the United States has received little help from our European allies regarding the fate of these detainees.”
Mr. Gonzales declined to name the countries — especially, he said, while standing on a podium “in this great country.”
His comment, delivered with a thin smile, suggested Germany was among those nations the United States regards as laggards.
Germany’s responsiveness has come under scrutiny in the case of Murat Kurnaz, a Turkish-German man who was imprisoned at Guantánamo for more than four years, partly because of Berlin’s reluctance to take him back. Last August, Mr. Kurnaz was finally returned home, eight months after a new German chancellor, Angela Merkel, raised his case in a meeting with President Bush.
The diplomatic initiative by Mr. Gonzales, which includes stops in Spain and the Netherlands, comes at a time of mounting questions here about whether Germany has compromised its own principles in helping the United States wage its worldwide battle against terrorism.
There are no fewer than five formal investigations under way here, probing issues that range from whether the German government knew about the Central Intelligence Agency’s alleged transfer of prisoners to secret prisons in Eastern Europe, to whether German soldiers mistreated Mr. Kurnaz in Afghanistan, as he claims, before he was sent to Guantánamo.
The Defense Ministry denies that German soldiers abused Mr. Kurnaz. But the military has opened an investigation into his accusations, amid growing unease about the conduct of its soldiers.
“Our guys are supposed to be in Afghanistan to help stabilize things, not to kick around prisoners,” said Volker Perthes, director of the German Institute for International and Security Affairs. “This embarrasses us, and qualifies a bit our discussion about what American soldiers are doing in Abu Ghraib.”
Adding to these concerns are new photographs that appear to show German troops in Afghanistan posing playfully with a human skull. Some of the pictures, published today in the popular daily , Bild, depict the soldiers placing the skull on the hood of a jeep as a grisly emblem.
Bild did not say how it obtained the photographs. They were taken in 2003 near Kabul, according to the paper, and involved German troops serving as part of the international security force in Afghanistan.
The defense minister, Franz Josef Jung, has also ordered an investigation of this incident. “Such activities are diametrically opposed to the values and behavior we teach our troops,” he told Bild.
Reports of military abuse carry an obvious historical echo in Germany, Mr. Perthes said, and could generate opposition in Parliament to the country’s continuing involvement in Afghanistan.
In particular, there are questions about the deployment of soldiers belonging to an elite rapid-response unit of the German army known as the KSK. The activities of these special forces in Afghanistan are cloaked in mystery.
Separately, the Parliament is investigating whether the German government was aware of the C.I.A.’s activities in Europe. That has put Mrs. Merkel in an awkward position, since her foreign minister, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, was a key advisor to her predecessor, Gerhard Schröder.
The previous government is also under scrutiny in the case of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen who was abducted in Macedonia in 2003 and turned over to American agents, who flew him to Afghanistan, mistakenly believing he was involved in terrorism.
Opposition politicians here said the United States could only counter German skepticism about its motives by disclosing details about the so-called rendition program. In this once-secret practice, the C.I.A. transferred prisoners — often via Europe — to third countries, some whose methods include torture.
“It’s important for the U.S. to put the facts on the table,” said Hans-Christian Ströbele, a member of the Green Party and a critic of both Berlin and Washington. “We’d naturally like to know, where were these prisons? Were European governments informed about them?”
Mr. Gonzales met with Germany’s justice minister, Brigitte Zypries, but he did not say what they talked about.
In general, Mr. Gonzales seemed intent on his trip on reaching out to Europeans rather than rebuking them.
“There has been a lot of friction” in the trans-Atlantic relationship, he said today. “We are partly to blame for that. We didn’t do as good a job as we should have from the outset in explaining ourselves.”
Mr. Gonzales, the legal architect of some of the administration’s toughest policies toward suspected terrorists, said he was deeply disappointed that many people overseas do not believe that the United States, or Mr. Bush himself, are committed to protecting the rule of law.
He defended American policies on the detention of “enemy combatants,” the rights afforded them by military commissions, and on the role of the Geneva Conventions in the treatment of prisoners.
NYT
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